Governments Across Southeast Asia are Committed to Combatting the Rise of AI-Related Scams
On September 8, the U.S. Department of Treasury announced new sanctions on scam centers based in Southeast Asia, citing concerns 66 percent increase in the number of scams originating from the region from 2023 to 2024. In 2024 alone, scams originating from Southeast Asia were estimated to have cost Americans over US$10 billion. In Southeast Asia, 63% of adults experienced a scam within the past year, leading to US$23.6 billion in financial losses.
During the 19th ASEAN Ministerial Meeting on Transnational Crime in September, ASEAN Member States adopted the ASEAN Declaration on Combating Cybercrime and Online Scams and ASEAN Plan of Action (2026-2035). Under the ASEAN Digital Senior Officials track, Thailand also led the establishment of the ASEAN Working Group on Anti-Online Scams in 2024, highlighting growing efforts to establish regional coordination mechanisms. Singapore is also expected to spearhead efforts to organize an ASEAN Task Force to support cross-border operations among law enforcement agencies to dismantle scam operations. In August, the Council helped facilitate a regional workshop to discuss actionable steps to address this growing concern. Looking towards 2026, the Council is exploring opportunities to organize additional capacity-building efforts to support efforts to combat scams.