According to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) annual report, the most costly consumer scams in America are cryptocurrency investment frauds, with almost $4 billion per year in reported losses. Given that most experts estimate 70%-90% of fraud goes unreported, actual loss could be as high as $40 billion per year. This loss mostly involves so-called “pig butchering” call centers in Myanmar, Cambodia, and other countries. Due to the labor intensive nature of these scams, criminal groups in southeast Asian lure workers from other countries with offers of legitimate appearing call center work. These workers are then held against their will and forced to commit fraud.
In 2003, Congress passed the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA). TVPA requires the U.S. State Department to grade each country on their efforts to combat human trafficking. Countries that do not make efforts to combat human trafficking are subject to sanctions, including exclusion from all nonhumanitarian, nontrade-related U.S. assistance. The State Department had determined Cambodia has failed to comply with TVPA for the last two years, finding that:
The Government of Cambodia does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so…corruption and official complicity in trafficking crimes, including by high-level senior officials, remained widespread and endemic…Authorities did not investigate or hold criminally accountable any officials involved in widespread, credible reports of complicity, in particular with unscrupulous business owners who subjected thousands of men, women, and children throughout the country to human trafficking in cyber scam operations…
Nevertheless, the U.S. has issued sanctions waivers for Cambodia for the past two years.
On June 20, FVRO joined with the Global Anti-Scam Organization (GASO), the Public International Cybercrime Disruption Organization (PICDO), The Eyewitness Project, Advocating Against Romance Scammers (AARS), and Intelligence for Good to urge the Biden Administration to not issue any new TVPA compliance waivers for Cambodia and to make it publicly clear that improved relations with the U.S. are contingent on closing scam call centers that defraud Americans.
Americans who wish for their voices to be heard on this issue should call the U.S. State Department public comment line at 202-647-6575 (option 8), the White House (202-456-1111), or their Members of Congress. Electronic comments can be left at https://register.state.gov/contactus/contactusform (State Department) or https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/share/ (the White House).
The joint letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken can be viewed HERE.
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