The future of organized crime: Responses to scam centres, underground banking and cybercrime in Southeast Asia

The future of organized crime: Responses to scam centres, underground banking and cybercrime in Southeast Asia

Room: R309B

Time: 12:30 to 13:30, 25 October 2025

Organizer: UNODC

Side Event Description: The side-event will analyse how the unique operating model developed by organized crime in Southeast Asia has impacted countries’ ability to respond, and how the new convention can support Member States to better protect their citizens from the future of organized crime.

Objectives:
– Raise awareness among Member States of the challenges posed by criminal adoption of sophisticated technology, particularly through the scam centres, and the evolving modus-operandi of transnational organized crime in the region, in relation to cyber-enabled fraud and scam centres.
– Show the need for comprehensive responses to address a form of criminality that transcends boundaries between organized crime, cybercrime, money laundering, human trafficking, corruption and other forms of crime.
– Explore venues for the implementation of the UN Cybercrime Convention to counter transnational organized crime operating through scam centres and the sophisticated money laundering, fraud and trafficking schemes facilitated by technological advancements, and the role of the Convention as a framework to foster international cooperation.
– Promote the adoption among Member States of the UN Cybercrime convention as a critical instrument to prevent and counter technology-enabled transnational crimes, particularly originating from the kind of scam centres first emerged in Southeast Asia.

Expected Participants: 71-100 people