When black markets for drugs, guns, and all manner of contraband first sprang up on the dark web more than a decade ago, it seemed that cryptocurrency and the technical sophistication of the anonymity software Tor were the keys to carrying out billions of dollars worth of untouchable, illicit transactions online. Now, all of that looks a bit passé. In 2025, all it takes to get away with tens of billions of dollars in black-market crypto deals is a messaging platform willing to host scammers and human traffickers, enough persistence to relaunch channels and accounts on that service when they're occasionally banned, and fluency in Chinese.
A trial got underway in Seoul last week for 46 South Koreans, mostly men in their 20s, accused of participating in online scam operations in Cambodia. Since mid-October, South Korea has repatriated 107 nationals from Cambodia where officials estimate upwards of 1,000 of its citizens are working either "voluntarily or involuntarily" in scam compounds. The repatriation effort follows public outrage over the death of a South Korean college student, who was reportedly lured to Cambodia and forced to work in a scam center.
A 17-year-old girl known in court records as Jane Doe had been missing for roughly six weeks when her pictures turned up on an online prostitution advertisement based in the Bay Area, authorities said. So on Nov. 13, an Oakland police investigator went undercover and responded to the ad, posing as a potential sex buyer, and arranged to meet the teen at the hotel in the 1800 block of Embarcadero in Oakland, court records show.
For days before the explosions began, the business park had been emptying out. When the bombs went off, they took down empty office blocks and demolished echoing, multi-cuisine food halls. Dynamite toppled a four-storey hospital, silent karaoke complexes, deserted gyms and dorm rooms. So came the end of KK Park, one of south-east Asia's most infamous scam centres, press releases from Myanmar's junta declared. The facility had held tens of thousands of people, forced to relentlessly defraud people around the world.
Hundreds of thousands of workers-hailing from over 50 countries-are currently trapped within Southeast Asia's sprawling scam centers, according to estimates by the United Nations. But humanitarian experts think these workers may soon be replaced by artificial intelligence. In some scam centers, messages initiating contact between scammers and potential victims are already being crafted and sent by AI, says Ling Li, a researcher and co-author of Scam: Inside Southeast Asia's Cybercrime Compounds.
Polynesian Adventure Tours served as the co-title sponsor, hosting ABA leadership and group travel partners in support of Ho'ōla Nā Pua's mission to restore the lives of children who have been sexually exploited. "This engagement builds on the Association's growing leadership in the fight against human trafficking," according to a press release. "In 2024, ABA was honored with the Truckers Against Trafficking Champion Award, recognizing its dedication to raising awareness and promoting training within the motorcoach and group travel sectors.
Clergyman at Christian church in South Africa told the trial how murderer Lawrence helped him 'run a safe house for victims of human trafficking'.
In a statement posted on X, SpaceX's senior vice president of commercial business, Lauren Dreyer, said the company had "proactively identified and disabled over 2,500 Starlink Kits in the vicinity of suspected scam centers" in Myanmar. She added that SpaceX "complies with local laws in all 150+ markets where Starlink is licensed to operate" and takes "appropriate action" when it detects violations of its acceptable use policy or applicable law.
Myanmar's military have closed down an online scamming operation, detaining more than 2000 people, according to state media on Monday. During the raid, which took place near the border with Thailand, dozens of Starlink satellite internet terminals were also seized. Myanmar is notorious for hosting cyberscam operations which have been responsible for taking money from people all over the world through scams which usually involve gaining victims' confidence online with romantic ploys or other ruses.
Mahin Shahriar, 28, who came to Canada from Bangladesh in 2019, told the Canadian Press he accepted an invitation from a friend to visit a property near Montreal, which he now suspects was part of a broader human trafficking operation. He says the alleged property was in a rural area and when he couldn't find it, he called the acquaintance for directions. Then I found myself in the US, he said. It was not my intention. Shahriar approached immigration officials when he realized his mistake and was subsequently detained.
Authorities have seized $15bn (11.3bn) worth of bitcoin and a string of luxury London properties in a joint UK-US crackdown on criminal masterminds behind romance scam centres in south-east Asia. The bitcoin confiscated by US investigators is the largest seizure in the history of the Department of Justice. A multi-million mansion and office block in the City of London are among 19 UK properties also being seized as the two governments issue sanctions on a gang that runs such scam centres on an industrial scale.
