UN says Asian scam call center epidemic expanding globally amid political heat

Scam call centers are metastasizing worldwide "like a cancer," according to the United Nations, which warns the epidemic has reached a global inflection point as syndicates scale up and spread out.

Recent crackdowns in East and Southeast Asia - where scam centers took root at industrial scale - have coincided with organized criminal groups (OCGs) shifting operations to more permissive regions.

The UN's ongoing tracking of scam call center operators, which often traffic vulnerable people to work on the front lines of the enterprise, revealed a growing number of operations emerging in regions beyond Southeast Asia.

Previous UN reports flagged growing activity in regions like South America and the Middle East. The latest update expands that scope, citing overseas crackdowns and evidence of scam operations tied to Southeast Asian crime syndicates in Africa, South Asia, select Pacific islands, and links to related criminal services—such as laundering and recruitment—as far ...