Commentary: Sri Lanka exposes the limits of Asia’s anti-scam campaign
Crackdowns can encourage criminal networks to become more decentralised and geographically dispersed, says a researcher.
FILE – People from China, Vietnam and Ethiopia, believed to have been trafficked and forced to work in scam centers, sit with their faces masked while in detention after being released from the centers in Myawaddy district in eastern Myanmar, Feb 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Thanaphon Wuttison, File)
Read a summary of this article on FAST.
Get bite-sized news via a new
cards interface. Give it a try.
Click here to return to FAST
Tap here to return to FAST
FAST
BANGKOK: Sri Lanka is emerging as a new operational base for Asia’s transnational scam industry.
Since the beginning of 2026, Sri Lankan authorities have conducted more than a dozen raids on suspected cyber fraud operations, arresting or deporting hundreds of foreign nationals, most of whom entered the country on tourist visas. But the government’s enforcement efforts show how national crackdowns can disperse scam networks without dismantling them.
On Aug 13, Sri Lankan police reported that a police cybercrime unit had arrested 1,093 foreign nationals in 2026, compared with 573 throughout 2024. Many of these operations were uncovered in western coastal resorts, with suspects from China, India and several Southeast Asian countries.
This sharp rise is consistent with a broader regional displacement following the crackdowns on Chinese-run scam compounds in Cambodia and Myanmar.
Guess Word
Crack the word, one row at a time
Buzzword
Create words using the given letters
Mini Sudoku
Tiny puzzle, mighty brain teaser
Mini Crossword
Small grid, big challenge
Word Search
Spot as many words as you can
REGIONAL DISPLACEMENT
The expansion of scam operations in Sri Lanka reflects both domestic vulnerabilities and a wider process of regional displacement. Authorities in Cambodia, Myanmar, Thailand and Laos have been intensifying pressure on large scam compounds, many linked to Chinese-speaking criminal syndicates.
Chinese law enforcement agencies have expanded joint operations, suspect repatriations and judicial cooperation with Southeast Asian governments, disrupting networks that primarily targeted Chinese citizens. Beijing’s anti-scam campaign has combined domestic public awareness campaigns, tougher prosecutions and increasingly active regional law-enforcement cooperation.
Successful enforcement can disrupt established scam hubs without necessarily dismantling the financial, technological and organisational networks that sustain them. So Sri Lanka may illustrate one of the unintended regional consequences of China’s increasingly successful anti-scam campaign.
Yet the available evidence demonstrates the growth of scam activity in Sri Lanka more clearly than it establishes that this growth is directly caused by displacement from Southeast Asia. Sri Lanka is better understood as a possible emerging destination within a wider process of regional displacement.
The emergence of transnational scam activity does not alone prove that operations have directly relocated from Southeast Asia. On Apr 16, nine Chinese nationals arriving from Kunming were intercepted while carrying hundreds of electronic devices, following another raid in which more than 150 foreign nationals were detained over alleged online fraud.
Chinese authorities have publicly supported Sri Lankan efforts to investigate these cases, reflecting Beijing’s growing concern over the overseas activities of scam networks involving Chinese nationals. Rather than operating solely from large compounds, criminal groups can operate through small teams spread across several locations, making detection far more difficult.
WHY SRI LANKA
Sri Lanka offers several advantages for these mobile scam networks. Accessible tourist and “digital nomad” visas, affordable hotels and offices, reliable telecommunications infrastructure and established informal remittance channels make it easier to establish temporary operations.
The country’s location between South and Southeast Asia, together with its expanding connectivity and Chinese commercial and tourism presence, allows illicit actors to blend into ordinary cross-border economic activity.
These factors make relocation easier for criminal networks. They do not create cybercrime, but they do reduce the costs of relocating criminal operations after crackdowns elsewhere.
Sri Lanka’s challenge lies in the fragmented enforcement of existing legislation. Tourist visa monitoring, financial supervision, telecommunications regulation and cybercrime investigations remain institutionally separated.
Removing foreign frontline operators may disrupt individual scam centres without dismantling their larger financial networks. Rapid deportation also risks overlooking trafficked victims forced into criminal activities.
Some frontline operators may have been recruited through deception or coercion and forced to participate in online scams. Authorities should distinguish potential trafficking victims from organisers and other organised criminal actors before prosecution or deportation.
Beyond financial losses, the expansion of transnational scam networks also poses broader governance and economic risks. The presence of cybercrime may undermine confidence in Sri Lanka’s tourism and investment environment, increase corruption risks within immigration and financial systems, and place additional pressure on already limited law enforcement resources.
Left unchecked, these networks could become embedded within the country’s legitimate economy, making future enforcement significantly more difficult.
MOVE BEYOND RAIDS
Sri Lanka needs to move beyond raid-based enforcement to counter these networks more effectively. Intelligence sharing between police, immigration authorities, financial regulators, telecommunications agencies and financial intelligence units should be strengthened.
Investigations should also follow money laundering flows, cryptocurrency transactions and digital infrastructure rather than only arresting frontline operators.
China’s growing anti-scam cooperation provides important enforcement capacity in the region, but lasting success will require broader intelligence sharing, financial investigations and electronic evidence-sharing across South and Southeast Asia.
As scam networks increasingly operate across both regions, existing cooperation between China and Southeast Asian governments should be expanded to include South Asian law enforcement agencies through intelligence sharing, joint investigations and coordinated financial monitoring.
Sri Lanka’s experience illustrates the central paradox of Asia’s anti-scam campaign – crackdowns can make large scam compounds more difficult to sustain while also encouraging criminal networks to become more decentralised and geographically dispersed.
Without stronger regional cooperation, enforcement pressure in one jurisdiction may simply displace scam networks to another rather than dismantling them.
Junqing Zhang is Postdoctoral Researcher at the Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University. This commentary first appeared on East Asia Forum.
Source: Others/el
Sign up for our newsletters
Get the CNA app
Stay updated with notifications for breaking news and our best stories
Get WhatsApp alerts
Join our channel for the top reads for the day on your preferred chat app
Get bite-sized news via a new
cards interface. Give it a try.
Click here to return to FAST
Tap here to return to FAST
FAST
