According to the United Nations, an estimated 200,000 people have been trafficked into cyber scam centers where they’re forced to commit fraud schemes, causing billions of dollars in losses worldwide. Fraud Magazine talks to experts fighting on
the frontlines against forced criminality about what it will take to disrupt these cyber scam operations and what fraud examiners can do to help.
Cambodian businessman Ly Yong Phat holds the title of “Neak Oknha,” which means “lord” or “nobleman.” It’s a title granted by royal decree to Cambodian citizens who’ve contributed at least $500,000 to the government. He’s a senator with the ruling
Cambodian People’s Party and considered one of the richest men in the country. And, in September, the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) sanctioned Ly, his conglomerate L.Y.P. Group Co. LTD, and his casino, O-Smach
Resort, for human rights abuses related to workers who’ve been trafficked and forced to commit cyber scams at the resort. (See “Cambodia Takes a Look at Royal ‘Oknha’ Nobleman Titles After Scandals,”
Radio Free Asia, May 21, 2021; “Cambodia
decries US sanctions against one of its top tycoons implicated in forced labor,” by Sopheng Cheang and Grant Peck, Associated Press, Sept. 13, 2024; and “US sanctions powerful Cambodian tycoon over alleged human rights abuses in scam
operations,” by Will Jackson, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Sept. 13, 2024.)
Situated in northwest Cambodia along the border of Thailand, O-Smach Resort, a tourist destination before the COVID-19 pandemic, has since been transformed into a cyber-scamming compound allegedly run by an organized criminal gang. Local authorities
had investigated it for two years and made repeated rescue missions, freeing people who’d been trafficked there from China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. The victims say they were lured there with fake job opportunities,
but upon arrival, their phones and passports were confiscated, and they were forced to conduct cryptocurrency investment scams. People reported being beaten, tortured with electric shocks, threatened with being sold to other online scam gangs
and made to pay ransoms to secure their freedom. According to OFAC, victims have jumped to their deaths from the resort’s buildings to escape what many anti-human trafficking experts call “forced criminality.” (See “Treasury Sanctions Cambodian Tycoon and Businesses Linked to Human Trafficking and Forced Labor in Furtherance of Cyber and Virtual Currency Scams” and “US sanctions
powerful Cambodian tycoon over alleged human rights abuses in scam operations.”)
The sanctions against Ly come on the heels of a recent U.S. State Department report about Cambodia, accusing government officials of complicity in trafficking and owning the facilities used by scam operators. The Cambodian government denounced the
sanctions against Ly and praised him for advancing the socioeconomic development of the country and its nearly 17 million people. (See “Cambodia
decries US sanctions against one of its top tycoons implicated in forced labor” and “2024 Trafficking in Persons Report: Cambodia,” U.S. Department of State.)
OFAC’s sanctions against Ly block his assets in the U.S. and prohibit U.S. entities from doing business with him, which could cut off his access to the global financial system since so many international transactions use U.S. currency. (See “U.S. Treasury Sanctions Cambodian Tycoon With Ties
to Pig Butchering Scams,” by Cheyenne Ligon, CoinDesk, Sept. 17, 2024.)
Yet while U.S. sanctions could financially hobble the Cambodian business tycoon on an international level, it’s unclear what they’ll mean for the estimated 100,000 people who, according to the United Nations, have reportedly been trafficked to commit
cyber scams in his country. “While historic and bold, an isolated sanction against a powerful bad actor is unlikely to materially shift the incentives guiding Cambodia’s state-affiliated transnational crime industries,” Jacob Sims writes in a
Sept. 13 article for The Diplomat. “There are many, many more actors who also merit sanctions.” (See “Hundreds of thousands trafficked into online criminality across
SE Asia,” United Nations, Aug. 29, 2023 and “The Sanctioning of Ly Yong Phat: Milestone or Mirage?”)
Sanctions are just one method that governments have applied in recent years against individuals connected to cyber scam centers, but anti-human trafficking and anti-fraud experts say that so much more is required to address the threat. Fraud Magazine talks to some of those experts about the prevention and detection methods that could interrupt cyber scam operations — and, yes, fraud examiners and their expertise are needed in these efforts. But first, we’ll trace the development of cyber scam
centers like O-Smach Resort, the scams that trafficked individuals are forced to commit within them and the outsized role that cryptocurrencies play in those operations.
