SOUTH-EAST ASIA (Bernama): The United States (US) Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is stepping up efforts with South-East Asian law enforcement agencies to dismantle industrial-scale scam centres and transnational criminal syndicates operating across the region.
FBI Co-Deputy Director Andrew Bailey said scam compounds in South-East Asia had grown into highly organised criminal enterprises, stealing billions of dollars, exploiting cryptocurrency, and trafficking human beings.
"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, Thailand.
Bailey said many of the operations were controlled by sophisticated criminal organisations in China and were operating throughout Southeast Asia.
"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.
Bailey said the syndicates were moving people, money, technology, and illicit proceeds across the region, including Thailand, Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia, and beyond, while exploiting weak governance, corruption, and emerging technologies.
He said the FBI was using a strategic and intelligence-driven approach, focusing not only on individual scam compounds but also on the wider criminal ecosystem behind them.
These include developers who create applications used to defraud victims, recruiters who lure workers under false pretences, and networks that place workers in debt bondage.
Bailey also acknowledged that many lower-level workers in scam compounds were victims of human trafficking who had been forced to defraud others.
"The FBI certainly understands many line-level workers in scam compounds are human trafficking victims who are forced to defraud others,” he said.
He said the FBI was working through the Scam Centre Strike Force to target scam centre operators and their enablers, including operations linked to the Thai Chang scam compound in Myanmar.
He also noted that the bureau had recently seized malicious websites used by the compound to defraud victims and recovered about US$30 million in cryptocurrency from criminal enterprises associated with the compound.
Bailey added that its legal attaché office in Bangkok was working closely with the Royal Thai Police Anti-Cyber Scam Centre to identify, disrupt, and dismantle scam centres in Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam.
He described Thailand as a critical security partner and regional hub for law enforcement cooperation in South-East Asia. Thai authorities oversaw the arrest of seven individuals during a recent disruption week event and have also opened several new investigations.
However, in Singapore, he said that the FBI legal attaché office became the sole US law enforcement representative in May 2026 to join the Singapore Police-led Frontier Plus operation, a platform involving anti-scam agencies from 11 jurisdictions.
He said the platform supports real-time intelligence sharing, joint operations, and coordinated enforcement against transnational groups and financial fraud centres.
Bailey noted that scam compounds, violent extremism, and transnational narcotics trafficking were among the major threats currently facing the region and the wider world.
"The threats are global, the criminals are ruthless, but our partnerships throughout Southeast Asia are ironclad,” he said.
He also added that the FBI was working with Cambodia’s Commission for Combating Online Scams, the Philippine Presidential Anti-Organised Crime Commission, the Bureau of Immigration, the National Bureau of Investigation, the Philippine National Police, and the Philippine Department of Justice. -- BERNAMA
