UN reveals that "call center gangs" will defraud victims in Asia of over $8.8 billion by 2568.
The UN reveals that call center scams will defraud victims in Asia of over $8.8 billion by 2568. The scammers are accelerating the use of AI to enhance their scam tactics, relocating their operations to countries with weak laws, and expanding their targets to new markets worldwide.
On July 21, 2569 at 14.02:XNUMX a.m., Nikkei Asia reported that United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) The latest report, released on July 22, states that: Call center gangs and online scam networks are projected to cause at least US$88,300 billion in damage to people in the Asia-Pacific region by 2568, and this figure could reach US$114,100 billion, exceeding the gross domestic product (GDP) of many countries in the region.
The report states that Southeast Asia remains a hub for online fraud, largely operated by criminal networks originating from China. These networks have continuously evolved their criminal methods to evade authorities, including diversifying revenue sources, exploiting loopholes in fraudulent activities, and employing artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance their efficiency.
Delphine Chantz, UNODC's Southeast Asia and Pacific Regional Representative. said These criminal networks are no longer confined to a single type of illegal business but have expanded into various forms of illicit markets, utilizing shared services in a manner similar to a franchise system within the business sector.
I'm ready to explain why. The network was divided into specialized departments, such as money laundering, human trafficking, migrant smuggling, and information trading, before linking their operations through the same service network. This allowed them to expand their illegal businesses rapidly and efficiently.
The report also stated that online scam centers in Southeast Asia generate billions of dollars annually, with many of the workers being foreigners who are tricked or trafficked into working in coercive and exploitative conditions.
UNODC has found that people from at least 80 countries and territories are involved in these scam centers, while the recruitment networks use countries in Asia, the Middle East, and Africa as transit points. Recently, they have begun recruiting workers with skills in German, Polish, Dutch, Spanish, Italian, French, Swedish, Norwegian, and English to support their expansion into new regions.
Even though many countries in the region have intensified their crackdown. However, UNODC stated that the measures only caused criminal networks to relocate their operations, not to collapse the business. Call center gangs have moved from Myanmar and Laos to Timor-Leste, Pacific Island nations, and parts of Africa.
The report states that criminal groups often employ a "jurisdiction shopping" strategy, choosing to relocate to countries with weak laws, lax regulation, and corruption problems. These are key factors contributing to the growth of tech-crime networks in the region.
Furthermore, UNODC warns that, in addition to using generative AI to create fake messages, images, or audio, criminal groups are likely to use agentic AI in the future, which can automate tasks such as selecting victims, conducting scams through social engineering, and stealing and laundering money through cryptocurrencies.
Furthermore, the expansion of the online fraud industry has led to the emergence of an ecosystem of other illegal businesses, including money laundering, underground banking, and the trading of personal information.
Inshik Sim, a principal analyst at UNODC. said The scale and complexity of the expanding transnational criminal economy are growing faster than the capacity of current suppression measures, which are not designed to deal with criminal networks of this magnitude.
refer : asia.nikkei.com
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