Gangs behind billion-pound cyber scam industry 'spreading like cancer'

Crime syndicates behind a multibillion-pound cyber scam industry are expanding globally as governments in South East Asia struggle to contain them, a UN report has warned.

As they expand business, countries in South America, Africa and Eastern Europe are now being targeted, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said. The networks and gangs have emerged in South East Asia in recent years, in sprawling compounds housing tens of thousands of people, many trafficked and forced into work, scamming victims abroad.

Sky News previously reported on one of these compounds, and the workers who were tricked, trafficked and forced into working there. Even as governments in Asia have intensified their crackdowns, the gangs have moved within and beyond the region, the UNODC said.

It warned that a "potentially irreversible spillover has taken place... leaving criminal groups free to pick, choose, and move...

as needed". "It spreads like a cancer," John Wojcik, a regional analyst for UNODC, said.

"Authorities treat it in one area, but the roots never disappear; they simply migrate." Even the more conservative estimates indicate there are hundreds of large-scale scam farms around the world, generating tens of billions of pounds, the UNODC warned. The agency called on countries to commit to a more joined-up approach to tackle the international issue.

"The regional cyberfraud industry... has outpaced other transnational crimes, given that it is easily scalable and able to reach millions of potential victims online, with no need to move or traffic illicit goods across borders," Mr Wojcik said.

South America, Africa and Eastern Europe targeted The syndicates have moved to expand into new ground, the UN agency warned. In South America, the networks were said to be seeking increased partnerships with drug cartels.

Zambia, Angola and Namibia in Africa, and Georgia in Eastern Europe, were also seeing an increasingly established base of scam operations. Gangs have also diversified their workforces, UNODC said, as they recruit people from dozens of nationalities.

Citizens of more than 50 countries, from Sri Lanka to Uzbekistan and Brazil to Nigeria, were rescued in recent crackdowns on the Thai-Myanmar border. 'Inflection point' Recent months have seen authorities from China, Thailand and Myanmar all move to crack down on the scam operations that have thrived particularly in the lawless areas of the Thai-Myanmar border.

Thailand has moved to cut power, fuel and internet to areas housing the scam compounds. However, the syndicates have adapted and shifted their operations between "the most remote, vulnerable, and underprepared parts of South East Asia.