The U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime said Thursday that a suspected scam call operation and a network of suspicious companies have been discovered in East Timor, including links to a free trade zone in the Oecusse special administrative region.
Police raided a suspected scam center in late August in Oecusse and detained more than 30 foreigners who were found working without permission. The detainees were reported to be from Indonesia, Malaysia and China, but the U.N. agency said it remained unclear whether any of them had been trafficked. Oecusse is an exclave of Timor-Leste on the western half of the island shared with Indonesia; the region opened a free trade area called the Oecusse Digital Centre in December 2024.
The findings were detailed in a UNODC report that highlighted how scam centers — typically walled compounds in remote areas where workers run computer-enabled frauds — have proliferated across Southeast Asia and beyond. Such operations have been linked to so-called romance scams and investment frauds that, the agency said, cost victims tens of billions of dollars a year. UNODC warned that the nature and scale of activity in East Timor resembled earlier stages of the region’s scam industry.
“The scale and nature of the activity we are now seeing — similar to what we were seeing at the earlier stages of Southeast Asia’s scam industry — shows how far things have progressed,” said Benedikt Hofmann, deputy regional representative at UNODC for Southeast Asia and the Pacific. He added that the expansion was particularly concerning given the expected boost in connectivity as Timor-Leste prepares to become a full member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in October.
UNODC noted that other companies with apparent links to scam networks were active in the region. One such company was described in the report as an online gaming operator connected to Cambodian casino networks owned by a Cambodian businessman who has documented links to Wan Kuok-koi, leader of the 14K Triad and subject to U.S. sanctions.
Authorities and international agencies have tracked the movement of scam operations across borders as national crackdowns displace them. Last year the Philippines carried out a nationwide crackdown that resulted in the deportation of thousands of workers found at scam centers, and in February authorities in Thailand, Myanmar and China conducted a joint operation that freed thousands of workers. Despite those actions, UNODC said the centers themselves have continued to operate and adapt.
The report also said scam centers have drawn attention in Laos, Myanmar and Cambodia for running romance scams that recruit people to pose online as attractive partners to induce victims to make fraudulent investments. UNODC has previously warned of similar centers appearing in Latin America and Africa, underscoring the transnational reach of cyber-enabled fraud schemes.
Timor-Leste, also known as East Timor, is among the world’s poorest countries with a population of about 1.3 million. UNODC emphasized that the use of free trade zones or special economic zones across Southeast Asia has been exploited to facilitate cyber-enabled scams, money laundering and other crimes, and it called attention to the need for strengthened regional cooperation and oversight as the activities shift location and evolve.
The UNODC report did not provide an estimate specific to the East Timor operations but placed them in the context of broader regional patterns and warned that increased digital connectivity and economic incentives in special zones could accelerate the spread of such illicit enterprises if not addressed through coordinated law enforcement and regulatory measures.