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UNODC warns Southeast Asian scam syndicates now rely on crypto
The UN estimates 2025 losses from scam offenses across East Asia, Southeast Asia, Australia, and New Zealand at $88.3 billion to $114.1 billion, much tied to crypto investment fraud.
A UN Office on Drugs and Crime report says Southeast Asia scam networks have consolidated into a single, tech-driven criminal economy, increasingly built around fraud and laundering infrastructure shared across borders, with crypto playing a central role.
According to Decrypt, the UNODC estimates combined losses from scam offences across East Asia, Southeast Asia, Australia, and New Zealand reached between $88.3 billion and $114.1 billion in 2025, with much of the activity linked to crypto investment fraud run from industrial-scale compounds.
The report describes a shift from locally rooted syndicates to a transnational service model, where groups provide functions like money laundering, human trafficking, and data harvesting to one another over shared infrastructure. UNODC compares the structure to a corporate franchising approach, with specialized departments feeding into the broader network.
The UN urged regional police to gain specialized crypto training to trace and seize proceeds, saying disruption-focused strategies are not sufficient because disruption alone does not work in this new crypto context. It also noted that proceeds are often laundered on-chain, including from cyber scams such as romance and investment schemes, sometimes referred to as pig butchering.