4 h. ago Congress finally has a blueprint to stop China’s online scams

Congress finally has a blueprint to stop China’s online scams  The Hill

Politics

19 h. ago Why South Korea’s Gen Z are falling prey to the scam gangs of Southeast Asia

A growing number of young South Koreans are vanishing into Southeast Asia’s criminal underworld, lured by the promise of high-paying jobs – only to end up trafficked, tortured or killed. Many, fleeing a stagnant labour market at home, are being deceived by transnational crime syndicates into running online scams and illegal gambling operations. Others join willingly in search of easy money. But all eventually find themselves exploited, victims of criminal enterprises that span the lawless border...

Events

52 h. ago Hong Kong woman, 81, loses HK$5 million to romance scammer posing as PLA officer

An 81-year-old woman in Hong Kong has lost more than HK$5 million after falling victim to an elaborate online romance scam involving a fraudster who posed as a People’s Liberation Army (PLA) officer from mainland China. In a post on its CyberDefender social media page on Monday, police said the woman received a WhatsApp message from a man who claimed to be a PLA officer and invited her to visit a military camp. They quickly built an online romantic relationship through frequent affectionate...

Economics

5 d. ago Kidnapped, trapped, forced to scam: inside Cambodia’s Chinese

Rows of grey buildings with thick iron bars line the streets of Sihanoukville, about 250km (155 miles) southwest of Phnom Penh. Near the city’s Chinatown stands Cambodia’s largest so-called yuanqu – a slang term in Chinese criminal circles meaning “scam compound”, derived from yuanqu, or industrial estate. Inside these complexes, online crimes such as voice phishing and romance scams are part of daily life. Young people from South Korea and other countries are kidnapped or lured by Chinese-run...

Events

8 d. ago UK and US sanction Southeast Asian scam networks exploiting trafficked workers

Britain and the United States on Tuesday sanctioned a Southeast Asia-based multinational network accused of operating large-scale online “scam centres” that used trafficked workers to defraud victims around the world. The British government said the centres, located in Cambodia, Myanmar and across the region, used fake job adverts to lure workers who were then forced to commit online fraud under threat of torture. This included luring victims into fake romantic relationships before persuading...

Politics

2 w. ago South Korean celebrities lose millions to online fraud as scams get smarter

As South Korea steps up efforts to protect its citizens from online fraud, celebrities in the country are warning against increasingly sophisticated phishing and phone scams by relating their personal encounters with such cases. Entertainer Ji Seok-jin said one of his celebrity acquaintances lost 300 million won (US$213,000) to a voice phishing scam, The Korea Times newspaper reported on Thursday. “They’re very smart, but they were told to click a website link – and once they did, it looked...

Politics

3 w. ago Singapore gives Meta deadline to fight scams as US$776,400 fine looms

The Singapore government has ordered Meta to put in place measures such as facial recognition to curb Facebook impersonation scams in the first such directive under the Online Criminal Harms Act (OCHA). Meta, the parent company of Facebook, has until September 30 to comply. Apart from implementing enhanced facial recognition measures, it is also required to prioritise the review of end-user reports from Singapore to reduce scam advertisements, accounts, profiles and/or business pages...

Events