A recent report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) stated that Asian crime networks are continuing to expand their multibillion-dollar cyber scam industry.

According to Benedikt Hofmann, the UNODC the regional representative for Southeast Asia and the Pacific, these crime syndicates are constantly evolving.

"This is organized crime with a really high degree of sophistication and the continued adoption of new technology," Hofmann told DW. "The industry is growing and becoming more complex almost on a daily basis."

Earlier this year, authorities in Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos all moved against large-scale scam centers, mostly located in border regions. They shut down multiple sites and freed thousands of human trafficking victims who had been duped into traveling to these areas and then forced to work as scammers.

Despite these high-profile crackdowns, Hofmann said many operations were simply relocated to other, more secluded, parts of the Mekong region.

The cyber scam industry in Southeast Asia grew out of the massive Chinese offshore........

© Deutsche Welle