Online Fraud · Full chronicle and history

According to a post by @jielijian at 3:34 a.m. Beijing time on October 14, 2026, cyberterror attacks on China continue. That day, an account impersonated Falun Gong founder Li Hongzhi and rights defense lawyer Chen Guangcheng, sending threatening emails in the name of an email address of the International Alliance of the Chinese Democratic Party, framing the Austrian government and the US president's official vehicle; the subject line of the email contained the words "Bomb!!". The poster called on the US Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Austrian State Security Agency, and authorities in Japan, Taiwan and other countries to conduct a rigorous investigation. This claim currently rests on this single source alone, with no independent corroboration.

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Mast and Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party Chairman Moolenaar sent a letter on September 15 to U.S. Treasury Secretary Bessent and Secretary of State Rubio, calling for an investigation and a decision within 180 days on imposing sanctions on 26 foreign individuals and two entities linked to Southeast Asian cyber scam centers.

On September 10, the Chinese Communist Party's Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Public Security, and National Immigration Administration issued a joint response, saying that the claims circulating online that "exit will be comprehensively tightened" and "it will become harder for ordinary people to leave the country" are a misreading, and that the new rules only target online fraud, high-risk destinations, and travelers with abnormal travel patterns, with normal exit unaffected.

The U.S. Senate held a hearing titled "Protecting Americans from Global Fraud Syndicates" to discuss the operations of Chinese transnational criminal organizations in Southeast Asia and the U.S. government's response measures.

US officials cited preliminary estimates at a hearing that Southeast Asian fraud syndicates caused reported losses of $12.5 billion to the US public in 2025, with actual losses potentially being higher.

On July 24, 2026, Chinese Public Security Minister Wang Xiaohong met with FBI Director Kash Patel in Beijing. The two sides announced the establishment of a fugitive task force and agreed to expand law enforcement cooperation in areas such as fugitive repatriation, anti-fraud, and drug enforcement.

Xi Jinping met Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet in Shanghai and announced that China and Cambodia will cooperate to combat telecom network fraud.

On January 10, the Myanmar government announced that, as of January 9, all illegal buildings in KK Park used for online fraud and gambling activities had been completely demolished, including 148 buildings in Zone 1, 62 buildings in Zone 2, and 425 buildings in Zone 3, totaling 635 illegal structures.

Earlier this year, the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party completed a bipartisan investigation into a network of scam centers linked to China and released a report titled “Crime, Corruption, and Power,” which states that the network defrauds Americans of at least $10 billion a year, is concentrated in Cambodia and Myanmar, and launders money through Chinese underground banking networks and shell companies.

In December 2025, the House Foreign Affairs Committee, led by Mast, passed the Dismantle Foreign Scam Cartels Act, which aims to strengthen interagency coordination in legal form and bolster the U.S. government's response to the scam center crisis; it still awaits passage by the full House and Senate and signature by the President.

The U.S. Department of Justice said it established a special division in November 2025 to combat transnational online fraud networks related to cryptocurrency; these networks operate mainly from Southeast Asia, with signs indicating they are controlled by Chinese criminal groups.