A worldwide, multibillion-dollar industry
Last year, the United Nations released a staggering report — more than 120,000 people in Myanmar, and another 100,000 in Cambodia “may be held in situations where they are forced to execute lucrative online scams — from illegal gambling to crypto
fraud.” Southeast Asian countries such as Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand and the Philippines are considered the epicenter of the forced criminality trade that’s fueling a multibillion-dollar industry of cyberfraud, draining victims across the
globe of their life savings. Transnational organized crime groups run these operations, using online casinos and cryptocurrency exchanges to launder money. (See “Hundreds of thousands trafficked into online criminality across SE Asia”
and “Cyberfraud syndicates observed deploying new tech and expanding capabilities amidst shifting threat landscape in Southeast
Asia, officials warn,” United Nations, UNODC Regional Office for Southeast Asia and the Pacific, Aug. 6, 2024.)
International peace and conflict resolution organization, the United States Institute for Peace (USIP), estimates that scamming compounds in Southeast Asia stole $64 billion from people worldwide in 2023; the organization calls that a conservative
figure. According to USIP, cyber scamming exceeds $12.5 billion annually in Cambodia — half the country’s GDP. (See “Scamming Compounds in SE Asia Stole $64 Billion in 2023: Report,”
by Jim Pollard, Asia Financial, June 7, 2024 and “Cyber Scamming as a New Destination for Human Trafficking Victims,” by Lauren Burke Preputnik, Liam Hamama and Marti Flacks, Center for
Strategic & International Studies, Aug. 17, 2023.)
However, international crime-fighting organization, Interpol, is less circumspect in its estimate. According to Interpol, criminal gangs are pulling in profits of $3 trillion a year from cyberfraud. “Driven by online anonymity, inspired by new business
models and accelerated by COVID, these organized crime groups are now working at a scale that was unimaginable a decade ago,” Interpol Secretary-General Jurgen Stock said during a briefing in March. (See “Gangs netting up to $3 trillion a year as Southeast Asia human trafficking becomes a global crisis, Interpol says,” by Kathleen Magramo, CNN, March 28, 2024.)
While Southeast Asia has been a central focus of cyber-scamming operations, anti-human trafficking activists are sounding the alarm that criminal gangs are branching out and that their operations have been found in other regions of the world. Cyber-scamming
groups have been identified in Latin America, West Africa and even the U.S. “It’s not just Myanmar; it’s not just Cambodia. They’re all over now,” Ian Mitchell tells Fraud Magazine. Mitchell is founder and board chairman of The Knoble,
an alliance of financial service professionals, law enforcement, regulators and nongovernmental organizations fighting against human trafficking. (See “Treasury Sanctions Cartel Accountants, Announces Joint Notice on Timeshare Fraud in Mexico,”
U.S. Department of the Treasury press release, July 16, 2024; “West African Crime Syndicate Taken Down by Interpol Operation,” by Dark Reading Staff, Dark Reading, July 17, 2024; and “Dozens Arrested Over Texas Dark Web Fraud Scheme,” by Anezka Pichrtova, Newsweek, Aug. 9, 2024.)
Human trafficking has long been a profitable venture for organized crime. Defined by the U.S. State Department as the exploitation of adults or children by recruiting and compelling them to perform labor or sex work, human trafficking is also used
in numerous industries — agriculture, fishing, domestic work, construction, etc. But trafficking people to commit fraud is a new phenomenon, and one that emerged with the COVID-19 pandemic. Corruption, loose regulations, wars, and a lack of resources
and awareness from the public at large keep the forced-criminality trade going strong. (See “2024 Trafficking in Persons Report,” U.S. Department of State.)
The growth of an industry
According to USIP, the seeds of cyber-scamming operations in Southeast Asia began in the 1990s and 2000s with the establishment of lightly regulated casinos and online gambling operations in vacation towns and “special economic zones”— areas designated
for investment and economic growth with highly favorable business regulations. Many governments in the region viewed these casinos favorably as contributors to economic development. They attracted tourism, especially from Chinese nationals as
gambling is illegal in China. But along with tourism came organized criminal gangs, many of them Chinese, who saw these casinos as an excellent opportunity for their own economic growth. (See “Transnational Crime in Southeast Asia: A
Growing Threat to Global Peace and Security,” by USIP Senior Study Group on Transnational Organized Crime in Southeast Asia, May 13, 2024.) The cyber-scamming industry — and human trafficking for it — emerged as the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020.
