Reuters uses illustrations to tell the story of Oly, an IT consultant who flew from Ethiopia to Thailand to meet a friend for a few days. He was trapped in Southeast Asia for five months.

ASPI | In a new report, the Australian Strategic Policy Institute outlines what’s happening as Myanmar becomes a haven for transnational organized crime groups.

The Guardian | Operated by crime syndicates and fostered by the military junta, the number of massive scam complexes on the Thai-Myanmar border has doubled since 2021.

Whale Hunting | Trafficked workers in Southeast-Asian compounds run crypto scams to siphon billions. Operation Shamrock is prying open the ‘pig-butchering’ machine — and fighting to free victims.

Verso Books | Based on years of field research, Scam provides a probing investigation of Southeast Asia’s online scam industry, told through the voices of survivors.

Reuters | Lured to Cambodia and forced to defraud strangers online, a Thai teenager said he barely survived after jumping from an eighth-floor window to escape a prison-like compound.

Amnesty International | The Cambodian government is ignoring abuses carried out by criminal gangs in more than 50 scam compounds across the country.

Amnesty International | A detailed report documenting the alarming human rights crisis in Cambodia, identifying at least 53 scam compounds where rights abuses have taken place.

The Times | Trafficked by a Chinese crime gang, Mustapha Momoh was held in southeast Asia — one of 375,000 similar people forced to con westerners out of their life savings.

VARINDIA | India and Thailand held talks to address growing concerns around cross-border cybercrime, online scam networks, and human trafficking in Southeast Asia.

The Economist | This award-winning podcast takes a deep dive into the multibillion-dollar scam industry. It’s just getting started, but set to become much more powerful.