UN Report Finds $88‑$114 Billion Lost to Asia‑Pacific Online Scam Gangs

A United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) report released in July 2025 estimates that organized online scam gangs defrauded residents of the Asia‑Pacific region of at least $88 billion and up to $114 billion in that year. The losses span East Asia, Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand and exceed the GDP of several countries in the area.

The report describes the criminal networks, largely of Chinese origin, as operating like corporate franchises with specialised units for money laundering, human‑trafficking, migrant smuggling and data harvesting. More than 80 countries are represented among workers and victims, and the groups exploit corruption and “jurisdiction shopping” to relocate to weak‑governance locales such as East Timor, Pacific islands and parts of Africa after law‑enforcement pressure. UNODC regional representative Delphine Schantz said, “Their operating model looks like corporate franchising: imagine specialised departments for laundering money, trafficking people, smuggling migrants, and harvesting data, all plugged into the same, service‑based interconnected network.”

The syndicates increasingly use artificial intelligence to target victims, create content and facilitate cryptocurrency theft. The UN warns that current law‑enforcement capacities are insufficient to curb the rapidly expanding, tech‑driven crime economy.