Washington: The United States has stepped up its crackdown on international scam networks, warning that fraud compounds in Southeast Asia have evolved into an industrial-scale criminal economy costing victims billions of dollars.
Testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, US officials said criminal organisations of Chinese origin are a major force behind large-scale scam operations in Burma, Cambodia and Laos.
Assistant Secretary of State Michael DeSombre said scam operations in the three countries had reached an “unprecedented, industrialised scale”, developing sophisticated infrastructure, supply chains and a large workforce.
Americans Lost At Least $12.5 Billion In 2025
US officials estimated that American victims reported losses of around $12.5 billion in 2025 to scam groups operating from Southeast Asia. However, DeSombre warned that the actual figure could be significantly higher.
The losses were nearly three times the 2023 level, with victims reported across all 50 US states. The networks are also estimated to have caused losses of up to $114 billion across East Asian and Pacific countries in 2025.
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jim Risch said some locations had effectively become cities dedicated to scamming people, while the same criminal networks were also linked to drug and arms trafficking.
Scam Centres Also Linked To Human Trafficking
Officials said the scam industry increasingly relies on human trafficking and forced labour.
Victims are often recruited through fake job advertisements and transported to scam compounds. Once there, their passports may be confiscated and some are allegedly subjected to torture or other forms of abuse before being forced to carry out online fraud.
The networks have reportedly recruited hundreds of thousands of people from dozens of countries.
Scam Networks Expanding Beyond Southeast Asia
Deputy Assistant Secretary of State David Bedard warned that these criminal networks were expanding into South Asia, Africa and the Western Hemisphere.
Authorities are also seeing a shift in how the groups operate. Instead of relying only on large, easily identifiable compounds, some networks are moving into hotels and residential buildings to evade law enforcement.
“These networks exploit a persistent vulnerability; criminal operations are borderless, but law enforcement is not,” Bedard said.
How The Criminal Ecosystem Works
US officials described a layered network involving criminal masterminds, managers and scam workers, supported by professionals and facilitators.
The ecosystem can include complicit officials, lawyers, accountants, bankers and cryptocurrency converters, allowing money and operations to move across borders.
Officials also warned that different forms of scams are emerging globally, including Indian call-centre scams, Jamaican lottery fraud and cartel-linked timeshare scams.
US Steps Up International Action
US President Donald Trump signed an executive order in March directing federal agencies and the attorney general to develop a government-wide strategy to identify, disrupt and dismantle transnational scam networks.
Washington has since introduced visa restrictions targeting individuals involved in cybercrime and established a 13-country Counter Scams Contact Group.
The group is focused on coordinated law-enforcement action, asset seizures, sanctions, diplomatic pressure and intelligence sharing.
DeSombre also said Trump had raised the issue of transnational criminal organisations with Chinese President Xi Jinping, urging Beijing to ensure that Chinese crime bosses face international accountability.
The US has also expressed concern over the emergence of scam centres in countries including Sri Lanka, underscoring the increasingly global nature of the fraud industry.
