KUALA LUMPUR, June 10 — The United States (US) Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is stepping up efforts with Southeast Asian law enforcement agencies to dismantle industrial-scale scam centres and transnational criminal syndicates operating across the region.
Its co-deputy director Andrew Bailey said scam compounds in Southeast Asia had grown into highly organised criminal enterprises, stealing billions of dollars, exploiting cryptocurrency, and trafficking human beings.
“These enterprises are highly organised criminal syndicates, and they are running industrial-scale fraud operations across the globe,” he said during a virtual press briefing from Bangkok, Thailand.
Bailey added that many of the operations were controlled by sophisticated criminal organisations in China and were operating throughout Southeast Asia.
“We have discovered a clear link between Chinese criminal enterprises and scam compounds throughout Southeast Asia and beyond, and we are currently assessing these actors as financially motivated,” he said.
The syndicates were moving people, money, technology, and illicit proceeds across the region, including Thailand, Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia, and beyond, while exploiting weak governance, corruption, and emerging technologies.
Bailey said the FBI is using a strategic, intelligence-driven approach, focusing not only on individual scam compounds but also on the broader criminal ecosystem behind them.
These include developers who create applications used to defraud victims, recruiters who lure workers under false pretences, and networks that place workers in debt bondage.
He also acknowledged that many lower-level workers in scam compounds were victims of human trafficking who had been forced to defraud others.
“The FBI certainly understands many line-level workers in scam compounds are human trafficking victims who are forced to defraud others,” Bailey said.
The FBI is working through the Scam Centre Strike Force to target scam centre operators and their enablers, including operations linked to the Thai Chang scam compound in Myanmar.
He noted that the bureau had recently seized malicious websites used by the compound to defraud victims and recovered about US$30 million (RM121.9 million) in cryptocurrency from criminal enterprises associated with the compound.
Its legal attaché office in Bangkok is working closely with the Royal Thai Police Anti-Cyber Scam Centre to identify, disrupt, and dismantle scam centres in Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam.
Bailey described Thailand as a critical security partner and regional hub for law enforcement cooperation in Southeast Asia, with the Thai authorities overseeing the arrest of seven individuals during a recent disruption week event and having also opened several new investigations.
However, in Singapore, the FBI legal attaché office became the sole US law enforcement representative in May 2026 to join the Singapore Police-led Frontier Plus operation, a platform involving anti-scam agencies from 11 jurisdictions.
The platform supports real-time intelligence sharing, joint operations, and coordinated enforcement against transnational groups and financial fraud centres.
He said that scam compounds, violent extremism, and transnational narcotics trafficking were among the major threats currently facing the region and the wider world.
“The threats are global, the criminals are ruthless, but our partnerships throughout Southeast Asia are ironclad,” Bailey said.
Similarly, the FBI is working with Cambodia’s Commission for Combating Online Scams, the Philippine Presidential Anti-Organised Crime Commission, the Bureau of Immigration, the National Bureau of Investigation, the Philippine National Police, and the Philippine Department of Justice.
