By Bernama
The United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is intensifying cooperation with Southeast Asian law enforcement agencies to dismantle scam compounds and transnational criminal syndicates operating across the region.
FBI co-deputy director Andrew Bailey said scam centres in Southeast Asia had evolved into highly organised criminal enterprises responsible for stealing billions of dollars, trafficking people and exploiting emerging technologies, including cryptocurrency.
“These enterprises are highly organised criminal syndicates, and they are running industrial-scale fraud operations across the globe,” he said during a virtual press briefing from Bangkok today.
Bailey said investigations had uncovered strong links between scam compounds operating throughout Southeast Asia and sophisticated criminal organisations based in China.
“We have discovered a clear link between Chinese criminal enterprises and scam compounds throughout Southeast Asia and beyond, and we are currently assessing these actors as financially motivated,” he said.
He said the syndicates were moving people, money, technology and illicit proceeds across countries including Thailand, Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia while exploiting weak governance structures, corruption and technological vulnerabilities.
Bailey said the FBI was pursuing a strategic, intelligence-led approach aimed not only at individual scam compounds but also the broader criminal ecosystem supporting them.
This includes targeting application developers who create tools used to defraud victims, recruiters who lure workers under false pretences and networks that trap individuals in debt bondage.
He acknowledged that many lower-level workers operating in scam compounds were themselves victims of human trafficking.
“The FBI certainly understands many line-level workers in scam compounds are human trafficking victims who are forced to defraud others,” he said.
Bailey said the FBI’s Scam Centre Strike Force was targeting both operators and facilitators of scam compounds, including networks linked to the Thai Chang scam compound in Myanmar.
He said the bureau had recently seized websites used by the syndicate to defraud victims and recovered about US$30 million in cryptocurrency linked to criminal enterprises associated with the operation.
Bailey said the FBI’s legal attaché office in Bangkok was working closely with the Royal Thai Police Anti-Cyber Scam Centre to identify, disrupt and dismantle scam operations in Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam.
Describing Thailand as a key security partner and regional law enforcement hub, he said Thai authorities had arrested seven individuals during a recent coordinated enforcement operation and launched several new investigations.
In Singapore, Bailey said the FBI’s legal attaché office became the sole US law enforcement representative in May to join the Singapore Police-led Frontier Plus initiative, which brings together anti-scam agencies from 11 jurisdictions.
The platform facilitates real-time intelligence sharing, joint operations and coordinated enforcement efforts against transnational criminal groups and financial fraud networks.
Bailey said scam compounds, violent extremism and transnational narcotics trafficking remained among the most significant security threats facing Southeast Asia and the wider international community.
“The threats are global, the criminals are ruthless, but our partnerships throughout Southeast Asia are ironclad,” he said.
He added that the FBI was also working closely with Cambodia’s Commission for Combating Online Scams as well as several Philippine agencies, including the Presidential Anti-Organised Crime Commission, Bureau of Immigration, National Bureau of Investigation, Philippine National Police and Department of Justice.
Source: New Strait Times
