Why It Matters
Americans lost an estimated $12.5 billion in 2025 to online scam centers operating from Southeast Asia, and the problem is growing, according to a new Congressional Research Service (CRS) report. The Federal Bureau of Investigation estimated that Americans lost approximately $17.7 billion to cyber-enabled fraud overall in 2025, a 26 percent increase from 2024, with cryptocurrency investment scams accounting for $7.2 billion of that total.
The CRS report says targeted enforcement has forced scam operations to adapt, disperse, or relocate, while noting it is unclear whether recent actions will lead to a long-term degradation of scam operations in the region. The illicit nature of these operations and widespread underreporting by victims make the true scale of losses difficult to measure.
The Big Picture
The scam centers, concentrated in Burma (Myanmar), Cambodia, and Laos, are operated by actors including criminal syndicates linked to the People's Republic of China, local criminal groups, ethnic armed organizations in Burma, and political and business elites in Cambodia. The report says the United Nations estimated the scam workforce at as many as 300,000 people from 66 countries in early 2025, that many workers were lured by fraudulent job offers and are frequently held against their will, and that victims may face punishment for missing quotas. Some observers have reported that the International Organization for Migration and similar groups have faced funding constraints exacerbated by U.S. foreign assistance cuts since 2025, complicating support for survivors.
The Trump administration's central enforcement tool is the Scam Center Strike Force (SCSF), created in November 2025 and headed by U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro, which the report says had "restrained" more than $938 million in cryptocurrency as of Sept. 15. Other actions include Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctions on Cambodian Senator Kok An, a $10 million reward offer, a Dubai takedown in April resulting in at least 276 arrests, and Executive Order 14390 signed March 6 that directs multiple agencies to develop an action plan against responsible transnational criminal organizations.
In the 119th Congress, members have introduced several bills, including the Dismantle Foreign Scam Syndicates Act (H.R. 5490) and the Scam Compound Accountability and Mobilization Act (S. 2950), which would require interagency task forces, government-wide strategies, and expanded sanctions authorities. On Sept. 15, House Foreign Affairs Chairman Brian Mast and Select Committee Chairman John Moolenaar wrote to the secretaries of State and Treasury requesting investigations and, where statutory criteria are met, sanctions on 26 individuals and two companies.
The Bottom Line
The unresolved question is whether the SCSF's enforcement-and-sanctions model can produce lasting disruption of a networked system that spans multiple jurisdictions, involves complicit officials, and has relocated when pressured. The Senate has not yet considered the fiscal year 2027 appropriations bill, for which the House report recommends at least $10 million for combating Southeast Asian scam centers.
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