U.S. Steps Up Crackdown on Southeast Asian Online Scam Networks

Washington — The Trump administration is expanding cooperation with Southeast Asian governments to dismantle transnational criminal networks accused of defrauding Americans of more than $12.5 billion through online scams last year.

Michael G. DeSombre, assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, told the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on East Asia and the Pacific that the administration was pursuing a government-wide strategy against criminal syndicates operating throughout the region.

“Together with US Interagency Partners, EAP supports US engagement to combat transnational crime across the Indo-Pacific, targeting the fentanyl supply chain, pressing China and other countries to take concrete law enforcement actions, and working to dismantle transnational criminal organizations running online scam operations that defrauded Americans of more than $12.5 billion in 2025,” DeSombre said.

He said the Justice Department has “restrained more than $15 billion in cryptocurrency from scam centers since October 2025” as the administration applies “targeted sanctions and diplomatic pressure to hold governments accountable for enforcement.”

Rep. Ami Bera, the subcommittee’s ranking member, raised concerns about the rapid expansion of scam compounds in the Mekong region. He said Chinese criminal organizations were exploiting special economic zones in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos.

Bera said the groups were also involved in drug trafficking and frequently forced civilians to work in online fraud operations.

DeSombre said financial losses from such scams continued to rise.

“We estimate that they defrauded Americans out of $12.5 billion in 2025, which is actually a 25 per cent increase from 2024,” he said.

“So the problem is not getting better. It’s still getting worse.”

DeSombre said the administration was focused on dismantling the criminal organizations behind the scam centers rather than merely closing individual compounds.

“The goal is to make sure we arrest the bad guys and make sure they don’t ever do it again,” he said.

Cambodia has shown some progress in confronting the networks, according to DeSombre.

“We are seeing, interestingly, some positive developments out of Cambodia,” he said, adding that Prime Minister Hun Manet “has definitely made it a priority for his government, and we have seen positive movements in that regard.”

However, enforcement efforts in Cambodia have also pushed some criminal organizations into neighboring countries.

“We now see scam centers cropping up in Malaysia, Indonesia, even in Timor-Leste and other places,” he said.

Although DeSombre described the development as “not good,” he said the spread of scam operations had prompted more regional governments to cooperate as they confronted the effects of organized cybercrime.

DeSombre said he recently established a contact group involving U.S. allies, partner countries and several Southeast Asian nations to improve intelligence sharing and law enforcement coordination.

Online investment fraud, cryptocurrency schemes and romance scams have become major forms of transnational organized crime in Southeast Asia. Criminal networks operate large compounds in several countries, often using trafficked workers to target victims worldwide through sophisticated digital fraud. (Source: IANS)