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ANTANANARIVO: Raids against online scam centers in Madagascar have exposed ties with a criminal group that ran similar operations in Cambodia, also duping African nationals via alleged human trafficking, authorities told AFP.<\/p>\n
Conducting romance, cryptocurrency and investment fraud, the sites were mostly operated by Chinese nationals, 148 of whom have been extradited to China, Madagascar\u2019s justice ministry said.<\/p>\n
Thirteen Chinese-run scam compounds were taken down in operations in August and September conducted with the US Department of Justice (DOJ), it said.<\/p>\n
About $52 million of cryptocurrency was seized in a single day and more than 3,200 electronic devices were processed, the US authority said in a statement.<\/p>\n
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime had warned last year about the expansion of these networks, particularly into Southern Africa.<\/p>\n
Eleven Chinese nationals arrested separately in the online scam crackdown mysteriously walked free from a Madagascar jail in August in a widely publicized scandal allegedly implicating the head of the prison service.<\/p>\n
Several African nationals remained in custody, even though initial findings suggested they may have been victims of human trafficking, officials said.<\/p>\n
Recruited via social media<\/strong><\/p>\n As in scam operations in Southeast Asia, the Madagascar centers allegedly lured Africans to the Indian Ocean island via social media and with promises of salaries.<\/p>\n In this case, around 20 nationals of Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda and Zimbabwe were in custody, authorities said.<\/p>\n \u201cAccording to their statements, they were recruited via Facebook to come work in Madagascar in the commercial sector,\u201d the police crime unit chief Hassan Mouigni told AFP.<\/p>\n \u201cBut when they arrived here, most of the passports were confiscated by the boss and they were forced to scam,\u201d he said. \u201cThey were victims of deception.\u201d<\/p>\n The man charged with running one romance scam scheme was a Malaysian national, identified as Chui Kok Wa, who had installed himself in a villa in the upscale Ivato neighborhood near the capital, Antananarivo, the US authorities said.<\/p>\n \u201cFrom the visa in his passport, we were able to deduce that he arrived here for the first time in 2024. According to the passport, he was previously in Cambodia,\u201d Mouigni said.<\/p>\n The DoJ said it believed his \u201ccriminal group with connections to Malaysia and China opened scam compounds in Madagascar in early 2025, likely having moved those operations from Cambodia after law enforcement action in that country.\u201d<\/p>\n The coordinator of the cybercrime unit at Madagascar\u2019s communications ministry, Tsitohaina Ralihivao, drew a connection with a 2025 crackdown on scam compounds in Cambodia near the border with Thailand, when their militaries also clashed.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen the Thais dismantled them, they just relocated the operations. The same organizations came to Madagascar,\u201d Ralihivao told AFP.<\/p>\n Relocating<\/strong><\/p>\n An FBI court document shared by the DoJ drew a similar conclusion after questioning three Brazilian nationals who worked at a scam compound in Antananarivo.<\/p>\n \u201cThese individuals reported that they originally responded to work opportunities posted online, and ended up working at a compound located in Cambodia.<\/p>\n \u201cLater, in part due to an armed conflict between Cambodia and Thailand, and also in response to police activity in Cambodia related to scam compounds, the witnesses were moved to Antananarivo, Madagascar, in early-May 2026,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n \u201cCyber scam centers are increasingly opening in Africa following the closure of such compounds in Southeast Asia,\u201d the FBI said.<\/p>\n US authorities intervened because these centers \u201cprimarily targeted English-speaking countries,\u201d including the United States, Canada and Pakistan, Mouigni said.<\/p>\n Hence the \u201cneed for nationals from English-speaking African countries,\u201d added Ralihivao.<\/p>\n The arrival of scam centers has not gone unnoticed in the capital of Madagascar.<\/p>\n \u201cBefore they occupied villas that were a little discreet. What alerted us was that they started renting entire hotels,\u201d Mouigni said.<\/p>\n The suspected head of one compound installed at the Live Hotel in the city was a Chinese national who was among those extradited to Beijing.<\/p>\n Like all \u201cChinese nationals identified as leaders,\u201d he could not be questioned by the FBI, a US federal police said in court documents.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n