About the Webinar

Cybercrime, particularly through scams, have emerged as one of the most pressing transnational challenges confronting Southeast Asia. Across ASEAN, scam operations, such as online fraud, phishing and large-scale transnational scam centres, have generated substantial financial losses, social harm, and political pressure for effective responses. These activities have additionally exposed deeper structural vulnerabilities in anti-money laundering measures, digital governance, cross-border law enforcement cooperation, and the regulation of rapidly evolving digital financial ecosystems.

Accordingly, ASEAN has sought to elevate scams within its transnational crime and digital cooperation agendas. Most recently, the ASEAN Declaration on Combatting Cybercrime and Online Scams was adopted at the at the 19th ASEAN Ministerial Meeting on Transnational Crime (AMMTC) in September 2025. ASEAN member states reaffirmed a collective commitment to strengthen cooperation, operationalised by the ASEAN Plan of Action in Combatting Transnational Crime 2026–2035. These initiatives intersect with ASEAN’s broader instruments, such as the ASEAN Cybersecurity Cooperation Strategy and the ASEAN Digital Masterplan, which emphasise resilience and consumer protection alongside digital growth.

However, significant implementation challenges persist, with uneven legal jurisdictions, investigative capacities and coordination gaps across layers of governance and jurisdictions. Public-private coordination has remained fragmented, despite the central role of private-sector intermediaries in both enabling and disrupting scams – particularly through telecommunications providers, online platforms, financial institutions, and digital currency services. Complex geopolitical factors further complicate regional cooperation, with ongoing intra-regional conflicts, such as the Thailand-Cambodia border conflict and the crisis in Myanmar.

This webinar is thus convened to provide an informed, policy-relevant discussion on the evolving scam landscape in Southeast Asia. Bringing together perspectives from international law enforcement, organised crime analysts, and policy experts, this webinar will examine the sources and structures of scams, assess ASEAN’s current response mechanisms and implementation gaps, and explore practical pathways for strengthening regional cooperation in an increasingly complex digital environment.