Gasa is a non-profit organisation that brings together stakeholders such as policymakers, law enforcement agencies and cyber-security agencies to share knowledge on scams.
In October, it organised the Global Anti-Scam Summit in Lisbon, Portugal.
At the event, Gasa revealed the findings of a study it conducted with data service provider ScamAdviser.
It showed that scammers had stolen an estimated US$1.02 trillion (S$1.4 trillion) globally between August 2022 and August 2023, compared with US$55.3 billion lost for the whole of 2021, and US$47.8 billion lost in 2020.
In Singapore, victims lost a total of $660.7 million in 2022, up from $632 million in 2021, data from the Singapore Police Force showed.
High-tech scammers
Mr Abraham said scammers are quick to adopt new technologies, such as cryptocurrency and artificial intelligence, adding that law enforcement agencies may not be equipped with the skills to investigate crimes on these platforms.
To help bridge this gap, Mr Nirmal Shah, a 39-year-old American with a background in engineering and computer science, set up crypto fraud investigation firm Crypto-Helpline in late 2021.
Based in the United States and India, the start-up works with law enforcement agencies around the world to help victims trace and recover stolen crypto funds.
A team of four investigators, including Mr Shah, follow the trail of money using blockchain investigation tools and present the evidence to the authorities to make a case for freezing accounts that hold tainted funds.
Six others in the firm help with the legal aspects of cases and with training law enforcement agencies on how to investigate crypto fraud.
In June 2023, Crypto-Helpline helped a Mumbai-based businessman recover his life savings of US$40,000, which he had lost in an investment scam.
Scammers had posed as a woman and chatted with the victim for weeks to earn his trust. Promising profitable returns, they convinced him to invest in a fake crypto trading platform in February 2022.
For over a year, Crypto-Helpline worked with the Mumbai police to track down the scammers’ accounts and produce a court order to seize and return the funds to the victim.
The start-up has since investigated over 200 cases of crypto scams.
Mr Shah, who was a scam victim himself, said full recovery of funds is rare as there are several challenges that impede the progress of cases.
“Crypto exchanges often operate outside the legal jurisdiction of the victim’s country, and there can be language barriers and long delays, sometimes up to months, in getting a reply,” he said.
He added that the process is tedious, with law enforcement agencies needing to produce a court order before seizing funds, but that can be difficult when exchanges do not cooperate in giving the details of suspects.
Mr Shah hopes a more effective framework can be established to give victims, exchanges, law enforcement and lawyers a clearer idea of the process to tackle crypto fraud.
A new type of victim
Increasingly, victims of scammers now include those trafficked by criminal gangs and forced to work in scam centres in South-east Asia.
A report by the United Nations published in August found that at least 120,000 people in Myanmar and around 100,000 in Cambodia may be trapped in scam operations.
These scam centre compounds are believed to have generated at least US$7.8 billion in revenue globally in 2021, the UN said.
Once inside the compounds, the victims’ passports are confiscated, and they are forced to defraud victims. Those who try to escape are subject to abuse such as beatings.
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