The Treasury Department says Americans have lost more than $16.6 billion to an online scam industry largely based in Southeast Asia that targets victims around the world.

美国财政部表示，一个主要以东南亚为基地、面向全球作案的网络诈骗产业已导致美国民众损失超过166亿美元。

Scam centers rely on forced labor, and they proliferated during the pandemic. By some estimates they take in at least $64 billion a year.

这些依靠强迫劳动的诈骗窝点，在新冠大流行期间大量涌现。据部分估算，该产业每年获利至少640亿美元。

The authorities in several countries have been trying to rescue people who were kidnapped and enslaved to work as scammers. But even though the United States and Britain recently imposed sanctions on a Cambodian company accused of running a major scam operation, experts say it will take a lot more work to build cases against the criminal syndicates powering the industry.

多个国家当局正试图解救那些被绑架、被迫沦为诈骗工具的受害者。尽管美国和英国近期对一家被控运营大型诈骗网络的柬埔寨公司实施了制裁，但专家表示，要对支撑该产业的犯罪集团提起诉讼，还需付出更多努力。

Here’s how centers work and why they’re so hard to shut down:

以下是这些诈骗窝点的运作模式及难以被彻底取缔的原因：

Scammers target victims by winning their trust on social media.

诈骗者通过社交媒体获取信任，精准锁定受害者

Southeast Asia’s online fraudsters specialize in “pig butchering,” a process in which a scammer builds trust with a victim over weeks or months before asking them to invest in a fraudulent cryptocurrency fund. In that sense they are like farmers fattening pigs for slaughter.

东南亚网络诈骗分子擅长“杀猪盘”诈骗——诈骗者先用数周或数月时间与受害者建立信任，再诱骗其投资虚假加密货币基金。从这个意义上说，其运作模式恰似养殖户育肥待宰的猪。

The victim often receives a message from someone posing as a financial adviser on Facebook, WhatsApp or Telegram. Then the scammer instructs the person to transfer money through a website pretending to be a legitimate investment platform. In 2023, the president of a small bank in Kansas did just that, losing about $47 million of the bank’s money to pig butchers.

受害者通常会在Facebook、WhatsApp或Telegram上收到伪装成财务顾问的人的信息，随后诈骗者会指示其通过伪装成正规投资平台的网站转账。2023年，堪萨斯州某小型银行行长因此损失约4700万美元银行资金，沦为杀猪盘骗局的受害者。

柬埔寨国家通讯社周四发布的一张资料照片显示金边某诈骗中心内的电脑设备。

Fraudsters also use romance scams, in which they cajole people who are divorced or recently widowed to send large sums of money after a brief courtship. Sometimes, they simply call targets on the phone, posing as bank representatives to ask for account details, pin codes and Social Security numbers.

诈骗分子还会针对离异或近期丧偶人士实施情感骗局，经过短暂追求后诱骗受害者转账巨额资金。有时，他们也会直接打电话给目标对象，伪装成银行工作人员索要账户详情、密码和社保号码。

Operators can target victims around the world because they use scammers who are native speakers. Chinese nationals are the largest group trafficked by criminal gangs to Southeast Asian scam compounds, according to Interpol. The facilities also have Brazilians, Indians, Filipinos and people from parts of Africa and Eastern Europe.

由于诈骗窝点雇佣母语使用者，因此能将目标对准全球受害者。据国际刑警组织称，中国人是被犯罪团伙贩卖至东南亚诈骗园区的最大群体，此外还有巴西人、印度人、菲律宾人以及非洲和东欧部分地区的民众。

Scam centers run on a steady supply of labor and electricity.

诈骗中心依赖稳定的劳动力和电力供应运转。

Many of the sprawling compounds that house scam operations sit inside special economic zones created by governments in Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar to attract foreign investment. The zones mostly lie along borders with Thailand, giving criminals easy access to that country’s reliable electricity and telecommunications networks.

许多规模庞大的诈骗园区位于柬埔寨、老挝和缅甸政府为吸引外资设立的经济特区内。这些特区大多沿泰国边境分布，使犯罪分子能便捷获取泰国稳定的电力和电信网络。

The operators also use Thai airports and roads to deliver supplies and traffic workers. In many cases, workers are lured to Thailand to take what they think are jobs in customer service or information technology. But after they land in Bangkok, they are taken across Thailand’s porous borders, imprisoned in compounds, and often subjected to physical abuse and torture.

诈骗运营者还利用泰国的机场和道路运输物资和工作人员。在很多案例中，受害者被诱骗至泰国，以为能获得客服或信息技术相关工作，但抵达曼谷后，他们会被带过管控松散的泰国边境，囚禁在诈骗园区内，还常遭受人身虐待和酷刑。

Myanmar’s borderlands are a particularly fertile spot for these centers. The country is in the middle of a civil war. Independent experts say the Myanmar military and armed ethnic groups provide protection in exchange for a cut of the profits. The military government has denied any involvement with the scam groups, saying it was “actively” working against them.

