FATF calls for global action against scam compounds and points to crypto assets

The report estimates that these compounds cause “tens of billions of dollars in losses each year”. People from at least 80 jurisdictions have been found in Southeast Asian compounds, some 120,000 forced to carry out scams in Myanmar alone, and there are victims in more than 100 jurisdictions.

Virtual assets are “a central laundering channel”, with OTC desks operating inside the compounds themselves; a cluster of wallets linked to one of them received more than $100 million from victims. AI, deepfakes and automation make the business cheaper and more scalable, and instant payments can move money in two minutes.

The FATF sets out six principles, including disrupting flows end to end and acting within the first 24-72 hours to freeze funds. It gathers nearly 120 cases from more than 60 jurisdictions: the US Scam Center Strike Force disrupted some 1.4 million accounts and froze more than $3.8 million in virtual assets. Its President, Giles Thomson: “With criminals weaponising AI, we urgently need to modernise and accelerate our response”.

Paris, November 5, 2026 – A new report , published today by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), analyses the money flows related to the integrated criminal business models of scam compounds, which are estimated to cause losses of tens of billions of dollars each year.

With scam schemes among the fastest-growing forms of organised crime worldwide, the new report, “Combating End-to-End Illicit Financial Flows Linked to Scam Compounds”, documents the existence of scam compounds or related activities in jurisdictions across Africa, Europe, the Americas and Asia.

The report identifies practical approaches to dismantling scam networks. It describes the financial and non-financial infrastructure that criminal networks rely on, including payment services, virtual assets, technology and telecommunications, in order to increase global capacity to disrupt criminal activity before and after victims make payments.

Victims on two fronts

The most documented scam centre model remains that of large physical compounds. Reports indicate that people from at least 80 jurisdictions have been identified in these Southeast Asian compounds, and it is estimated that in Myanmar alone 120,000 people have been forced to carry out online scams.

Trafficked individuals used in scam operations may be recruited through fake job offers, transported across borders and subjected to debt bondage, confinement, violence, sexual exploitation, torture and threats.

Meanwhile, people in more than 100 jurisdictions have been targeted by cyber scam centres, with victims suffering unrecoverable losses once funds are withdrawn, transferred abroad or converted into virtual assets.

In one case, blockchain analysis made it possible to trace more than $100 million in proceeds from victims to a cluster of virtual asset wallets attributed to a scam compound, following the movement of funds through money laundering networks to cash-out points.

Criminals adapt to evade detection.

Scam compound operators exploit multiple financial channels to move and launder criminal proceeds, including cash, money mule accounts, informal transfer services and virtual assets.

The report identifies virtual assets as a central channel for money laundering, including cases in which over-the-counter (OTC) desks operate inside scam compounds to facilitate virtual asset exchanges and domestic fund transfers.

Instant payment platforms are also being exploited, allowing scam-generated funds to be transferred out of the victim’s account, sometimes in as little as two minutes.

The widespread use of mobile devices, social media, messaging, online platforms and digital financial services is also reported, increasing the reach of scam networks. AI-generated content, deepfakes and automation reduce these networks’ costs and help them scale and accelerate their operations, while making it increasingly difficult for victims to identify fraud attempts.

The report also finds that enforcement measures have led scam network operators to shift towards smaller, more mobile operations, and that criminal groups are repurposing a wide range of locations to carry out online fraud, including casinos, rented rooms or apartments, cafés and moving vehicles.

As criminals use AI and other technologies to scale up their scams, we urgently need to modernise and accelerate our response. This means focusing on dismantling the criminal networks behind scam centres, working proactively with the technology, social media and communications sectors to prevent and disrupt more scams before they happen, and intervening faster to freeze and confiscate the proceeds once they have been committed.

Giles Thomson , FATF President

The criminal network must be tackled as a whole to support prevention.

The report concludes that countries are currently more effective at combating scams through downstream actions, such as intercepting victim payments and tracing proceeds and assets.

However, the report urges countries to combine downstream interventions with upstream disruption of criminal activity, targeting the wider criminal infrastructure . By identifying early signals such as fraudulent advertising, recruitment activity, malicious domains and suspicious phone numbers and telecommunications indicators, fraud can be detected even before a financial transaction takes place.

New FATF principles to disrupt scam compounds

To step up the fight against scam practices globally, the FATF has launched its principles for combating illicit financial flows linked to scam compounds, which include:

• Target the criminal ecosystem as a whole: shift the focus from the physical compound to criminal leaders and controllers, recruitment and trafficking networks, and other actors, structures and capabilities that are central to scam networks.
• Disrupt illicit financial flows end to end: dismantle the infrastructure and services that enable scams, while stopping, tracing, freezing and recovering victim payments and generated funds before they can be moved or concealed.
• Connect the networks: information sharing and cooperation among financial institutions, technology companies, telecommunications providers and authorities.
• Act quickly across borders: the first 24 to 72 hours after a scam is detected or reported are crucial to freezing funds, recovering assets and preventing further losses.
• Put victims at the centre: ensure that investigations prioritise the protection of both scam victims and people trafficked or coerced into scam environments, securing appropriate safeguards, victim support and reporting mechanisms.
• Adapt and focus on lasting impact: continuously update operational approaches, as scam operations can decentralise, relocate, rebrand and replace disrupted infrastructure, leveraging AI-enabled social engineering, automation, shifting domains and new payment channels.

Case studies demonstrating good practices

As a first step in the FATF’s broader roadmap against fraud , the report includes nearly 120 case studies and good practices, covering more than 60 jurisdictions, highlighting how collaboration is helping to disrupt scam centre activity around the world, for example:

• The US Interagency Scam Center Disruption Week disrupted approximately 1.4 million social media and email accounts, as well as malicious network infrastructure, facilitated arrests in Thailand and led to the voluntary freezing of more than $3.8 million in virtual assets.
• The Indonesia Anti-Scam Centre (IASC) blocked more than 515,000 accounts and returned approximately US$10.9 million to victims between November 2024 and May 2026.
• Covering 85% of UK mobile users, Scam Signals allows banks to receive privacy-preserving risk indicators from the mobile network in real time, right as the customer authorises a payment. Use of this signal has been associated with a 41% reduction in the number of people scammed and a 44% decrease in fraud losses.

From now until February 2027, the FATF will work with the public and private sectors to identify scalable solutions to tackle cyber fraud.