Scam compounds in Southeast Asia have become infamous for “pig-butchering” scams that have conned people out of billions of dollars.Photo Illustration: WIRED Staff/Getty Images
Over the last decade, organized crime gangs working out of Southeast Asia have scammed people out of billions of dollars. Operating giant scam compounds—where experts estimate around 200,000 victims of human trafficking have been forced to run scams 24-hours a day—the criminal enterprises have used an array of romance, cryptocurrency investment, and impersonation fraud to target thousands of people around the world. Now new research reveals that the already chilling scam compounds may have an even darker underbelly.
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