EXCLUSIVE: State Department Targets ‘Scam Centers’ in Asia

FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—The State Department says it is cracking down on foreign fraud networks that exploit American citizens, The Daily Signal can first report.

President Donald Trump has mobilized the FBI, the Department of Justice, and the State Department to to dismantle Asia-based criminal networks that defraud and financially exploit American families, seniors, and small businesses.

“The Trump Administration has made protecting the American people from overseas scam operations a top priority,” said Tommy Pigott, principal deputy spokesperson at the State Department.

Transnational organized crime, particularly Chinese-led fraud syndicates, has scaled to an industrial level in Southeast Asia, a State Department official said.

In 2023, the UN estimated that 120,000 people worked in scam centers in Burma alone. A new report from the UN’s human rights office says at least 300,000 people are estimated to have been trafficked into cyber scam operations in Southeast Asia.

“I was generally aware that online ‘scam centers’ had popped up across Southeast Asia in recent years, but did not appreciate their scale,” Deputy State Department Secretary Chris Landau said in December.

“This is a major problem for the US and other countries: in 2024, such operations scammed over $10 BILLION from Americans,” Landau continued. “Until recently, many of these centers had been operating with impunity, but we’re working hard with countries in the region to crack down on them.”

The Treasury Department announced sanctions against such scam centers in September, including nine targets operating in Shwe Kokko, Burma and ten targets based in Cambodia. 

“Southeast Asia’s cyber scam industry not only threatens the well-being and financial security of Americans, but also subjects thousands of people to modern slavery,” said Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence John K. Hurley.  

Southeast Asia-based scam centers often fraudulently recruit employees from other countries, many from China, and coerce them into forced labor, Landau said.

The State Department recommends that Americans refrain from sending money abroad to someone they have not met and sharing personal details online in order to avoid these fraud scams.

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