Empty hotels and casinos offered the perfect opportunity for criminal gangs to fill them with a new business venture — cyberfraud. But of course, as there were no longer people around to voluntarily participate in cyber scams, criminals would
need to get workers from somewhere. They chose human trafficking of foreign nationals and forced criminality to accomplish their goals. (See “Transnational Crime in Southeast Asia: A Growing Threat to Global Peace and Security.”)
“What ultimately sustains these operations are the double layers of victims they create — the people who’ve lost their life savings to cyber schemes and the people who’ve been trafficked and forced to commit the crimes.”
What’s allowed cyber-scamming operations to flourish, especially in Cambodia and Myanmar, is a combination of corruption and civil strife. In 2021, Myanmar’s democratically elected government was overthrown in a coup; the proceeds from cyber scams
are reportedly an important source of income for the military junta now ruling the country. And, as seen with the recently sanctioned Cambodian senator, Ly, some high-ranking government officials and business leaders might own the facilities housing
cyber scam operations. According to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, government officials with ties to scammers have allegedly notified them of police raids or intervened on their behalf. At a lower level, poorly paid law enforcement
officers and immigration officials might take bribes from cyber scammers to protect the operations; prosecutors and judges allegedly accept bribes in exchange for dismissed charges. (See “Cyber Scamming as a New Destination for Human Trafficking Victims,”
by Lauren Burke Preputnik, Liam Hamama and Marti Flacks, Center for Strategic & International Studies, Aug. 17, 2023.)
Anti-human-trafficking expert Matthew Friedman, CEO of Hong Kong-based Mekong Club, tells Fraud Magazine how the wealth created by cyber-scamming centers in Cambodia can discentivize officials from fighting these operations. “Some government
officials and police in Cambodia have told me that they stopped doing raids and rescues,” explains Friedman. “They told me it’s because they’re getting rich, they’re getting paid a lot of money to turn away.”
A recent report from blockchain analysis group, Chainalysis, found an online marketplace with alleged ties to cyber scam operations — and to the family ruling Cambodia. That online marketplace, Huione Guarantee, has processed more than $49 billion
in cryptocurrency transactions since 2021. The research group found transactions with wallets connected to well-known scam compounds in Myanmar. (See “Cambodian scam giant
handled $49 billion in crypto transactions since 2021, researchers say,” by Jonathan Greig, The Record, Aug. 29, 2024.)
Aside from the billions of dollars the centers generate and the tacit support they might get from government officials, what ultimately sustains these operations are the double layers of victims they create — the people who’ve lost their life savings
to cyber schemes, and the people who’ve been trafficked and forced to commit the crimes.
“When we start interacting with fraudsters, we have to understand that they may be criminals, but they may also be victims,” Mitchell tells Fraud Magazine. “It adds a whole other layer of compassion that fraud fighters need to have and an
awareness that we need to have in the process of trying to stop these bad actors.”
In the following section, we’ll look at the people who’ve been trafficked into these cyber scam centers, the schemes they’re forced to carry out and how these centers operate.
Inside the center
A Wall Street Journal story published in July featured a victim of forced criminality, a 41-year-old IT professional from Ethiopia. Guracha Belachew Bersha, or Billy, was enslaved for 16 months in a scamming center in Myanmar where he conducted pig
butchering schemes under an assumed name. Online, Billy was a wealthy woman from Singapore named Alicia who developed relationships and convinced victims to invest in fraudulent cryptocurrency.
While Billy eventually escaped from the compound, his experience highlights just how sophisticated these operations are. Gangs provide detailed scamming manuals for their captives to follow; they’re trained and tested on the material. The forced scammers
are given multiple mobile phones loaded with WhatsApp and Telegram messaging apps. They also get a laptop with photos and videos of their alias and random pictures of food, pets and cars that they can use as they build relationships with the victims
they scam. They have detailed scripts to follow, providing scammers with the words to use and options depending on the twists and turns that a conversation might take or if a spouse or financial institution might become suspicious. (The Wall Street
Journal described these guides as “choose-your-own-adventure” novels.) Billy said that he handled 15 to 20 cases every day, which amounted to hundreds of victims. (See “Posing as ‘Alicia,’ This Man Scammed Hundreds Online. He Was Also a Victim.”
by Feliz Solomon and Rachel Liang, The Wall Street Journal, July 27, 2024.)
“A lot of work has been put into creating these training programs so that they can get people up to speed on how to commence a scam and how to target and profile all of us as victims,” Mitchell tells Fraud Magazine. “They’ve created whole
training and onboarding packages where they can upskill a lot of people on using technology.”
