Organized crime syndicates running scam operations across Asia-Pacific generated between $88.3 billion and $114.1 billion in losses during 2025, according to a report released by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. To put that in perspective, the upper end of that range is roughly equivalent to the entire GDP of Morocco.

The UNODC report, published on July 21, paints a picture of criminal enterprises that have essentially industrialized fraud. They’re running what the UN describes as a corporate franchise model, complete with specialized services spanning money laundering, human trafficking, and AI-powered deception.

From Southeast Asia to the Pacific islands

The operations are primarily centered in Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos, and the Philippines, but as law enforcement pressure mounts in traditional hotspots, these networks have begun relocating to jurisdictions with weaker enforcement capabilities, including East Timor and various Pacific island nations.

The syndicates, predominantly operated by Chinese criminal organizations, have built what UNODC Regional Representative Delphine Schantz calls a system of “corporate franchising.” Victims are lured through investment scams and romance schemes across at least 80 countries.

Earlier UNODC estimates pegged cyber-fraud losses across East and Southeast Asia at between $18 billion and $37 billion for 2024. Even using the conservative end of both estimates, that’s nearly a five-fold increase in a single year.

Many of these operations are staffed by people who were themselves trafficked into the work, subjected to severe conditions that add a human rights dimension to what’s already a staggering financial crime problem.

AI and crypto as force multipliers

The UNODC report specifically identifies the adoption of artificial intelligence, including what’s described as agentic AI, as a key tool enabling criminal networks to scale their scam operations and conduct cryptocurrency theft.

The report also identifies corruption as a primary enabler of these operations. Some of the compound-style operations in Southeast Asia have been documented housing thousands of workers in conditions resembling modern slavery.

What this means for crypto investors

On the flip side, this crisis is creating demand for solutions. Companies building fraud detection tools, on-chain analytics platforms, and AI-powered compliance systems are positioned to benefit. Chainalysis, Elliptic, and similar firms have seen growing demand from both private companies and government agencies seeking to trace illicit crypto flows.