JAKARTA: Crime syndicates may be setting up a scam centre in Asia’s youngest nation, East Timor, the United Nations said on Thursday (Sep 11), as a multibillion-dollar online fraud industry spreads across Southeast Asia.
The industry involves sprawling compounds housing tens of thousands of workers, many of them trafficked, who are forced to scam victims around the world.
Cyber scam operators in Cambodia and Myanmar alone have stolen some US$10 billion from American citizens in the last year, the United States Treasury said on Tuesday, as it imposed sanctions on entities in both countries.
In its report, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said it had found signs pointing to the “establishment and operation” of such a scam centre in East Timor’s Special Administrative Region of Oecusse-Ambeno.
East Timor, commonly known as Timor-Leste, is one of Southeast Asia’s poorest nations. At 15,000 sq km, it is slightly bigger than Qatar, with a population of 1.3 million.
Its government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
On Aug 25, a raid at a hotel in the Special Region by East Timor intelligence and law enforcement found individuals with links to scam operations, and evidence, including SIM cards and satellite internet devices, the UNODC said, adding: “UNODC’s analysis links these operations to entities associated with convicted cybercriminals, offshore gambling operators”.
The UNODC has said scam centre operations are spreading globally, especially in Southeast Asia, which indicates that it remains lucrative.
It estimates that hundreds of large-scale scam farms around the world generate tens of billions of dollars in annual profits, and says they are proliferating in Cambodia, Myanmar, and the Philippines, partly due to relaxed local regulations.
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/east-timor-crime-syndicate-cyber-scam-centre-un-5344636
