Trump targets Asian cyber fraud centers that have had billions of rands

The US has set sanctions on a network of cyber fraud centers operating in Southeast Asia, an attempt to raise the pressure on the operations allegedly forced labor to increase billions of Americans annually. The Treasury Division’s actions, which were announced on Monday, targets nine entities in Myanmar that it works according to the protection of the already sanctioned Karen National Army, as well as 10 in Cambodia, where the US says workers are forced to perform virtual investment visits. “Southeast Asia’s cyber fraud industry not only threatens the well-being and financial safety of Americans, but also subjects thousands of people to modern slavery,” John Hurley, the Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, said in a news release. “Treasury will use the full weight of its instruments to combat organized financial crime and protect Americans from the extensive damage that these scams can cause.” The Treasury division says Americans lost more than $ 10 billion last year due to Southeast Asia-based scams. The move is the latest in a series of action by US President Donald Trump’s administration to target what it calls an increase in large-scale cyber fraud distributed in Southeast Asia. According to the US Treasury division, job seekers are often attracted to the labor camps under false pretenses and then forced under threat of violence to carry out online fraud campaigns. “The use of debt context, violence and the threat of forced prostitution, forcing the scam operators individuals to cheat strangers online using messages or by SMS messages directly to a potential victim’s phone,” Treasury said. In recent months, the operations, which have grown in the midst of the pandemic, have attracted increasing attention to a series of oppression in the region, with thousands. However, human rights advocate the Cambodian government because they no longer did, while Amnesty International accused the authorities in Phnom Penh in June of deliberately “linking” human rights abuse to the scam. Although the individual scams may vary, they have a common goal, with the aim of making victims of financial savings. Initial approaches can through text or direct messages – and even calls to a suspected wrong number – but can quickly escalate, with targets encouraged to share distance access to their electronic devices and install software. In one practice that is colorful known as “pork tail”, the offenders try to persuade targets to invest in virtual currencies or other fraudulent investments, thereby causing the potential pull – and damaging. © 2025 Bloomberg MP This article was generated from an automatic news agency feed without edits to text.