The UN records explosive growth of the scam economy: losses in 2025 exceeded $114 billion, and cryptocurrencies have become its lifeblood.
The scale of organized cybercrime in the Asia-Pacific region has taken on truly alarming proportions. According to a recent analysis, the total damage from scam operations in East and Southeast Asia, as well as Australia and New Zealand, for 2025 is estimated to range between $88.3 and $114.1 billion. These figures are not just statistics, but a reflection of a systemic transformation of the criminal world.
It is important to understand that this is a conservative estimate. The methodology accounts not only for officially recorded losses, but also for a significant "gray" sector — victims who, for various reasons, do not contact law enforcement agencies. For comparison: in 2023, the same indicator was $18–37 billion. Thus, in just two years, the volume of losses has roughly tripled, demonstrating an exponential increase in the effectiveness of criminal schemes.
Among the countries that suffered the largest officially documented losses in 2024–2025, China leads ($5.1 billion), followed by the Republic of Korea ($3.5 billion) and Taiwan ($2.8 billion). However, the real figures, as we understand, could be significantly higher.
A New Type of Criminal Economy: From Syndicates to "Franchising"
We are witnessing not just an increase in the number of frauds, but a fundamental restructuring of the entire regional criminal economy. Disparate groups have transformed into a cross-border network with a unified infrastructure. This network combines fraud, money laundering, human trafficking, and the illegal smuggling of migrants. The operational model of these groups increasingly resembles corporate franchising: there are "specialized departments" for money laundering, data collection, and logistics, all connected to a single interconnected service network.
Cryptocurrencies: The Financial Highway for Criminals
The role of digital assets deserves special attention. Cryptocurrencies, and primarily the USDT stablecoin on the TRON blockchain, have become the primary settlement infrastructure for this shadow economy. This combination has created a parallel financial system, enabling almost instantaneous, cheap, and pseudonymous cross-border transfers.
Criminal groups actively use P2P platforms and over-the-counter (OTC) brokers to convert fiat money into stablecoins and back, effectively bypassing banking controls. As I have repeatedly noted in my analyses, it is precisely the anonymity and speed of transactions on networks like TRON that make them an ideal tool for laundering proceeds from scams. While law enforcement learns to track these flows, criminals have already built a multi-billion dollar financial ecosystem that operates 24/7.
Technology in the Service of Evil: AI and Satellites
Criminal syndicates are actively adopting the most modern technologies. Generative AI and deepfakes are used to create convincing phishing attacks, clone voices, and generate real-time video. This lowers the barrier to entry for smaller groups, allowing them to carry out complex, multi-step operations. Additionally, a 42% increase has been recorded in the use of legitimate advertising networks to distribute malware.
Separately, the use of satellite internet, particularly Starlink, should be noted. This legal infrastructure allows attackers to operate in remote regions without relying on local telecom operators, making them practically immune to physical pursuit.
My expert conclusion: We are on the threshold of a new era of cybercrime, where cross-border syndicates, in their organization and technological sophistication, resemble large corporations. Simple measures like blocking individual platforms or arresting "pawns" no longer work. Without global coordination among law enforcement agencies and the implementation of advanced blockchain analysis methods, this shadow economy will only grow, turning cryptocurrencies from a tool of financial freedom into the main lever of digital slavery.