Why Southeast Asia's online scam industry is so hard to shut down | Headlines

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

53% : Today, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime says labourers are recruited from at least 56 countries, ranging from Indonesia to Liberia.
47% : The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime counted more than 340 licensed and unlicensed casinos in the region in 2021 alone.
47% : When the COVID-19 pandemic and strict travel restrictions cut off customers, some online casinos pivoted.
38% : New scam centres continue to surface across Southeast Asia and beyond.A United Nations report last year said scammers have extracted billions of dollars from victims using fake romantic relationships, bogus investment pitches and illegal gambling schemes, with operations reported as far away as Africa and Latin America.If we only rescue the victims and dont arrest anybody especially the Chinese mafia and transnational syndicates then there will be no point, said Jay Kritiya, coordinator of the Civil Society Network for Victim Assistance in Human Trafficking.They can get more victims.
33% : An estimated 120,000 people in Myanmar are being forced to work in online scam operations, along with another 100,000 in Cambodia, according to a 2023 report by the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.
27% : A United Nations report last year said scammers have extracted billions of dollars from victims using fake romantic relationships, bogus investment pitches and illegal gambling schemes, with operations reported as far away as Africa and Latin America.

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