A large part of the cyber fraud originated in Southeast Asia, according to the Home Ministry
Indians lost about $820 million to online scams in the first five months of 2025, the Indian Express newspaper has said, citing a report for the country’s Home Ministry.
More than half the money was lost to scammers based in Cambodia, Myanmar, Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand, according to the report.
Data from the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Center, a Home Ministry unit, revealed that the online scams originate from high-security locations, believed to be controlled by Chinese operators.
The scam centers coerce trafficked individuals, including Indians, to target unsuspecting individuals, according to the Indian Express.
An Indian government source told the newspaper that the Foreign Ministry recently organized a meeting with Cambodian officials in New Delhi to discuss an action plan to combat the menace. The Cambodians reportedly requested that India provide the exact geographical coordinates of the scam centers operating in the Southeast Asian country, so that they could take action.
In March, New Delhi repatriated 549 Indian citizens who had been rescued from cyber-crime centers located along the Myanmar-Thailand border. Indians, along with citizens of other Asian and African countries, were lured to Thailand or Myanmar with fake information technology job offers, only to be trafficked to cyber-crime centers in Myanmar’s ungoverned border areas.
“With the help of intelligence agencies and testimonies of rescued people, the Indian government has identified at least 45 such scam compounds in Cambodia, five in Laos, and one in Myanmar,” an Indian government official told the Indian Express.
This issue first came to light in September 2024, when media reports stated that thousands of Indians were trapped in several Southeast Asian countries where they were forced to work as “cyber slaves.”
