Why Asia’s ‘scamdemic’ is everyone’s problem

WHAT do a Chinese actor, an Illinois widow and a young Vietnamese man have in common? They are all victims of scams – once an annoying and seemingly random crime that has scaled up into a global business that cost the world US$1 trillion last year.

The breadth of the industry stretches far and wide, stemming from forced labour gulags in the grey-zone borderlands of South-east Asia.

This is a crisis run by international crime syndicates that no single nation can solve, despite many previous efforts. Ending it will require the US and China to put rivalry aside and cooperate in a region where they both exercise huge influence. The alternative? This shadowy industry will only grow bolder, and harder to stop.