Online Scam 'Empires' Siphon Rp 2,053 Trillion, Proliferate Near Indonesia
Transnational criminal syndicates have reportedly siphoned a staggering amount of funds from citizens in the Asia-Pacific region throughout 2025. Total losses from online fraud are estimated to have reached between US$88.3 billion (Rp1,589.4 trillion) and US$114.1 billion (Rp2,053.8 trillion), a figure larger than the gross domestic product of several countries in the region.
A recent report from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) reveals that transnational criminal groups in Southeast Asia are evolving faster than law enforcement agencies can counter them. Southeast Asia remains the epicentre of online scams run by criminal syndicates, many rooted in Mandarin-speaking networks. They continue to expand their revenue sources, exploit corrupt practices, and adopt new technologies to broaden their operations into East Asia, Southeast Asia, Australia, and New Zealand.
The UNODC notes that scam centres in Southeast Asia run various online fraud schemes targeting victims worldwide. Ironically, many of these scam compounds operate by exploiting victims of human trafficking who are forced to work in exploitative conditions. The report records that citizens from at least 80 countries and territories have been found in these scam complexes, with recruitment networks utilising various transit countries in Asia, the Middle East, and Africa.
“Their operating model now resembles a franchise system. Imagine there are specific divisions for money laundering, human trafficking, migrant smuggling, and data trading, all interconnected within a single criminal service network,” said Delphine Schantz, UNODC Regional Representative for Southeast Asia and the Pacific.
The UNODC also notes that scam syndicates are now more aggressively expanding into new markets. They have begun recruiting workers from outside Asia, with job advertisements specifically targeting speakers of German, Polish, Dutch, Spanish, Italian, French, Swedish, Norwegian, and English.
Despite various countries intensifying crackdown operations, the UNODC assesses that these networks have not been dismantled. Instead, they have merely relocated their bases of operation to areas with weaker oversight. The report mentions that several syndicates have begun moving operations from Myanmar and Laos to Timor-Leste, Pacific island nations, and parts of Africa. Perpetrators are also employing a “jurisdiction shopping” strategy, seeking out countries with weak governance and regulations to run their illegal businesses. The report identifies corruption as the primary factor enabling technology-based organised crime to flourish.
The UNODC warns that criminal groups are no longer just using generative AI to create scam content. In the future, they are expected to begin using agentic AI, systems capable of working more autonomously to identify potential victims, carry out social engineering, and assist in the theft and laundering of crypto assets.
“The growing scale and complexity of the organised crime economy has now outpaced the capacity of existing responses, which were not designed to deal with criminal activity this sophisticated,” said UNODC lead analyst Inshik Sim. According to the UNODC, these developments show that the fight against cybercrime is no longer just about facing individual fraudsters or groups, but rather transnational criminal networks operating like multinational corporations with increasingly sophisticated organisational structures, divisions of labour, and resources.