China crackdown on cyber scams in Southeast Asia nets thousands but leaves networks intact

By HUIZHONG WU
Associated Press

BANGKOK (AP) — Tens of thousands of people, many of them Chinese, have been caught up in cyber scams based in Southeast Asia. Local and Chinese authorities have netted thousands of people in a crackdown on such schemes, but experts say they are failing to root out the local elites and criminal networks that are running the scams. When scam operations are shut down in one place they often just resurface elsewhere. The problem is an embarrassment for Beijing and is discouraging ordinary Chinese from traveling to Southeast Asia out of concern they might be duped or kidnapped and trapped in a cyber scam scheme.