Americans lost more than $11 billion to crypto-related fraud last year, according to an FBI report released in April — and the pressure on governments across Southeast Asia to crack down has only grown since then.
A Deadly BusinessMyanmar’s military government has now responded with one of the harshest proposed laws of its kind anywhere in the world.
The law specifically targets operators of scam centers who cause the death of workers coerced or trafficked into committing fraud on their behalf — those individuals would be sentenced to death under the proposed legislation.
Myanmar’s parliament, the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw, said it drafted the bill in response to online fraud that threatened the country’s sovereignty and stability.
The US has also stepped up its response. In April, American authorities worked alongside officials in China and Dubai to arrest more than 200 people and shut down nine scam centers.
US President Donald Trump signed an executive order in March directing officials to go after scam compounds and cybercrime.
The FBI’s Scam Center Strike Force has since focused its investigations on senior figures running compounds in Cambodia, Laos, and Burma, including affiliates of Chinese organized crime networks.
A Government With A Complicated RecordMyanmar’s military took power in a coup in 2021. The country’s parliament did not meet again until March 2026, following elections that independent observers said were neither free nor fair. The government is scheduled to convene during the first week of June, when lawmakers may take up the bill.
Beyond crypto fraud, Americans lost more than $20 billion in total to online scams in 2025, FBI data shows. The agency’s task force has been working to identify and prosecute leaders of the most dangerous scam operations in the region.
Featured image from Unsplash, chart from TradingView
