Scam networks operating across the Asia‑Pacific region defrauded victims of at least $88 billion in 2025, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said on Tuesday, warning that criminal groups are diversifying activities, relocating when pressured by law enforcement and exploiting new technologies.
Scale and structure of the frauds
The UNODC’s assessment places estimated losses across East Asia, Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand between $88.3bn and $114.1bn for the year. The agency highlights that syndicates once confined to particular trades or territories are now operating like integrated service providers, combining money‑laundering, human trafficking, migrant smuggling and data harvesting.
| Metric | Estimate |
|---|---|
| Minimum recorded losses (2025) | $88.3 billion |
| Upper estimate | $114.1 billion |
The UNODC singled out Southeast Asia as an epicentre for cyberfraud, driven in part by syndicates described as having origins in China. The report says criminal hubs run large‑scale online fraud operations that generate billions annually and often employ people held in coercive conditions.
Recruitment, exploitation and displacement
UN investigators have identified people from at least 80 countries and territories in so‑called scam compounds across the region. Those facilities frequently use regional transport hubs for recruitment and movement. Pressure from local policing has prompted groups to relocate — shifting operations from nations including Myanmar and Laos rather than being dismantled.
- Scam centres make extensive use of trafficked and coerced labour.
- Recruitment advertising targets speakers of many European languages as syndicates seek foreign markets.
- Criminal groups are broadening revenue streams and offering shared services across illicit trades.
“Their operating model looks like corporate franchising: imagine specialized departments for laundering money, trafficking people, smuggling migrants, and harvesting data, all plugged into the same, service‑based interconnected network,”
Delphine Schantz, UNODC Regional Representative for Southeast Asia and the Pacific, used that comparison to underline the organisational sophistication the agency observed.
Technology and the transnational threat
The report warns that operators are adopting new tools, including forms of artificial intelligence, and are explicitly recruiting people with language skills across Europe to expand into new markets. Recent recruitment channels have targeted speakers of German, Polish, Dutch, Spanish, Italian, French, Swedish, Norwegian and English.
For policymakers and law enforcement internationally, the UNODC’s findings present multiple challenges: dismantling decentralised, service‑oriented criminal networks; protecting and repatriating exploited workers; and developing co‑ordinated cross‑border responses to financial flows and emerging technologies used to facilitate scams.
As the UN agency emphasises, enforcement action that merely displaces operations risks pushing them into jurisdictions with weaker oversight rather than ending the criminal activity.
