Abstract

Cybercrime continues to evolve in scale, complexity and impact, with Southeast Asia increasingly affected by the rise of cross-border scams and fraud operations. This closed-door roundtable brings together experts to discuss two critical and interconnected aspects of the cybercrime landscape. The first presentation will address the growing cybercrime nexus, focusing on the convergence of cyber-enabled fraud with other forms of criminality, its broader implications and global spillover effects. The second presentation will explore compound crimes, examining recent developments in scam operations across the region and the illicit financial infrastructures that support them. Through this roundtable, we seek to generate insights on emerging trends, enforcement challenges and potentially identify opportunities for more effective and collaborative responses.

About the Speakers

Himal Ojha is the Global Cybercrime Programme Officer (Digital Forensics Expert) based in Bangkok, Thailand working for The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). He has extensive experience of working nationally and internationally in the field of cybercrime investigation, digital forensics and electronic evidence.

Currently in his role at UNODC, he oversees various projects in Southeast Asia and the Pacific region, as well as providing capacity building assistance to criminal justice authorities on the identification, extraction, preservation, collection, documentation, examination, analysis and presentation of electronic evidence and information, including the use specialized software and hardware, and on the investigation of cybercrime including cryptocurrency and crimes committed using technology with a primary focus on electronic evidence.Himal graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science and also holds a Master’s degree with Distinction in Electronic Security and Digital Forensics from the United Kingdom.

Kristina Amerhauser is a senior analyst conducting research on topics such as cyber scam operations, illicit financial flows, money laundering and corruption. She works with the GI-TOC’s Observatory of Illicit Economies in Asia-Pacific and is responsible for overseeing programming in the Mekong, as well as civil society, government and multilateral engagement in the region.