Self-Proclaimed Vigilante Hacker Casts Light on Chinese Criminals’ Global Cyber Scamming Sweatshops

How do cyber scam operations work? What kinds of tools and technology do criminals use to achieve their goals? And why do telecom fraud cases seem unstoppable?

In the past three years, cyber scam operations run by Chinese criminal groups have proliferated rapidly in China’s neighboring countries in Southeast Asia. These criminal groups have targeted not only Chinese-speaking victims in China and overseas but also English-speaking victims worldwide. In particular, organized Chinese criminal groups operating on the Thai-Myanmar border have become a global security menace, “threatening internet users worldwide with online scams and financial fraud, using trafficked ‘cyber slaves’ to carry out their crimes,” according to a June 2023 report by the United States Institute of Peace. A recent United Nations report pointed out criminal collectives have coerced hundreds of thousands of individuals in Southeast Asia into participating in unlawful online scams. These fraudulent activities include false romantic ploys, bogus investment pitches and illegal gambling schemes.

The Chinese government has worked with counterparts in Thailand, Myanmar and Laos …