Washington, June 26 : The Trump administration said it is stepping up efforts with Southeast Asian governments to dismantle transnational criminal networks behind online scam operations that defrauded Americans of billions of dollars last year.

Appearing before the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on East Asia and the Pacific, Michael G. DeSombre, Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, said the administration was pursuing a "whole of government effort" to combat criminal syndicates operating across the region.

"Together with US Interagency Partners, EAP supports US engagement to combat transnational crime across the Indo-Pacific, targeting the fentanyl supply chain, pressing China and other countries to take concrete law enforcement actions, and working to dismantle transnational criminal organizations running online scam operations that defrauded Americans of more than $12.5 billion in 2025," DeSombre said.

According to him, the Department of Justice has "restrained more than $15 billion in cryptocurrency from scam centers since October 2025" while the administration was advancing "targeted sanctions and diplomatic pressure to hold governments accountable for enforcement."

Ranking Member Ami Bera highlighted the rapid growth of scam compounds operating along the Mekong region, saying he had seen Chinese criminal organisations exploiting special economic zones in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos.

Bera said the syndicates were also linked to drug trafficking and often forced civilians into working in online fraud operations.

Responding, DeSombre said the scale of the problem continued to grow.

"We estimate that they defrauded Americans out of $12.5 billion in 2025, which is actually a 25 per cent increase from 2024," he said.

"So the problem is not getting better. It's still getting worse."

DeSombre said the administration's priority was not simply to shut scam centres but to dismantle the criminal organisations behind them.

"The goal is to make sure we arrest the bad guys and make sure they don't ever do it again," he said.

He said Cambodia had shown signs of progress in tackling the networks.

"We are seeing, interestingly, some positive developments out of Cambodia," he said, adding that Prime Minister Hun Manet "has definitely made it a priority for his government, and we have seen positive movements in that regard."

However, DeSombre warned that enforcement action in Cambodia had pushed criminal groups into neighbouring countries.

"We now see scam centers cropping up in Malaysia, Indonesia, even in Timor-Leste and other places," he said.

While describing that development as "not good", he said it had encouraged wider regional cooperation because more governments were now experiencing the impact of organised cyber fraud.

To strengthen coordination, DeSombre said he had recently organised a contact group involving US. allies, partners and several Southeast Asian nations to improve intelligence sharing and law enforcement cooperation against the criminal syndicates.

Online investment fraud, cryptocurrency scams and romance scams have become one of the fastest-growing forms of transnational organised crime in Southeast Asia. Criminal networks have established large compounds in several countries, often using trafficked workers to target victims around the world through sophisticated digital fraud schemes.

/IANS