Review: Battling Giant Global Scam Centers in Southeast Asia
First deep book-length investigation provides a close look inside Southeast Asia's cybercrime compounds and the ongoing battle to manage a global scamdemic.
A new book provides the first deep book-length investigation inside Southeast Asia's cybercrime compounds and the battle to manage a global scamdemic.
WonkCount: 1,658 words (~10 minutes)
Review: Battling Giant Global Scam Centers in Southeast Asia
Context
“[T]he establishment of a scam center…raises serious concerns for both Timor-Leste and the wider region…as Timor-Leste prepares to join ASEAN in October 2025,” according to an alarming new alert publicized earlier this week on the state of giant scam networks proliferating across Southeast Asia with an increasingly global scope1. The alert is just the latest amid the surging interest in these scam compounds, which by one recent count have affected victims from over a third of the world’s countries with nearly three in four of them occurring in the hub of Southeast Asia2. Just over the past week alone, new revelations have surfaced from satellite imagery and drone footage suggesting that the growth of Myanmar scam centers on the Thai border has more than doubled in the past four years alone, even as countries such as the United States continue to accelerate efforts including financial sanctions and quiet collaboration3. As we have noted previously on ASEAN Wonk, the issue has also been raised both within ASEAN and in discussions with several dialogue partners, beyond minilateral efforts by China which have often received the most headlines.
Key Recent Geopolitical and Geoeconomic Developments Related to Global Scam Networks in Southeast Asia and Beyond
A new book Scam by researchers Ivan Franceschini, Ling Li and Mark Bo provides the first deep book-length investigation inside Southeast Asia's cybercrime compounds and the battle to manage a global challenge that stretches its origins back to criminal experimentation as far back as Taiwan in the 1990s, spreading out to mainland China, into Southeast Asia and across other continents including Africa and Latin America4. This adds to the growing list of articles and reports produced on the subject by a range of local, regional and international groups. Scam documents the evolution and likely future trajectory of one of modern crime’s most secretive industries rooted in Southeast Asia through a mix of direct interviews with scam compound survivors, regional fieldwork and data analysis. It does so through a data-driven and people-focused approach, with the book beginning with a gripping story of a Taiwanese woman rescued and temporarily housed in Cambodia after torture and sexual abuse across four different scam compounds who remained suspicious when the authors reached out to hear her story5. “To face a crisis that transcends national borders, transnational responses are required,” the authors argue before setting out specific ways by which this can be accomplished in the coming months and years6.
Analysis
The book also forecasts future policy pathways to watch in the coming years and their wider regional and global implications (see originally-generated ASEAN Wonk table below for a summary of these critical areas, along with major policy cooperation areas and key domains. Paying subscribers can also read the rest of the “Analysis” section and “Implications” section looking at how these dynamics play out in the future).
Critical Future Policy Pathways, Along with Major Priority Eelements and Key Domains
