The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control today implemented sanctions against a network of alleged Southeast Asian scam centers that steal billions of dollars from U.S. residents using forced labor and violence. The sanctions include nine targets operating in Shwe Kokko, Burma, and 10 targets based in Cambodia.
Transnational criminal organizations based in Southeast Asia are increasingly targeting Americans through large-scale cyber scam operations, such as romance scams, according to OFAC. Often, individuals are lured into the centers under false pretenses and then forced to perpetrate scams through the use of debt bondage, violence and the threat of forced prostitution.
“Southeast Asia’s cyber scam industry not only threatens the well-being and financial security of Americans, but also subjects thousands of people to modern slavery,” said Undersecretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence John Hurley.
