JAKARTA - Indonesia says online scams have become a serious human security problem and a threat across the region that needs a coordinated global response.

Indonesia’s Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs, Arrmanatha C. Nasir said that more than 12,000 Indonesians were affected by scam networks between 2021 and 2025 and the country lost about US$474 million in scam-related financial harm in the past year alone. 

Speaking to a packed room at a high-level session of the International Conference on Global Partnership against Online Scams in Bangkok, Nasir called for tighter cooperation between countries. He said that police and investigators need to share intelligence in real time and financial regulators need to work more closely to track and stop scam money.

“No single country in the world can face this threat alone. Our response must be collective, coordinated, and global in scope," said the vice minister. 

Indonesia is recently tightening oversight of online job ads after a rise in fake overseas job offers that have trapped migrant workers in scam operations. The government has also been working with a Myanmar-based NGO to help people rescued from scam syndicates, including support during repatriation and recovery after returning home.

Cyber scam operations have ballooned into a huge illicit industry worth at least $70 billion a year, according to estimates from the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime. Some figures even suggested the total could be even higher. 

The group also said that scam networks, often tied to transnational criminal organisations and centred in Southeast Asia, generated about $44 billion annually in Mekong countries by late 2024. That’s roughly equal to 40 percent of the combined formal economy in those nations.