Criminal groups in Southeast Asia are finding success with Telegram

Powerful criminal groups in Southeast Asia are making extensive use of the messaging app Telegram, the United Nations said in a report Monday. It said use of the app had led to major changes in the way such groups carried out large-scale criminal operations.

The UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) prepared the report. According to investigators, the data was stolen, including credit card information, passwords, etc Browser History, are traded openly in the app. The app has many channels and little content monitoring, the report says.

Criminals also sell cybercrime tools through the app, including so-called Deepfake Software and data theft Malware. And criminal Cryptocurrency Exchanges also conduct trades via Telegram, the report said.

“We transport 3 million USDT stolen from abroad every day,” the report quoted an advertisement in Chinese.

There is “strong evidence that underground data markets are shifting to Telegram.” Provider “We are actively seeking to target transnational organized crime groups based in Southeast Asia,” the report said.

Southeast Asia has become the center of a multi-billion dollar online crime industry that targets victims around the world. Many members of the industry are Chinese criminal groups that operate out of large, protected complexes and use trafficked labor. According to UNODC, the industry generates between $27.4 and $36.5 billion annually.

In August, French police arrested Telegram boss Pavel Durov in Paris. Officials accused him of allowing criminal activity on the site, including distributing sexual images of children online.

Telegram, which has nearly a billion users, did not immediately respond to a request for comment

After his arrest, Durov said the app would share users’ IP addresses and phone numbers with French officials making legal requests. He also said the app would remove some tools that have been abused for illegal activities.

The report said the huge profits made by criminal groups in the region prompted them to change their working methods. They established new business models and added technologies to their systems, including malware, generative artificial intelligence and deepfakes, officials say.

The UNODC said it had identified more than 10 deepfake software service providers “that target criminal groups involved in cyberattacks.” Fraud in Southeast Asia.”

I’m Caty Weaver.

Reuters reported this story. Caty Weaver adapted it for VOA Learning English.

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Words in this story

browser – N a computer program used to access websites or information on a network (such as the World Wide Web).

Deepfake – N an image or recording that has been convincingly altered and manipulated to falsely represent that someone is doing or saying something that was not actually done or said

Malware – N Software designed to interfere with the normal functioning of a computer

Cryptocurrency – N any form of currency that exists only digitally, that typically uses a decentralized system to issue new units and reorder transactions, and that relies on cryptography to prevent fraudulent transactions

Salesperson – N Salesperson

Fraud – N the use of dishonest methods to defraud another person of something of value