Cybercrime is big business in Asia, and AI could be about to make things worse

Southeast Asia has become a global epicenter of cyber scams, where high-tech fraud meets human trafficking. In countries like Cambodia and Myanmar, criminal syndicates run industrial-scale “pig butchering” operations—scam centers staffed by trafficked workers forced to con victims in wealthier markets like Singapore and Hong Kong. 

The scale is staggering: one UN estimate pegs global losses from these schemes at $37 billion. And it could soon get worse.

The rise of cybercrime...