U.S. Treasury identifies 12.7 billion dollars in Southeast Asian crypto scams

The U.S. Treasury has linked around $12.7 billion in suspicious money transfers to cryptocurrency scams run from Southeast Asia. The analysis, published on September 3, 2026, looked at nearly 34,000 reports from about 1,300 banks and financial companies.

The scams are based mainly in Cambodia, Laos, and Myanmar, but have spread to other regions. Criminals use fake online identities to build trust with victims, then persuade them to invest in fraudulent cryptocurrency schemes. People in all 50 U.S. states were targeted.

Many workers inside these operations were trafficked. They were recruited through fake job offers and then forced to carry out the fraud.