UN says Asian scam call center epidemic expanding globally amid political heat – Source: go.theregister.com

Scam call centers are metastasizing worldwide “like a cancer,” according to the United Nations, which warns the epidemic has reached a global inflection point as syndicates scale up and spread out.

Recent crackdowns in East and Southeast Asia – where scam centers took root at industrial scale – have coincided with organized criminal groups (OCGs) shifting operations to more permissive regions.

The UN’s ongoing tracking of scam call center operators, which often traffic vulnerable people to work on the front lines of the enterprise, revealed a growing number of operations emerging in regions beyond Southeast Asia.

Previous UN reports flagged growing activity in regions like South America and the Middle East. The latest update expands that scope, citing overseas crackdowns and evidence of scam operations tied to Southeast Asian crime syndicates in Africa, South Asia, select Pacific islands, and links to related criminal services—such as laundering and recruitment—as far as Europe, North America, and beyond.

These spillover sites, as the UN calls them, allow Asian OCGs to expand their pool of victims by hiring/trafficking locals with different language skills and “dramatically scale up profits,” according to the UN’s latest report [PDF].

“We are seeing a global expansion of East and Southeast Asian organized crime groups,” said Benedikt Hofmann, acting regional representative for Southeast Asia and the Pacific at the UN’s Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). 

“This reflects both a natural expansion as the industry grows and seeks new ways and places to do business, but also a hedging strategy against future risks should disruption continue and intensify in the region.”

Previously, the hotspots for this type of activity have been in places like Myanmar, Cambodia, the Philippines, and Laos since 2021 when the UN and Interpol started tracking the phenomenon.

Authorities treat it in one area, but the roots never disappear; they simply migrate

“It spreads like a cancer,” Hofmann added. “Authorities treat it in one area, but the roots never disappear; they simply migrate. This has resulted in a situation in which the region has essentially become an interconnected ecosystem, driven by sophisticated syndicates freely exploiting vulnerabilities, jeopardizing state sovereignty, and distorting and corrupting policy-making processes and other government systems and institutions.”

The UN said these scam gangs typically relocate to jurisdictions with weak governance, allowing them to expand operations—and rake in between $27.4 and $36.5 billion annually, according to estimates based on labour force size and average haul per scammer.

UNODC notes that scam operations tied to Southeast Asia have surfaced in several African countries, where local law enforcement has launched raids leading to arrests of suspected foreign nationals involved in fraud and cybercrime.

The UN org said 77 suspects were arrested during one bust of a fraud syndicate in Zambia in April 2024. Those nabbed included 22 Chinese nationals, who were later handed sentences of up to 11 years. Similar scenes played out in Angola, Nigeria, and more.

Reliable data is harder to come by in South America, but the UN notes growing signs that some Asian criminal groups are scaling up online fraud and gambling infrastructure aimed at the region—alongside efforts to forge money laundering partnerships with local drug trafficking networks. In a few isolated cases, they’ve even managed to establish physical scam operations on the ground.

In Europe, in addition to Russia, which has its own unique affiliation with cybercrime, Georgia and Turkey have emerged as hotspots for digital fraud in recent times.

The UN pointed to a large operation in Georgian capital city Tbilisi exposed by journalists and investigation groups in March 2025 as an example of how robust criminal networks have become in the region.

One call center in Tbilisi, uncovered in March 2025, had allegedly pulled in over $35 million from more than 6,000 victims worldwide since May 2022, though the UN notes there’s limited evidence tying this particular operation to Asian criminal networks.

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East Asian crime networks have “established a significant presence in Georgia in recent years,” the report said, particularly in the coastal city of Batumi, now a hotspot for cyber-enabled fraud and shady online gambling ops.

China’s embassy has also issued warnings to citizens about being tricked into scam work in Georgia, with OCGs often recruiting via Telegram for so-called “customer service agents.” Many specifically look for Chinese or Chinese-speaking recruits.

Across the border from Georgia is Turkey, which has seen a rise in cybercrime-related enforcement. Local authorities have cracked down on all manner of issues from online gambling to cyber-enabled fraud, and the money laundering associated with both.

Again, direct evidence linking Asian crime groups to cyber-fraud operations in Türkiye is limited. However, the UN notes that several Chinese nationals detained elsewhere for similar offenses have managed to obtain Turkish citizenship, including a key figure in Singapore’s headline-grabbing money laundering case.

Broader criminal expansion

Arguably, the UN’s most publicized work has been related to scam call centers, and the associated money laundering and human trafficking. However, other forms of crime are emerging and are being funded by the proceeds generated from the scam sites.

Over in the Pacific islands, Asian OCGs have taken their ill-gotten gains and used them to set up footholds in places such as Fiji, Palau, Tonga, Vanuatu, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI).

The gangs set up seemingly legitimate businesses in the form of hotels, casinos, and travel agencies, but are using them to conceal their criminal activities elsewhere, such as illegal online gambling, drug and human trafficking, migrant smuggling, and money laundering.

They are set up in these small island territories because the departments and organizations tasked with ousting them are often understaffed and underequipped from a technical perspective, giving them ample room to operate with limited oversight or disruption.

The UNODC’s report made a number of recommendations to governments in SEA and beyond to help mitigate the expansion of these OCGs. These included raising political awareness, strengthening regulatory frameworks, and equipping authorities with the right people and tools to disrupt the mechanics of the various crimes. ®