缅甸边境地区尤其成为这类诈骗窝点的温床。该国正处于内战之中，独立专家表示缅甸军方和民族武装组织在为诈骗集团提供保护，以换取利润分成。缅甸军政府否认与诈骗集团有任何关联，声称正在“积极”打击相关犯罪。

缅甸东部妙瓦底的一处园区，摄于9月。园区似乎安装了星链卫星终端。缅甸军政府表示已经突袭了位于泰缅边境地区最大的诈骗据点之一。

These multistory compounds are in Myanmar towns that sit flush against the banks of a narrow river marking the border with Thailand — so close that you can hear the hum of generators from the Thai side. From the outside, they look like ordinary office buildings and condominiums.

这些多层建筑构成的诈骗园区位于缅甸边境城镇，紧邻分隔缅泰两国的狭窄河岸，距离之近，甚至从泰国一侧都能听到园区发电机的嗡嗡声。从外部看，它们与普通办公楼和公寓楼别无二致。

Governments are trying to crack down on scam operators.

各国政府正试图打击诈骗团伙。

Several countries are trying to crack down on scam centers. Here’s what they’ve been doing this year:

多个国家正努力打击这些诈骗窝点，以下是今年以来的主要行动：

• China, India and South Korea sent flights to repatriate hundreds of people freed from compounds in Myanmar. A court in China also sentenced 11 people to death after convicting them of running an illegal gambling and scam ring there.

• 中国、印度和韩国派出航班，接回数百名从缅甸诈骗园区获救的公民。中国法院还以经营非法赌博和诈骗团伙罪名，判处11人死刑。

• Thailand cut power and telecommunication lines to one of Myanmar’s largest scam compounds, and extradited to China a man accused of running a major scam compound in Myanmar. And a top Thai official resigned over allegations of bribery related to cybercrime in Cambodia.

• 泰国切断了缅甸最大诈骗园区之一的电力和通信线路，并向中国引渡了一名被控在缅甸运营大型诈骗园区的男子。一名泰国高级官员因涉嫌与柬埔寨网络犯罪相关的贿赂指控辞职。

• The United States and Britain imposed sanctions on a Cambodian company accused of running a major scam operation. The U.S. later formed a federal task force to seize scammers’ equipment and crypto assets.

• 美国和英国对一家被控运营大型诈骗网络的柬埔寨公司实施制裁。美国随后成立联邦特别行动小组，旨在收缴诈骗分子的设备和加密货币资产。

• SpaceX said it had disabled more than 2,500 Starlink devices that power many of the online fraud operations in Myanmar, and the country’s ruling military government said it had raided a large scam compound.

• SpaceX表示，已停用超过2500台为缅甸许多网络诈骗活动提供支持的星链设备；缅甸军政府称已突袭一处大型诈骗园区。

• South Korea raised concerns about its citizens who had disappeared into Cambodian scam centers.

• 韩国对失踪于柬埔寨诈骗园区的本国公民表达关切。

• A court in the Philippines convicted the former mayor of a small town for trafficking people to a compound that officials have linked to online scams and organized crime.

• 菲律宾一家法院判定某镇的前镇长贩运人口罪名成立，他将民众贩卖至一处据官员认为与网络诈骗和有组织犯罪相关的园区。

本月，柬埔寨金边王子国际广场。美国司法部已申请查抄王子控股集团创始人兼董事长陈志持有的价值150亿美元的比特币。

But such actions will probably not dent the profits of an industry that brings in an about $64 billion each year, said Jason Tower, a senior expert at the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, an advocacy group based in Geneva.

但总部位于日内瓦的倡导组织全球打击跨国有组织犯罪倡议的高级专家杰森·托尔表示，这类行动可能难以撼动这个年获利约640亿美元的产业。

One sign of that: Even in the middle of a mass crackdown by the Chinese authorities in February, construction on scam compounds in Myanmar continued.

一个明显的迹象是：即便在今年2月中国当局开展大规模打击行动期间，缅甸诈骗园区的建设仍在继续。

Dismantling the scam industry will require coordinated international efforts.

摧毁诈骗产业需要国际协同行动。

Investigators must share more financial data and information that they gather from rescued scammers, Mr. Tower said.

托尔表示，调查人员必须共享更多财务数据及从获救诈骗者处获取的信息。

But pinning down the money trail is difficult because the profits are laundered through luxury properties and encrypted Bitcoin wallets. They also find footholds in countries across Africa and South Asia where organized crime and corruption have weakened governance.

但追踪资金流向十分困难，因为犯罪所得通过豪华房产和加密的比特币钱包洗钱，还在非洲和南亚多个国家扎根，这些地区因有组织犯罪和腐败导致治理能力薄弱。

For now, Mr. Tower said, investigators are moving too slowly and the scam centers they target are too lucrative — and too easy to set up — to be stopped.

托尔指出，目前调查人员行动过于迟缓，而诈骗园区利润丰厚且极易设立，因此难以被彻底遏制。