The Sawyers are not an isolated case.
Using sophisticated cyber tools, artificial intelligence and phishing techniques, fraudsters trapped in hubs across Southeast Asia have been defrauding victims of billions of dollars in savings. In 2024, the United States alone reported losses worth $10 billion due to region-based scam operations (AP1) (LG2).
The victims targeted by scammers are all over the world and, in many cases, are highly educated: the Sawyers have master’s degrees and are experienced stock market investors.
Alliances against organized fraud
Although scams are becoming more global, the response to these crimes is also becoming transnational.
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and INTERPOL brought together governments, law enforcement agencies, private businesses and civil society at the Global Fraud Summit in Vienna, Austria with a mandate to work more closely, including:
- shared intelligence
- joint investigations
- simplified cross-border processing
Additionally, last December in Bangkok, Thailand, representatives from nearly 60 countries met alongside tech giants Meta and TikTok to launch the Global Partnership Against Online Scams.
The Bangkok conference, organized by the Government of Thailand and the UNODC, followed by the Global Fraud Summit, marks a diplomatic turning point for international cooperation against fraud hubs.
However, the entrenched criminal infrastructure across Southeast Asia that drives fraud remains global in reach.
UNODC staff visit a scam center raided in Cambodia’s capital, Phnom Penh.
An entire criminal ecosystem in action
These operations throughout the region go beyond simple fraud. These networks facilitate money laundering, develop and deploy malware, weaponize artificial intelligence (AI) for deepfakes and voice cloning, and sell cybercrime capabilities as services.
Recent raids in the Philippines and Cambodia tell the same story: a scam hub is, in fact, just a small portion of a connected criminal infrastructure that generates billions in illicit financial flows.
This is large-scale organized crime, where fraud operations are simply the surface layer of a deeper ecosystem involving corruption, human trafficking and transnational money laundering.
“We need to investigate the prosecution of high-level criminals, follow the money through financial investigations and identify the giant networks operating behind these operations,” said Delphine Schantz, UNODC regional representative for Southeast Asia and the Pacific.
“The complexity of these crimes requires an equally complex whole-of-government approach and better coordination between governments, financial intelligence units and digital banks.”
A karaoke room used by the managers of a scam center in the Philippines.
Responses on the ground
Philippines: On a recent visit to a former scam center in Manila, Philippines, UNODC officials and investigators walked through rooms where criminal bosses once orchestrated fraud operations just hundreds of meters from government offices and foreign embassies.
In the complex, now converted into offices of the Philippine Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC), certain rooms have been left in their original state: places where bosses would enjoy entertainment, such as a karaoke room and a game room, along with a torture chamber used to punish trafficked workers who did not meet their quotas.
An entertainment area logbook listed politicians, municipal officials and police officers entertained as guests, evidence of the corruption that allowed these operations to prosper.
“How do you prove a cybercrime in 36 hours? It’s not possible,” said PAOCC’s director of operations, recalling the struggle when police first raided the site. They had a little more than a day to file charges before legal deadlines expired.
UNODC is helping countries in the region address these gaps:
- focus on capabilities to collect, analyze and share electronic evidence
- Reduce the space for organized criminal groups to move and invest resources through the region’s clandestine banking systems and casino industry.
- Improve cooperation to stop the flow of trafficked people to scam centers in the region.
In the Philippines, UNODC is assisting PAOCC and other relevant agencies involved in the fight against fraudulent operations to develop standard operating procedures for victim-centred responses:
- identify and repatriate victims
- collecting evidence
- arrest the alleged perpetrators.
UNODC is also working with authorities on their initiative to draft a national strategy against transnational organized crime.
Scammers who don’t meet their quotas are often tortured
Cambodia: A delegation of prosecutors, investigators and central authorities from several countries visited a scam center raided in Phnom Penh last December, together with UNODC officials.
Participants discussed mutual legal assistance, extradition, asset recovery and the proper handling of digital evidence across borders, critical aspects in addressing the scam industry.
The timing was deliberate: Cambodia had recently created the Commission to Combat Online Scams (CCOS), a high-level coordinating body chaired by the Prime Minister with representatives from 25 ministries and authority to work with the military and law enforcement across the country.
Workers who break the rules are fined or, more often, beaten.
Towards implementing a global response to fraud
Despite increased attention and local law enforcement efforts, scam centers continue to operate and often simply relocate when a complex is raided. As governments rush to prosecute crime, victims continue to lose billions. This week’s Global Anti-Fraud Summit focused on exactly that challenge: translating political will into concrete, long-term impact.
World leaders discussed priorities, aligned responses and advanced solutions, but officials emphasize that the next phase requires operational follow-up:
- joint cross-border operations
- coordinated prosecutions
- real-time intelligence sharing
‘They take your money and they take your soul’
Sawyer said he and his wife, along with hundreds of victims, are disappointed by the response they received from banks and governments.
“The scammer works twice: they take your money and they take your soul. They really do it. They take away your self-esteem. And then, you feel like they are scamming you again, due to the lack of response from the authorities,” he said.
He hopes that as countries share solutions, engage in international cooperation and bring more global attention to the problem, victims like him can benefit from responses that have already worked in other countries.
Find out what UNODC is doing to tackle these and other crimes here.