Aaron Kahler, CFE, founder and CEO of the Anti-Human Trafficking Intelligence Initiative (ATII), provided a white paper to Fraud Magazine that summarizes the step-by-step instructions that people trafficked for fraud get from their captors.
1. The scammer contacts the target via social media or a fake ‘wrong number’ text.
2. The scammer develops trust with the target by sharing personal information and developing a relationship. During this time, they’re assessing the target’s financial position.
3. The scammer slowly introduces the topic of cryptocurrency investment and convinces the target to invest.
4. The scammer continues to encourage the target to invest until they agree to transfer a significant amount of money to the investment platform. (See “From Fake Job Ads to Human Trafficking: The Horrifying Reality of the Human Trafficking
Scam Trade,” The Mekong Club, 2024.)
A UN report published in August describes these operations as industrial in scale, “evolving against a backdrop of technological innovation and the increasing professionalization of transnational criminal networks across Southeast Asia.” (See “Cyberfraud syndicates observed deploying new tech and expanding capabilities amidst shifting threat landscape in Southeast Asia, officials warn,” United Nations, UNODC Regional Office for Southeast Asia and the Pacific, Aug. 6, 2024.)
A major factor in the professionalization of these scamming operations are the types of people targeted for trafficking. Traffickers have always targeted desperate people in desperate situations, but the pandemic created a new class of people looking
for work: educated workers, many of them tech-savvy and multilingual. Many of the people targeted for cyber-scamming operations have computer programming or customer service experience. They’re often fluent in English. Traffickers ensnare them
by posing as job recruiters and posting fake job opportunities on Facebook, Telegram and job sites, and enticing prospective workers with high salaries. Traffickers make it even easier for job seekers by paying for their travel and providing them
with documents like passports and work visas.
“Human beings are influenced by their heart and their desire to live a better life. And generally, when that happens, you have a recipe for a lot of potential problems, whether it’s becoming a victim of human trafficking or victim of a scam or anything
else,” says Friedman. “And that’s the biggest problem we have in addressing fraud — that sense of a desire for something more in life, that temporary kind of pleasure that comes along with thinking you can really get more out of life.”
Of course, when the job seekers arrive at the scam center, the reality of their situation sets in. Their documents are confiscated; they’re often told that they must pay back their “debt” if they want to leave. Coercion includes physical and sexual
abuse. Women are sometimes made to act as models in video chats with prospective scam victims or forced into sex work if they’re unable to meet their scamming quotas. (See “Under siege in Myanmar’s cyber-scam capital,”
by Emily Fishbein and Nu Nu Lusan, Al Jazeera, July 29, 2024.) Victims work 15 to 20 hours a day scamming people who are mainly in Western countries like the U.S., U.K., Canada and Australia. The centers are set up with prison-like conditions,
surrounded by barbed wire and bars in the windows. Many forced into scamming learn that the better they perform, and the more they meet their quotas, the less abuse and punishment they will receive.
Escape from these compounds doesn’t necessarily lead to freedom. Because they come from other countries and lack legal status, they might be treated like illegal immigrants or criminals by local officials. Many also owe large recruitment fees to recruiters,
leaving them vulnerable to re-trafficking when they return home. One of the best ways for victims to escape scamming centers is through intervention from the embassy of their country of origin. However, embassies don’t always respond to calls
for help from their citizens or recognize that these calls for help are from victims of human trafficking. (See “From Fake Job Ads to Human Trafficking: The Horrifying Reality of the Human Trafficking Scam Trade.”)
Up next is a closer look at pig butchering — the main type of scam that many trafficked people are forced to commit.
Sha zhu pan
Erin West, a prosecutor with the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office in California, remembers the first pig butchering scam she encountered. West recounts talking to a detective about a case he was working on that involved a 30-year-old
victim; the perpetrators were overseas. The detective referred to the scam as “pig butchering” and said he wasn’t sure how to handle the case. West is part of a high-tech task force that investigates crimes involving the internet and cryptocurrency.
As she explains to Fraud Magazine, she and her team are good at tracing money that goes overseas — especially cryptocurrency. “I thought, what if we could trace the money of our 30-year-old victim, the $300,000 he lost and where it went?
And that’s what we did.”
I thought, what if we could trace the money of our 30-year-old victim, the $300,000 he lost and where it went.”
– Erin West
Her team traced the money to crypto-exchange Binance. Luckily, Binance was willing to return the money to the victim. “I began to understand how dramatically this crime was affecting people, that this was not a run-of-the-mill romance scam, that this
was a whole new crime that was really developed with the concept of taking every penny that our victims have.”
