KHOU-11 | Thirteen people have been charged in an elder fraud scheme targeting more than 400 seniors through fake “grandparent” calls from the Dominican Republic.

CubaHeadlines | Using a “SIM swap,” scammers impersonated the victim, transferred her phone number and data to a new phone, and stole over $17,000 in less than a day.

FightCybercrime.org | The casual conversations from friendly new contacts online or the wrong-number texts aren’t casual at all. They’re calculated to manipulate.

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.

NBC6 South Florida | The scam begins when someone fraudulently takes over your cell phone account. And it takes scammers only minutes to drain your bank accounts.

The Wall Street Journal | Investment scams are global operations. Americans want banks to do more to prevent them. Pressure is spreading to telecoms and social media, where scammers find their marks.

ABC News | Cambodia has intensified its crackdown on online scam centers, arresting nearly 5,000 suspects so far this year.

WCSC Live 5 News | Crypto ATM kiosks allow people to put cash into the machine and receive some kind of cryptocurrency. But they’re used for fraud 99.5% of the time.

A member of the Crypto Coalition, Brooklyn Park Sgt. Tuzinski found scripts that scammers use to trick victims. He shared them with NBC KARE 11 News to highlight red flags.

The Hollywood Reporter | Victims think they’re talking to Keanu Reeves. Or Kevin Costner. Then come pleas for cash. The AI-fueled con that fleeces fans and has Hollywood fighting back.

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.

ProPublica | Asian crime syndicates’ online scams cheat victims around the world out of more than $44 billion a year. U.S. banks have been unable to stop them.

Wired | Last month, Telegram banned black markets that sold tens of billions of dollars in crypto-scam-related services. Now, as those markets rebrand and bounce back, it’s done nothing to stop them.

FrankonFraud | Racks hold thousands of smartphones automated to imitate humans: liking posts, following accounts, watching video — seeding misinformation and scaling scams.

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.

Forbes | What to watch out for to avoid being lured into scams. The key: Don’t respond or send money to random people who contact you online, no matter how good their story.

American Banker | Unlike fraud schemes where criminals gain unauthorized access to funds, scams often involve victims being manipulated into willingly initiating transactions themselves.

BioCatch | AARP, Amazon, Google, and Walmart have launched the National Elder Fraud Coordination Center (NEFCC) nonprofit to help protect older adults.

Channel News Asia | While Starlink could deliver better internet to remote and disaster-hit communities, experts say it poses challenges for regional governments, experts say.

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

New York Post | A Cambodia-based gang with ties to North Korea has stolen billions of dollars from Americans through romance scams and other cyber-heists, according to federal officials.

The Big Trace | The Philippines offers a glimmer of hope that Southeast Asia's scam industry isn’t destined for a future of unchecked growth.

NBC News | A new report from the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center illustrates how cybercrime is a growing problem, with older Americans hit particularly hard.

WIRED | Millions of scam text messages are sent monthly. The Chinese cybercriminals sending them are expanding their operations — and innovating quickly.

New York Times |  Governments and law enforcement face a complex, ever-evolving, and shape-shifting web of connections, preventing them from stopping the criminal organizations behind it all.

The Big Trace | Heavy construction, military deployments, international airlifts and other take-aways from a recent visit to a global scamming hotspot.

WIRED | A investigation reveals that criminals who make billions from scam compounds in Myanmar—where tens of thousands of people are enslaved—are using Starlink to get online.

The Economist | Online scamming compares in size and scope to the illegal drug industry. In many ways it is worse. Everyone becomes a potential target simply by going about their lives. [paywall]

WIRED | Romance scams cost victims billions every year. As people grow increasingly isolated, scammers are using generative AI to scale their crimes.