Southeast Asia has emerged as a global hotspot for cybercrimes, where human trafficking and high-tech fraud collide. Criminal syndicates operate large-scale “pig butchering” operations in nations like Cambodia and Myanmar, which are scam centres manned by trafficked individuals compelled to defraud victims in affluent markets like Singapore and Hong Kong.
The scale is staggering: one UN estimate puts the global losses from these scams at $37 billion. And things may soon get worse. The spike in cybercrime in the region has already had an impact on politics and policy. Thailand has reported a reduction in Chinese visitors this year, after a Chinese actor was kidnapped and forced to work in a Myanmar-based scam camp; Bangkok is now having to convince tourists that it is safe to visit. Singapore recently enacted an anti-fraud law that authorises law enforcement to freeze the bank accounts of scam victims.
But why has Asia become associated with cybercrime? Ben Goodman, Okta’s general manager for Asia-Pacific, observes that the region has several distinct characteristics that make cybercrime schemes simpler to carry out. For example, the region is a “mobile-first market”: popular mobile messaging apps including WhatsApp, Line, and WeChat promote direct
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