The term pig butchering was coined by the scammers themselves. It comes from the Chinese word “sha zhu pan,” which translates roughly to “pig killing plate,” and refers to the concept of fattening the pig before the slaughter. The scammer spends time
buttering up the victim online, getting to know them intimately, gaining their trust. Then, the big ask: Invest in crypto. The point of the scam is to take every last cent from the victim. The scammer uses the “whole pig.” (The term pig butchering
is not without controversy — some anti-fraud professionals think it’s derogatory to victims and have started using the term “financial grooming” instead.)
As described in the ATII white paper, someone forced to commit pig butchering from a cyber scam center usually starts the scheme by adopting a persona that will appeal to the target. Through their interactions, they learn as much as they can about
the victim’s financial situation and personal life. What they learn influences how the scam proceeds. Forced scammers work numerous targets at a time. When trust has been established with a victim, the forced scammer will then start talking about
cryptocurrency and suggest that the victim should invest in it. (See “From Fake
Job Ads to Human Trafficking: The Horrifying Reality of the Human Trafficking Scam Trade.”)
Like many investment schemes, victims make some money at first, which makes it all seem legitimate. They’ll feel more at ease and encouraged to invest more money. But they’re sending their money to a fake platform that allows scammers access to their
bank accounts. If the target makes a large investment, their account is frozen and drained of all its funds. (See “From Fake
Job Ads to Human Trafficking: The Horrifying Reality of the Human Trafficking Scam Trade.”) The operation can take several months as the scammer develops the relationship with the victim.
West tells Fraud Magazine that a major red flag of a pig butchering scheme is when the person with whom you’re corresponding immediately suggests moving off the platform to WhatsApp. “That is absolutely something they do every time,” says
West. She also says that a hallmark of the scheme is the scammer showing off their supposed wealth and living a posh life. “If they do yoga and play golf, those should be red flags,” says West. “If they are happy to show you their fancy car, their
fancy vacations, those should be red flags. If they tell you that they have made money in investments because their uncle taught them how, that should be a red flag.”
At the heart of the pig butchering scam is cryptocurrency. Scammers love it for the anonymity it provides, and they can move it quickly and cheaply. They know that many law enforcement agencies don’t have the means or skill to retrieve it. It’s also
something that most people don’t have a lot of familiarity with, making it a perfect scamming vehicle. “That allows a situation from the outset where our victim is reliant on the scammer to tell them what to do,” says West.
And crypto is alluring to some. According to West, there’s a fear-of-missing-out (FOMO) factor attached to it; many don’t want to miss a chance to make money with the new-fangled currency.
The FBI’s first annual Cryptocurrency Fraud Report released this year reports that people lost $5.6 billion to cryptocurrency scams in 2023. Older people are the most frequent victims of crypto scams. Most of the reported losses — $4 billion — were
from investment scams such as pig butchering. (See “Crypto
scams stole $5.6 billion from Americans last year, mostly from older people,” by Kevin Collier, NBC News, Sept. 10, 2024.) A study by researchers from the University of Texas at Austin tracked cryptocurrency flows of fraud linked to criminal organizations
in Southeast Asia and discovered that crypto exchanges are the destination of choice for cyber scam center operators. Over the last three years, more than $75 billion traveled through crypto exchanges to wallets linked to fraudsters. (See “Forced-Labor Camps Fuel Billions of Dollars in Cyber Scams,” by Robert Lemos, Dark Reading, June 11, 2024.)
Cracking into the cyber center
In 2023, Interpol carried out its first operation against cyber scam operations. After a five-month investigation, Interpol, working with law enforcement in multiple Southeast Asian countries, conducted 270,000 inspections and police checks at 450
human trafficking and migrant smuggling hotspots in the region. They arrested 281 people for human trafficking, passport forgery, corruption, telecommunications fraud and sexual exploitation. They also rescued 149 trafficking victims. (See “INTERPOL operation reveals further insights into ‘globalization’ of cyber scam centres
,” Interpol press release, Dec. 8, 2023.)
Police raids and rescues require authorities knowing exactly where the centers are located. The ATII white paper describes methods investigators use to shut down cyber scam operations, including efforts to trace internet providers and cut off their
access to the internet. Analysts use geolocation data and compare it to a comprehensive database of IP address assignments and allocations by ISPs to identify locations of cyber scam operations. (See “From Fake
Job Ads to Human Trafficking: The Horrifying Reality of the Human Trafficking Scam Trade.”)
