The Australian Federal Police (AFP) has teamed up with law enforcement partners from Southeast Asia, Australia, and Qatar to tackle a growing cybercrime threat in the region — including a disturbing trend where victims are trafficked, coerced, and forced to work as elite scammers.
At the Cybercrime Leaders Working Group (CLWG) conference held in Cebu, Philippines, in May 2025, leaders from Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Australia, and Qatar gathered to strengthen cross-border cooperation against cybercrime.
This year’s theme, “Collaborating across borders: strengthening regional efforts against cybercrime,” emphasised the urgent need for unified responses to increasingly complex cyber threats.
A key focus was on the rise of ‘forced cybercrime’, where victims are trapped in debt bondage and brutalised into working scam operations, known as ‘boiler rooms,’ run by transnational criminal syndicates.
Two Indonesian victims, speaking under disguise and pseudonyms for safety, shared harrowing accounts of being trafficked and forced into scam centres in Thailand, Vietnam, and Myanmar.
The conference also addressed emerging trends such as ransomware groups and criminals’ exploitation of artificial intelligence for cybercrime.
AFP Assistant Commissioner Richard Chin, who attended the event, highlighted the critical role of intelligence sharing and cooperation in disrupting these criminal networks.
“Hearing from the brave victims gave law enforcement vital insight into the human cost and complexity behind forced cybercrime operations.”
The forum was officially opened by Australia’s Ambassador to the Philippines, Her Excellency HK Yu, alongside Judge Jaime Santiago, Director of the Philippines National Bureau of Investigation, and Undersecretary Gilberto Cruz from the Presidential Anti-Organised Crime Commission.
Her Excellency Yu stressed the importance of international collaboration, saying,
“By sharing best practice, we can help each other strengthen our systems and processes.”
Judge Santiago noted the forum reaffirmed “the critical role of international collaboration in combatting transnational cyber threats,” while Undersecretary Cruz pointed to initiatives like Operation Firestorm and the National Anti-Scam Centre as examples of ongoing efforts.
Southeast Asia has become a global hotspot for cyber-enabled scam networks targeting Australians. In 2024, Scamwatch received nearly 250,000 scam reports from Australians, with losses topping $318 million.
Since launching Operation Firestorm in August 2024, the AFP has supported the shutdown of three scam centres in Manila, resulting in hundreds of arrests and seizures of thousands of digital devices.
Assistant Commissioner Chin said,
“The AFP will continue working with international partners to disrupt cybercriminals wherever they operate. Cybercrime knows no borders, and neither should our efforts to fight it.”
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