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Multi-Billion Dollar Guarantee Marketplaces Exploit Stablecoins for Scams
Online bazaars operating through Telegram are key enablers of online scams using stablecoins for payments and industrialised money laundering, totalling hundreds of billions of dollars.
Online scams have reached epidemic proportions, with an estimated $442 billion in losses globally in 2025. These range from so-called ‘pig butchering’ scams to impersonation fraud and sextortion. Their growth surged during the COVID-19 pandemic, when criminal syndicates in Southeast Asia repurposed empty resorts and hotels into compounds for large-scale cyberfraud. What began as scattered, small-scale schemes have evolved into a huge industry with specialised service providers, standardised business models and sophisticated supply chains.
Beyond the losses suffered by scam victims lies a humanitarian crisis: an estimated 300,000 trafficked workers are held in these compounds, forced to commit online fraud under threat of torture, sexual violence and death.
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Original article link: https://www.rusi.org/explore-our-research/publications/commentary/multi-billion-dollar-guarantee-marketplaces-exploit-stablecoins-scams
