Southeast Asia Scam Networks Cost Victims $88.3B-$114.1B in 2025: UN Report

According to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), in a report released Tuesday, scam operations across Southeast Asia and the wider region drove estimated losses of $88.3 billion to $114.1 billion in 2025. UNODC Regional Representative Delphine Schantz described the restructuring of the region's underworld as "corporate franchising," with local syndicates now merged into a transnational network selling shared services—money laundering, fraud, human trafficking, and data harvesting—over interconnected infrastructure.

Much of the fraud involves crypto investment and romance scams, or "pig butchering," run from industrial-scale compounds; proceeds are laundered on-chain. UNODC warned that regional police lack training to trace proceeds in the "new crypto context," with Schantz noting that "disruption alone does not work" and seizing assets is now essential.