A landmark study released this week on cyber scams in Europe found that 75% of adults were scammed in the last year.
While 71% of respondents said they were confident in recognizing scams, 8% of those exposed reported interacting with scammers. About 16% of parents said their children had been contacted by a scammer.
European countries have lost almost €50 billion to scams over the past 12 months, according to the survey. Study by Global Anti-Scam Alliance (GASA)A non-profit organization that surveyed approximately 22,200 people in 15 European countries.
Of those involved with the scam, 22% suffered financial or data loss, yet only 39% reported the incident to authorities. The average financial loss was $2,735, with the highest average losses recorded in Switzerland, Denmark and Belgium. The GASA report estimates that scams have caused losses of approximately €10.6 billion in Germany over the past 12 months.
About 35% of those who reported their losses said that their money was reimbursed by the organization to which they reported it.
“Scam avoidance is largely driven by habitual behavior, such as ignoring unwanted messages rather than intervening,” the GASA report said.
“Half of victims still only realize they have been defrauded after receiving external intervention/external information or after losing money,” it says.
Scam Factories of Southeast Asia
Although the GASA report did not reveal how many European victims were targeted from Southeast Asia, the region has become a hotbed of cyber scamming in recent years.
In 2024, the United States Institute of Peace estimated that the cyber scam industry in Cambodia could be worth approximately €11 billion ($12.7 million) annually, almost half of the country’s formal GDP. Including scammers in Myanmar and Laos, these syndicates may steal more than €37.9 billion annually.
In April 2025, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime estimated that the region’s industrial-scale scam centers were generating annual profits of approximately €34 billion.
The scam industry was not the only factor in the deadly Thailand-Cambodia border conflict that began in 2025. However, Bangkok has repeatedly described cross-border scams as a threat to national security. Thai authorities have linked the border restrictions and supply cuts to efforts to disrupt illegal scam centers in Cambodia.
Many cyber scam networks in the region are run by Chinese criminal groups, although the increasing amounts of money being stolen from Chinese citizens have made the crackdown a priority for Beijing.
China has applied considerable pressure to those involved in Myanmar’s civil war to take action against scammers, although analysts warn that the crackdown often displaces networks rather than dismantling them.
Beijing has pressured Cambodia to deport alleged fraudsters of Chinese origin, including Chen Ze, so they can be tried at home.
Europe lags behind America in anti-scam actions
Washington has gone further than Brussels to resolve the issue. Last October, working with the UK, the US Treasury approved 146 targets linked to Cambodia-based Prince Group, one of the largest groups in the country, which Washington has designated as a transnational criminal organization.
The same month, the U.S. Justice Department indicted Prince Group Chairman Chen Ze, a former adviser to Cambodia’s prime ministers, in an alleged forced-labor scam in what it called its largest seizure action ever, involving nearly $15 billion in Bitcoin.
Washington moved against Cambodia-based Huon Group, another major conglomerate, and has sanctioned senators and tycoons close to the ruling Hun family.
So far, the EU has imposed sanctions only once on Southeast Asian entities over cyber-scams. In October 2024, the Council of the European Union sanctioned three individuals linked to Thit Lin Myaing Group in Myanmar for operating a scam.
“Compared to the US, China and the UK, Europe is less visible on Southeast Asia’s scam ecosystem,” Brian D. Hanley, Asia-Pacific director of GASA, told DW.
“Sadly, these networks have been viewed as a regional issue rather than a global security issue,” Hanley said.
“Another issue is fragmentation, with competences divided among EU institutions and member states,” he said. “But the impact on European citizens is real and growing, and the current level of response does not match the scale of the threat.”
Is Brussels changing course?
On 21 April, the EU co-hosted the ASEAN Regional Seminar on Fighting Online Scams in Bangkok, bringing together authorities, law enforcement, regulators, financial authorities, civil society groups and international organisations.
“Cyber-enabled scams are evolving rapidly. But our cooperation can go even faster,” Louisa Ragher, the EU Ambassador to Thailand, said at the conference, according to statements after the event.
A few days later, at the 25th ASEAN-EU Ministerial Meeting in Brunei, the post-event joint statement repeatedly mentioned online scams and scam centers in Southeast Asia.
“We recognized the importance of strengthening cooperation on non-traditional security challenges, including cyber threats, online scams and related crimes, and countering disinformation and misinformation,” it said.
At the 2026 Global Fraud Summit in Vienna in March, EU Commissioner for Home Affairs and Migration Magnus Brunner said the European Commission will present an EU action plan against digital fraud before the summer of 2026.
Many analysts believe this shows that Brussels is beginning to treat online scams not just as consumer fraud, but as organized crime and human trafficking.
Jason Tower, a senior expert at the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, told DW that one reason European countries may not have taken such a proactive approach to tackling the problem of cyber scams in Southeast Asia is a lack of information about European victims.
“Countries like Germany and France are starting to commit more resources to raising public awareness,” Tower said.
“However, a major difference to offer is that the EU has not begun to use the various available tools, such as sanctions and stronger regulatory actions targeting fintech and social media companies, which are exploited by criminals to carry out scams,” he said.
The GASA report can help. For Tower, the next step is to connect public awareness to tough disruption: more victim data, more pressure on platforms and payment systems, and more coordinated national action across Europe.
Tower said that given the experiences of other countries targeted by scams, it is increasingly important that the national level response is stepped up.
Edited by: Ole Tangen Jr.