‘A national security problem and a homeland security problem’: The world targets Southeast Asia’s notorious scam centers

On Thursday, the U.S. announced that it will start a new “Scam Center Strike Force” to target cybercriminals based in Southeast Asia, with U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro dubbing it “a national security problem and a homeland security problem.” It’s a dramatic escalation for an issue that’s remained in the headlines since the begining of the year, when a Chinese actor, Wang Xing, went missing in Thailand and brought to a scam center in neighboring Myanmar. Even if international agencies like Interpol manage to track down and identify the perpetrators of the scam centers, it remains challenging to pin down a legitimate ‘authority’ they should work with to clamp down on them, says Yen Zhi Yi, a senior analyst from the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) at the Nanyang Technological University.

Author: Angelica Ang

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