Unmasking Fraud Networks in APAC Ahead of the Threat Curve

Scam compounds are a growing threat that we can no longer ignore. They operate on a large scale, using organized efforts to recruit people and exploiting sophisticated telecoms infrastructure and online tools to run global fraud operations. In the APAC region, we face individual scammers or simple phishing attempts just as much as complex fraudulent schemes. These schemes involve recruitment, operations, technology misuse, and money laundering, all designed to maximize losses and cover up the wrongdoing. Our top priority must be to identify and dismantle these compounds before they escalate.

As I’ve observed recently, the language we use shapes our response. Calling a compound a “scam house” is not a soft euphemism—it’s a sign to investigators and compliance teams that they’re looking at organized fraud, not isolated consumer loss. Every stage, from recruitment to laundering, is part of one criminal architecture. And until we start viewing it that way, we’ll always be reacting after the damage is done.

What a “scam compound” looks like 

First, we need to understand what a scam compound is. It’s a cluster of capabilities and actors working together like a factory line:

• Recruitment hubs: job ads, social channels, and “work-from-home” posts that feed a steady stream of coerced or complicit workers.
• Digital ops: cloned apps, fake exchanges, and AI-assisted social engineering that increase trust exploitation.
• Financial plumbing: rapid layering across wallets, mobile payments, and cross-border accounts that makes tracking and recovery hard.
• Physical control: guarded compounds or campus-style facilities where staff are isolated and operations can run uninterrupted.

This is not accidental. Multiple recent investigations have shown that these centers operate at scale across Southeast Asia and beyond. Authorities have linked more than 100 such places to transnational fraud rings and large-scale human exploitation.

How fraud compounds exploit the APAC environment

Fraud compounds thrive in APAC because the environment gives them everything they need to grow: fast digital adoption, uneven regulation, and widespread human exploitation. In Southeast and South Asia, mobile-first economies have brought millions online in just a few years. With that speed comes vulnerability—fraudsters exploit frictionless mobile wallets, social commerce platforms, and cross-border payment rails to move money invisibly.

Different countries apply different standards to money laundering controls, which creates safe spaces for dubious businesses. An organization may establish itself in a jurisdiction with weaker safeguards and then route its proceeds through another jurisdiction with stricter regulations to give its activities an appearance of legitimacy. Add to this the darker side of recruitment—human trafficking and forced labor—and the picture becomes even more alarming. 

Many of these fraud schemes trick or pressure workers into ongoing scams. This mix of online opportunities, lack of regulations, and exploitation allows these scams to grow faster than most governments or banks can respond.

Tactical signals compliance teams should hunt for

Fraud compounds don’t appear and disappear out of thin air; they leave behind traces of their crime. Digital fingerprints, transactional echoes, and behavioral anomalies that, when pieced together, tell the story of a coordinated operation. Yet, too often, compliance teams focus on single-account irregularities instead of the broader pattern that reveals networked fraud. 

To stay ahead of that threat curve, investigators must learn to think in clusters, not cases. They need to be spotting what connects individual alerts and the larger compound machinery behind them. These are the signals worth tracking:

1. High referral or commission structures tied to an individual recruiter or group, common in pyramid-style onboarding, which is typical in operations that rely on complex network connections.
2. Groups of new accounts and wallets are exchanging funds in a closed loop, which shows that there are internal transfers happening between entities controlled by a compound.
3. Rapid conversion between fiat and crypto with short holding periods and multiple micro-transfers designed to hide money flows.
4. KYC anomalies that are geographically tied to known compound hotspots or reveal unlikely employment and address overlaps.
5. Repeated chargebacks or consumer complaints that describe identical scam scripts are a red flag and can mean that these “isolated” victims may be part of a coordinated fraud campaign.

How to stay ahead of the curve: Policy and operational priorities

APAC needs to follow the example of countries’ governments worldwide that are hard at work putting a stop to organized scam networks. Singapore, the UK, the US, Australia, and others have been striking these fraud networks hard in the past few months.

1. Treat “scam” as organized fraud. Language influences the general response. If you label it “consumer scam,” you will very likely apply consumer-remedy processes. Label it “organized fraud/scam compound” and you will trigger cross-border law enforcement, specialised investigations, and human-trafficking interventions.

2. Build network-aware KYC/KYB. Shift from checking individual customers to examining networks: identify groups of connections, relationship maps, and recurring referral paths that indicate coordinated actions. Use machine learning models to focus on patterns rather than just issues with single accounts.

3. Regional data-sharing and hotlines. Compounds work across borders; so must we. Create shared indicators to identify security threats, establish quick communication channels for financial intelligence units, and form joint investigative teams across APAC. The recent multi-jurisdiction enforcement actions show just how much is possible when agencies cooperate.

4. Use technology to enhance detection, but also rely on human experts. Apply AI to find suspicious patterns, and have AML specialists review the results. These specialists understand local behaviors, language differences, and the impact of human exploitation. I highly support this combined approach: use technology to increase detection and let experts validate and respond to the findings.

Behind the cases: The Golden Triangle scam compounds

It’s crucial to see how these types of networks work in real life, so that we can avoid being blind to them in the future. In one of the biggest recent cases, in 2024, authorities uncovered sprawling scam compounds in Myanmar’s Golden Triangle, where tens of thousands of trafficked workers were forced to run online fraud schemes targeting victims worldwide. According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, such scam centers recruit vulnerable individuals with false job promises, then force them to operate from compounds running “pig-butchering” style investment scams and romance frauds targeting victims worldwide. 

Protected by local militias, the compounds combined call-centre-style operations with digital laundering infrastructure—a complete fraud ecosystem in one place. For compliance teams, the case is a warning shot: these aren’t isolated scams but vertically integrated fraud factories that blur the line between financial crime and human exploitation.

Suggested listen: Pig Butchering: Inside the Billion-Dollar Scam Factories 

“Ahead of the curve” means thinking in compounds

Fraud in the APAC region has irrevocably changed from simple scams to more complex organizations that combine human exploitation, technology misuse, and cross-border money laundering. If we continue to view these operations as just isolated scams targeting consumers, we will always be behind. Instead, we need to recognize them as networks, track them down, share information across countries, and combine technology with skilled human investigation.

Let’s blast the compounds—not with rhetoric, but by building the network maps, tools, and partnerships that make these operations unsustainable. The region can win this fight, but only if we start thinking AND acting in compounds.

Meet Hemanshu Parekh at the WTF Summit 2025 this November in Singapore, where he’ll dive deeper into APAC’s fight against organized fraud networks and the strategies that can keep compliance teams ahead of the threat.

_{The views, analyses, and interpretations presented in this article are solely those of the author writing in a personal capacity. They do not represent the positions or opinions of any organizations the author is or has been affiliated with. This analysis is based on publicly available information and is intended for general informational purposes only.}