AI, Poor Governance Aid Transnational Scams —UN Agency

Nigeria has emerged as one of the new destinations for transnational cybercrime syndicates relocating from Southeast Asia following intensified crackdowns by regional governments, a new United Nations report has revealed.

The report, published by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), warned that criminal organisations behind large-scale online fraud operations are increasingly moving into parts of Africa, including Nigeria and Kenya, in search of jurisdictions with weaker regulatory oversight and enforcement.

According to the report, law enforcement operations across countries such as Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos have disrupted several cybercrime compounds but have failed to dismantle the criminal networks behind them, forcing the syndicates to establish new operational bases elsewhere.

UNODC Regional Representative for Southeast Asia and the Pacific, Delphine Schantz, said the criminal organisations have evolved into sophisticated multinational enterprises operating much like legitimate corporations.

She said, “Their operating model looks like corporate franchising: imagine specialised departments for laundering money, trafficking people, smuggling migrants and harvesting data, all plugged into the same, service-based interconnected network.”

The report disclosed that online scam operations across the Asia-Pacific region generated between $88.3 billion and $114.1 billion in illicit proceeds in 2025, making cyber-enabled fraud one of the world’s fastest-growing organised criminal enterprises.

UNODC further warned that increased enforcement in Southeast Asia has merely displaced criminal operations rather than eliminated them.

According to the report, “Recent pressure from law enforcement in the region has displaced but not dismantled operations,” just as the criminal groups are increasingly engaging in “jurisdiction shopping” by relocating to countries with weaker governance structures and regulatory systems, including parts of Africa.

The agency also expressed concern over the growing use of artificial intelligence by criminal syndicates to automate phishing attacks, identify potential victims, conduct sophisticated social engineering campaigns and facilitate cryptocurrency theft and money laundering.

UNODC, Lead analyst, Inshik Sim, warned that authorities are struggling to keep pace with the rapidly changing tactics of organised cybercriminals.

He said, “The scale and complexity of this expanding organised crime economy are outpacing existing responses, which were not structured to address such sophisticated criminal activity.”

The report noted that scam centres, notorious for investment fraud, romance scams, cryptocurrency fraud and business email compromise attacks, increasingly rely on trafficked workers recruited through fake overseas job advertisements before forcing them to participate in online scams under coercive conditions.

The findings come as Nigeria continues to strengthen efforts to combat cybercrime through agencies including the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), the Nigeria Police Force, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA).

Cybersecurity experts have repeatedly warned that Nigeria’s rapidly expanding digital economy, growing fintech ecosystem and rising internet penetration make the country an attractive target for sophisticated international cybercriminals.

The warning also follows recent alerts by INTERPOL that artificial intelligence is accelerating cybercrime across Africa, enabling criminals to launch more convincing phishing attacks, financial fraud and identity theft. According to INTERPOL’s African Cyberthreat Assessment Report 2026, AI-assisted cybercrime now accounts for more than half of reported cybercrime incidents on the continent.

Industry analysts say the migration of Southeast Asian scam syndicates into Africa underscores the need for stronger cross-border intelligence sharing, improved cybersecurity capabilities, stricter anti-money laundering controls and closer collaboration between governments, financial institutions and technology companies to prevent the continent from becoming the next major hub for organised cybercrime.