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The crack down involving authorities in six other jurisdictions
successfully intercepted fraudulent funds involving about $20
million, Wong Chun-yue, chief superintendent of the city's
police's commercial crime bureau, said.
The scam networks were closed down during the operation jointly
conducted by South Korea, Thailand, Singapore and neighboring
Chinese gambling hub Macao, he said.
The operation, which also involved authorities from Malaysia and
the Maldives, targeted cases of online shopping and telephone
scams, as well as investment and employment frauds. Nearly
33,000 accounts were frozen in the month to May 28, Wong said.
Those arrested were aged between 14 and 81.
In one case in March, a finance director in Singapore was
scammed through deep-fake videos by someone who claimed to be
the chief executive at a multinational corporation. The victim
transferred $499,000 to Hong Kong, said Aileen Yap, assistant
director of Singapore police’s anti-scam command. Through
cross-border cooperation, the money was recovered, she said.
The victims of scams and online fraud often include not only
those defrauded but also the workers used by scamming
operations, with staff facing threats, violence and poor working
conditions.
A United Nations report in April found transnational organized
crime groups in East and Southeast Asia are spreading their scam
operations across the globe.
For several years, scam compounds have proliferated in Southeast
Asia, especially in border areas of Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar,
as well as in the Philippines, shifting operations from site to
site to stay a step ahead of the police, according to the report
issued by the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime.
The scam centers in Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos are notorious for
luring people to work in them under false pretences. Staff are
often forced to financially exploit people around the world
through false romances, bogus investment pitches and illegal
gambling schemes. Many workers find themselves trapped in
virtual slavery.
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