Local Police Collusion Hampers Crackdown on Asian Scam Centers

THREAT INTELLIGENCE CYBER RISK CYBERSECURITY OPERATIONS VULNERABILITIES & THREATS NEWS Breaking cybersecurity news, news analysis, commentary, and other content from around the world, with an initial focus on the Middle East & Africa and the Asia Pacific Local Police Collusion Hampers Crackdown on Asian Scam Centers With tens of billions of dollars flowing into regional economies from cybercrime, scam centers continue to flourish, despite international and law-enforcement efforts. Robert Lemos,Contributing Writer June 25, 2026 5 Min Read A COMPOUND IN THE T01C SPECIAL ECONOMIC ZONE (SEZ). SOURCE: AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL Criminal syndicates and groups continue to successfully profit from cybercrime in Asia and the South Pacific despite high-profile arrests and crackdowns, the result of the tens of billions of dollars in annual illegal revenue having created a resilient criminal ecosystem bolstered by local corruption, according to two reports released this month. In its yearly review of incidents from the past two years, Interpol found that online scams now dominate crime in the region, with more than half of the group's member countries in Asia and the South Pacific reporting that cybercrime accounts for at least 30% of all nationally recorded incidents. Scam operations in Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos, and the Philippines, many of them staffed by victims of human trafficking, generate an estimated $40 billion annually through romance fraud and investment scams, the international law-enforcement group stated in its report. Related:China Uses Dual-Method Cyberattack on Czech Orgs Pressure from China, the United States, and nations in the region has led to crackdowns on some scam centers operating in Cambodia, Myanmar, and the Philippines. Yet, local corruption has often meant that raids have done minimal damage, Amnesty International stated in an investigative report based on visits to 75 of the 86 confirmed scam centers and interviews with dozens of scam-compound survivors in Cambodia. "The evidence suggests Cambodian authorities are communicating with compound managers directly, but it is unclear at what levels this communication is taking place," says Montse Ferrer, Amnesty International's co-regional director for East and Southeast Asia and the Pacific, adding that "companies need to understand that the scam industry is currently largely abusive toward the people that are often forced to work there." The two reports come as increased international cooperation has put more pressure on dismantling the ecosystems behind the scam compounds. China has begun to crack down on some scam centers, albeit belatedly, extraditing in January the founder of Prince Holding Group, an international conglomerate allegedly connected with scam centers, and another high-ranking member of the group earlier this month. The United States, whose citizens are frequent targets of such scams, has sanctioned groups in Cambodia, the Philippines, and Burma, also known as Myanmar, and seized more than $14 billion in cryptocurrency by working with international partners to seize assets of Chen Zhi, the previously mentioned founder of Prince Holding Group. Despite those successes, the cybercriminal ecosystem remains resilient and continues to expand to other jurisdictions globally, Interpol officials tell Dark Reading. Related:Chinese APTs Share Linux Backdoor in Central Asia Telco Attacks "There is not a single or simple solution, but one area that can deliver the fastest operational impact is capability building and cross-border cooperation combined with stronger partnerships," the group said via email, adding that "international cooperation is essential because cybercrime is inherently transnational, but cooperation mechanisms are most effective when countries have sufficient operational capabilities in place." Scams Create More Than One Group of Victims The Amnesty International report focused on Cambodia's purported "crackdown" — the nonprofit group's quotes — casting doubt on the government's claims that it shuttered 250 scam centers and charged more than 1,000 people, including those held against their will, with crimes.  Amnesty International interviewed 73 survivors of the scam compounds, none of which were treated as victims of human trafficking by local authorities. Instead, they treated them as irregular migrants, and in many cases, the victims cannot leave Cambodia without paying fines. "Cambodia's crackdown has failed in key areas, both in investigating and shuttering some of the most well-known compounds across the country and in protecting and assisting the victims who escaped or were removed from compounds," the group stated in its report. Related:Tropic Trooper APT Takes Aim at Home Routers, Japanese Targets Despite the crackdown, Cambodia's gambling commission approved casino plans for 16 of the scam locations — some in December 2025 and January 2026 — suggesting that the government was not making the dismantling of the criminal enterprises a priority, Amnesty International's Ferrer says. "The approval of plans for known scamming compounds without investigations into those locations clearly undermines the government's narrative, especially as they have now had months to investigate those locations, but there is no evidence that they are," she says. "Casino companies, and other powerful people, appear to have escaped any investigation during this crackdown." The group reached out to the Cambodian government a month before publishing its report, but received no reply, Ferrer says. Local Corruption Beyond Cambodia & Myanmar Additional major signs of local corruption have appeared in other countries as well. In the Philippines, for example, one Chinese national reportedly masqueraded as a Filipina citizen and became mayor of her small town, all while running the local scam center. Interpol acknowledged that the international nature of the crime syndicates behind scam centers means that, while disrupting the facilities is an important step, law-enforcement efforts need to go further. Taking down one location in a permissive region just means that another location likely will appear somewhere else, like a game of Whac-A-Mole. "There is a risk that criminal groups will simply relocate or reconstitute their activities elsewhere," Interpol stated in its responses to Dark Reading, adding that "rather than slowing profitability, the emergence of scam centers in other regions suggests that the model continues to evolve and expand." The appearance of cybercrime syndicates in other regions and on other continents suggest that the transnational relationships already built into these organizations has lowered the bar to moving a scam center or that the techniques have readily transferred to new regions. "In some cases, there are clear links to organizers, facilitators, or victims in Southeast Asia," Interpol stated. "In others, local or regional criminal groups appear to be adopting and adapting the model to their own environments with little or no connection to Southeast Asia." African nations, meanwhile, are breaking up more transnational criminal syndicates as well, often run by Chinese nationals or other non-native residents. The syndicates are rapidly adopting better money laundering strategies and more persistent scams. In addition, ransomware groups are improving their extortion tactics and models to improve their success rate. According to Interpol, "Traditionally, cybercriminals only adopted one or two layers of extortion, but it has been observed that the cybercriminal groups have been moving to multiple extortion layers to put pressure on victims to pay for the ransom."  Don't miss the latest Dark Reading Confidential podcast, Do CISOs Need a Code of Ethics? Kickbacks, no-show jobs, "dirty" VCs, and shelfware — industry expert Robert "RSnake" Hansen explains why he thinks it's time for a CISO code of ethics. It could ensure cybersecurity bosses aren't engaged in self-dealing that could risk enterprise, and even national, security. Listen now! Read more about: DR Global Asia Pacific About the Author Robert Lemos Contributing Writer Rob is an award-winning, veteran technology journalist of more than 30 years, reporting on global cybersecurity issues, the latest offensive and defensive technologies, malware incidents, cyber conflict, and AI's impact on software and cybersecurity.  A former research engineer, Rob has written for more than two dozen publications, including CNET News.com, Dark Reading, MIT's Technology Review, Popular Science, and Wired News. He has received five awards for journalism, including Best Deadline Journalism (Online) in 2003 for his coverage of the Blaster worm. Rob also analyzes data on various trends using Python and R for both his reporting and his clients. Recent reports include analyses of the shortage in cybersecurity workers, annual vulnerability trends, and annual threat reports. Rob holds degrees from Cornell University in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (double major). 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