Crime syndicates behind a multibillion-pound cyber scam industry are expanding globally as governments in South East Asia struggle to contain them, a UN report has warned.
As they expand business, countries in South America, Africa and Eastern Europe are now being targeted, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said.
The networks and gangs have emerged in South East Asia in recent years, in sprawling compounds housing tens of thousands of people, many trafficked and forced into work, scamming victims abroad.
Sky News previously reported on one of these compounds, and the workers who were tricked, trafficked and forced into working there.
Even as governments in Asia have intensified their crackdowns, the gangs have moved within and beyond the region, the UNODC said.
It warned that a “potentially irreversible spillover has taken place… leaving criminal groups free to pick, choose, and move… as needed”.
“It spreads like a cancer,” John Wojcik, a regional analyst for UNODC, said. “Authorities treat it in one area, but the roots never disappear; they simply migrate.”
Even the more conservative estimates indicate there are hundreds of large-scale scam farms around the world, generating tens of billions of pounds, the UNODC warned.
The agency called on countries to commit to a more joined-up approach to tackle the international issue.
“The regional cyberfraud industry… has outpaced other transnational crimes, given that it is easily scalable and able to reach millions of potential victims online, with no need to move or traffic illicit goods across borders,” Mr…
