Asian criminal groups that are behind the multimillion -dollar industry of cybethafas are expanding throughout the world, including South America and Africa, as police operations in Southeast Asia fail in their attempt to contain their activities, according to the United Nations in a report published Monday.
According to the United Nations Office against Drugs and Crime (UNUD), criminal networks emerged in Southeast Asia in recent years, with the opening of complex extensive that house tens of thousands of workers, many of them victims of trafficking and forced to cheat victims from all over the world, have evolved to become a sophisticated world industry.
Although the Governments of Southeast Asia intensified repression, the criminal groups moved inside and outside the region, said the agency, adding that there was a “potentially irreversible overflow (…) leaving the criminal groups freedom to choose, choose and move (…) according to their needs.”
“It extends as a cancer,” said John Wojcik, UNUD regional analyst. “The authorities treat it in an area, but the roots never disappear; they simply migrate.”
Conservative estimates indicate that there are hundreds of large -scale fraud centers worldwide that generate tens of billions of dollars in annual benefits, said the UNUDD. The agency called for countries to work together and intensify their efforts to interrupt the financing of the bands.
“The regional cyberfraude industry (…) has surpassed other transnational crimes, since it is easily scalable and capable of reaching millions of potential victims on the Internet, without the need to move or traffic with illegal goods through borders,” said Wojcik.
In the United States alone, more than 5.6 billion dollars were recorded in losses for scams related to cryptocurrencies in 2023, including more than 4 million dollars in the so -called scams of trusted or loving cultivation designed to extort often old and vulnerable people.
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Cybethafs find better points to act
In recent months, the authorities of China, a country of origin of many of these bands, Thailand and Myanmar took energetic measures against fraud operations in the areas without law of the border between Thailand and Myanmar.
However, the unions adapted, displacing their operations between “the most remote, vulnerable and unusual areas of Southeast Asia”, especially in Laos, Myanmar and Cambodia, and other countries, exploiting jurisdictions with a weak administration and high corruption indices, according to the UNUD.
The raids in the Cambodian areas where the industry is more visible “led to a significant expansion in more remote places”, including the western province of Koh Kong, as well as border areas with Thailand and Vietnam, the UN agency said. New locations are also developed in Myanmar, a country in a growing conflict since the military took power four years ago.
With Reuters information
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