Inside a romance scam compound—and how people get tricked into being there
1 min read
Summary
Online scams offering get-rich-quick cryptocurrency investments, often using approaches such as romantic groomers, have grown into multi-billion dollar criminal industries.
Several countries in Southeast Asia are singled out by experts as being key hubs for these activities, which are run by powerful crime syndicates.
Intelligence agencies and law enforcement agencies have struggled to curb the scams, which rely on anonymous cryptocurrencies and messaging services.
Many of the victims, who have lost billions of dollars, have been deliberately targeted after being groomed on social media and dating apps.
But the scrutiny of these operations has also increased, and private and public pressure is mounting on Big Tech companies to stop allowing their platforms and technologies to be used in this way.
This pressure could, in turn, exploit vulnerabilities in the syndicates’ business models and supply chains—and help the victims.