How South-east Asia became home to the world’s scam farms

BANGKOK - Online scammers steal billions of dollars each year, targeting anyone they can reach on a mobile phone or computer. 

Governments have watched with alarm as large-scale operations, known as scam farms – physical hubs where fraud operations are run using trafficked workers – have multiplied in recent years, particularly in South-east Asia.

The industry was turbocharged by the Covid-19 pandemic and Myanmar’s 2021 military coup, helping turn the region into a global epicentre of online fraud.

The schemes are becoming more sophisticated as gangs harness artificial intelligence tools and increasingly overlap with other forms of transnational crime.

Governments have launched crackdowns, but the raids may not do more than temporarily disrupt a multibillion-dollar industry seen as too entrenched and lucrative to eliminate.

What are scam farms?

Scam farms are organised criminal enterprises that operate like call centres. Inside, rows of desks are equipped with computers, mobile phones and lights, allowing staff to run scams around the clock.

Some occupy a single floor in an office or apartment building, while others sprawl across large compounds with dormitories and various facilities, often encircled by high walls and armed guards.

Many have been uncovered in Cambodia and Myanmar, as well as in Laos, the Philippines and Thailand, although the criminal gangs overseeing many of them in South-east Asia are typically Chinese.

They operate across different environments, from remote areas controlled by insurgent groups to large cities. The Cambodian authorities say that between the start of January to early February alone, they raided 190 locations – including 44 casinos – and detained more than 2,500 people. 

Interpol says scam centres are expanding worldwide, with new hubs in the Middle East, Central America, Europe and West Africa, which it warns could become a major regional base.

Some are linked to networks in South-east Asia. Workers from nearly 70 countries have been trafficked into these compounds, often lured by ads for legitimate jobs.

On arrival, many have their passports confiscated and are confined inside, forced to work 15-hour days under threat of fines and abuse, including starvation, beatings and electric shocks.

How do the scams work?

The tactics change constantly, but the objective is simple: extract money from a target.

Some schemes are quick hits, such as phishing e-mails and fake job offers. Others evolve over months. The most notorious are known as “pig butchering” scams – a reference to fattening up an animal before slaughter.

Scammers approach targets on social media, pose as friends or romantic partners, build trust over time, then persuade victims to send money, often for bogus crypto investments or fake projects.

The proliferation of cryptocurrency has made it easier for criminal networks to move money quickly and across borders, complicating efforts to trace and recover stolen funds.

In a US case against alleged scam kingpin and Chinese billionaire Chen Zhi and his Prince Holding Group, prosecutors say he ran scam centres in Cambodia that laundered billions of dollars taken from victims around the world.

Why are there so many scam farms in South-east Asia?

The region has long been fertile ground for illicit industries. The International Institute for Strategic Studies describes parts of South-east Asia as a “hotbed of narcotics production, weapons smuggling, human trafficking and illegal gambling”. 

As travel from China slowed and revenue from illegal casinos dried up during the Covid-19 pandemic, criminals shifted their activity online. Some operators moved into freshly established special economic zones, filling new buildings there that needed tenants. 

Weak governance has also played a central role. Myanmar’s military coup in early 2021 further isolated the country and weakened oversight. In border areas near China, where ethnic rebel groups operate and state control is limited, scam centres have flourished.

Activists also point to alleged links in Cambodia between scam gangs and local business interests. Property owners can charge high rents while turning a blind eye to what happens inside their buildings.

Cambodia scored 20 out of 100 in Transparency International’s latest Corruption Perceptions Index, ranking it near the bottom of a list of 182 countries. 

Why are these scam operations so difficult to dismantle?

Ringleaders frequently relocate operations to evade detection. The transnational nature of the crime further complicates enforcement: legal frameworks can vary widely across borders, and conduct classified as a cybercrime in one country may not be in another. Cambodia, for instance, has only recently begun drafting a law specifically targeting online scams.

Cooperation between governments is uneven, particularly with Myanmar’s military junta, while regional tensions – including a long-simmering border dispute between Cambodia and Thailand – add friction.

Scam operations also span human trafficking, illicit money flows and cybercrime, yet the authorities often address those areas separately rather than as a single ecosystem.

Where corruption is entrenched, crackdowns are unlikely to last if local incentives remain intact. Recent raids in Cambodia and Myanmar were undertaken only after diplomatic pressure from China and the US, raising questions about sustainability.

Efforts are further complicated by trafficked workers who lack travel documents or money to return home and are vulnerable to being recruited again.

Why is the industry of increasing concern?

The industry is vast and growing. A US Institute of Peace report estimated that transnational criminal networks running online gambling and scam operations stole nearly US$64 billion (S$81.8 billion) globally in 2023.

Americans alone lost about US$5 billion to online scams in 2024 – up 42 per cent from a year earlier – according to a US government report. The real toll is likely higher, considering many victims never report losses.

Technology is accelerating the threat. AI allows scammers to automate outreach, run multiple schemes at once and convincingly impersonate others – by mimicking a voice or even simulating someone’s face on a video call.

The operations are highly adaptable and scammers can quickly shift targets and markets as conditions change, with younger, tech-savvy victims increasingly affected. 

Analysts also warn about convergence with other organised crime. Interpol describes many scammers as “poly criminals”, and in some cases they have been linked to narcotics and weapons smuggling.

Scam farms have also become a geopolitical flashpoint.

China has tied its support for Myanmar’s junta and Cambodia’s government to tougher action against scam networks, and a US-China Economic and Security Review Commission report says China’s government is using the issue to expand its influence and security presence in South-east Asia. BLOOMBERG