While there have been numerous police raids and efforts by international authorities to disrupt cyber scam centers by freezing scammers’ bank accounts, seizing assets and intercepting millions of dollars, it’s a cat-and-mouse game. Law enforcement
might infiltrate one operation only to have scammers move their operations elsewhere. But there’s another dimension in the fight against cyber scam operations. Anti-human trafficking experts tell
Fraud Magazine that interrupting the forced criminality trade and cyber scam operations will take a multipronged effort. Those efforts include international cooperation among governments, financial institutions stepping up their fraud
prevention and detection activities, governments tightening banking regulations to close the loopholes that cyber scammers exploit, social media companies cracking down on scams and fake job listings, and fraud awareness education and training
for the public. As West says about fighting pig butchering scams, the formula is to “Educate (raise awareness). Seize (intercept the money). Disrupt (shut down the operations.)”
Yet while it will take a massive effort, experts interviewed for this article say that fraud fighters, especially those in financial services, are an essential part of the educate-seize-disrupt equation. What fraud examiners do in their everyday professional
lives — prevention, detection and compliance — is necessary to complicating the work of cyberfraudsters and disrupting their cyber scam center operations.
Mitchell and Kahler, both veterans of the financial services sector, tell Fraud Magazine that banks can do so much more to track scams and report suspicious activity to law enforcement. They can also invest more in fraud prevention technologies,
fraud detection software and transaction-monitoring systems to stay on top of suspicious activities.
“It’s often thought that fighting human trafficking is largely a compliance effort, that it’s only the compliance team — the bank secrecy officer, the anti-money laundering side,” says Mitchell. “But fraud teams are really well suited for the human
trafficking fight.” As Mitchell tells Fraud Magazine, through his work with The Knoble he’s seen fraud leaders championing anti-human trafficking detection efforts for their financial institutions. “It was the fraud team in one top 10
bank that created a training manual [for warning signs of human trafficking] for all their retail branch employees. In the first couple weeks of them training their retail branch frontline, they detected two human trafficking rings.”
Aside from the work that anti-fraud professionals can do in the financial services sector, Kahler talks about the role that fraud examiners play in performing due diligence for their companies. Organizations might not be dealing with cyber scam centers,
but they might engage with suppliers or vendors that use forced labor. Anti-fraud professionals are often tasked with assessing whether prospective business partners comply with anti-human trafficking laws. “You can ask the companies that you
work with for their policies and procedures to verify that they don’t deal with forced labor and that they have fair practices,” he says.
Mitchell points to the importance of creating fraud risk assessments that consider human trafficking and expand definitions of financial crime. “We have to look at financial crime in general, knowing that these human traffickers are financially motivated,”
he tells Fraud Magazine. “We need to take our risk assessments and expand our fraud taxonomies and start building in processes that address the fraud risk of human crime.”
One skill that fraud examiners have that’s crucial to interrupting cyber scam center operations is the ability to follow the money. Whether it’s knowledge of tracing cryptocurrency or understanding detailed financial documents, fraud examiners know
that following the money can lead to the fraudsters. “Fraud examiners know how to put pieces together, they know how to evaluate cases, and they know how to put together the important pieces of data and figure out how it’s all connected,” West
tells Fraud Magazine. “We’ve got a big spider web of crime that’s happening in Southeast Asia, and we need talented, detail-oriented people who are willing to get into the weeds of the evidence and data and make sense of it. Fraud examiners
are essential to making those determinations.”
There’s a story that Friedman often tells in the speeches he gives around the world about a banker he met at a conference. The banker told Friedman about a night he and his family stopped at a motel while on a road trip. While there, he witnessed
a man dragging a teenaged girl into a room. He was alarmed by what he saw and concerned that the girl was being trafficked. He went to the front desk to have motel staff call the police. Not too long after, he saw police taking the man away in
handcuffs. The banker considered this incident an important moment in his life. But then the banker revealed to Friedman that his area of expertise was protecting his employer from fraud and corruption and reporting suspicious transactions. To
Friedman, the exchange with the banker typified the role those who are tasked with anti-fraud activities have in disrupting cyber scam center operations. As he tells audiences in his speeches, “Do you have any idea how important your job is? You
protect your bank, but you’re also helping all those other people,” he says. “The point that I’m making is that what you do isn’t ordinary, routine, insignificant work. You’re fighting crime and that crime fighting has an end point.”
Jennifer Liebman, CFE, is editor-in-chief
of Fraud Magazine. Contact her at JLiebman@ACFE.com.