The agency says that gangs caused $ 37 billion in losses in Asia as they obtain new support points in Africa, South America and the Middle East.
Asian cybercrime crimes unions have caused estimated losses of $ 37 billion in the Asian regions of the East and Southast, with the United Nations that warn that the reach of criminal networks is expanding worldwide.
In a report published on Monday, the UN Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC) detailed how Chinese and Southeast Asian gangs have a bone in tens of billions of dollars, pointing to victims annually in a variety of cyber crimes, including fakeher, Cryerssssss.
The criminal organization has greatly operated out of miserable compounds in the border areas of Myanmar, as well as in the so -called “special economic zones” designed to attack foreign investment in Cambodia and Laos. They have been based on portal workers forced to work on miserable compounds.
While the report said that the East and Southeast Asian countries lost approximately $ 37 billion due to cybernetic fraud in 2023, there were “much larger estimated losses” worldwide.
The report warned that the networks have spread to South America, Africa, the Middle East, Europe and the Pacific Islands.
“We are seeing a global expansion of the organized crimes groups of the East and Southeast Asia,” said Benedikt Hofmann, an interim regional representative of UNODC for Southeast Asia and the Pacific.
“This reflects both the growth of the industry and a strategy to evade repressions in Southeast Asia,” said Hofmann.
‘It spreads like cancer’
The report says that the unions have established support points in the African nations, including Zambia, Angola and Namibia, as well as the nations of the Pacific Island, including Fiji and Vanuatu.
They have also expanded their money laundering strategies, forging alliances with South American drug cartels, Italian mafia and Irish gangsters, according to the report.
Cryptocurrency mining, which generally refers to the creation of new cryptocurrencies and transaction validation, has become a key tool to obscure illicit funds, according to the report.
In a case, in June 2023, the Libyan authorities raided an illegal cryptographic mining operation in an area controlled by the militia, 50 Chinese national area.
Recent repressions in Myanmar, backed by China, also released some 7,000 trafficked workers.
However, the UN warned that while the application interrupts operations temporarily, unions have proven experts to adapt.
“It spreads like cancer,” said Hofmann. “The authorities treat it in an area, but the roots never disappear, they simply migrate.”
New technologies have further complicated the situation, with criminal networks that operate autonomous digital ecosystems, using encrypted messages, payment applications and cryptocurrencies to evade the police, according to the report.
The UN agency also warned “the potentially irreversible spill has tasks in the place … leaving criminal groups free to choose, choose and move … as necessary.”
He urged countries to collaborate and intensify efforts to interrupt the financing of criminal networks.