Governments around the world are struggling to contain the rapid spread of a multibillion‑dollar cyber scam industry that emerged in Southeast Asian countries like Thailand, Cambodia, and Myanmar, has now taken root in South America, Africa and Eastern Europe, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) recently said, according to a recent Reuters report. 

Once confined to sprawling scam farms, criminal networks have evolved into highly agile operations, relocating at will to jurisdictions with weak governance and high corruption, says the UN.

"Authorities treat it in one area, but the roots never disappear; they simply migrate," said John Wojcik, a regional analyst for the UNODC, likening the phenomenon to a "cancer" that simply shifts its location when under pressure, states the Reuters report. 

The report adds that, despite intensified crackdowns in Thailand and China, syndicates have moved into remote parts of Laos, western Cambodia and elsewhere along the Thai‑Myanmar border to maintain their lucrative scams.

The agency estimates that hundreds of large‑scale scam farms now generate tens of billions of dollars in annual profits by forcing trafficked workers to target victims online. Many of those rescued at recent raids are said to have come from more than 50 countries, including Brazil, Nigeria, Sri Lanka, and Uzbekistan.

According to Reuters, in 2023, the United States alone reported over $5.6 billion in losses to cryptocurrency scams, with romance and so‑called pig‑butchering schemes accounting for more than $4 million in fraud against elderly and vulnerable people. 

The UNODC warned that cyber fraud has outpaced other forms of transnational crime because it can be easily scaled and targets victims across borders without the need to transport illicit goods.

Failure to address this "cancer" of online fraud, the agency warned, risks entrenching a permanent, borderless criminal industry that could undermine financial systems and exploit vulnerable populations for years to come.