VOA新闻杂志2024--UN: Crime Groups in Southeast Asia Find Success on Telegram

Powerful crime groups in Southeast Asia use the messaging app Telegram widely, the United Nations said in a report on Monday. It said the app's use led to major changes in the way such groups carry out large criminal operations.

The U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) produced the report. The investigators¹ say stolen data, including credit card information, passwords and browser² history, are openly traded on the app. The app has many channels and little content supervision³, the report said.

Criminals on the app also sell tools used for cybercrime, including so-called deepfake software and data-stealing malware. And, criminal cryptocurrency exchanges carry out business on Telegram also, the report said.

"We move 3 million USDT stolen from overseas per day," the report quoted one advertisement as saying in Chinese.

There is "strong evidence of underground data markets moving to Telegram and vendors⁵ actively⁶ looking to target transnational organized crime groups based in Southeast Asia," the report said.

Southeast Asia has emerged as a center for a multibillion-dollar online crime industry that targets victims across the world. Many industry members are Chinese criminal groups that operate from large, protected complexes using trafficked workers. The industry makes between $27.4 billion to $36.5 billion yearly, the UNODC said.

In August, French police arrested Telegram's leader Pavel Durov in Paris. Officials charged him with permitting criminal activity on the site, including the online spread of sexual images of children.

Telegram, which has close to 1 billion users, did not immediately answer a request for comment

Following his arrest, Durov said the app would surrender users' IP addresses and phone numbers to French officials making legal requests. He also said the app would remove some tools that have been abused for illegal activity.

The report said the huge amount of profit earned by criminal groups in the area led them to change their operating 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 ten deepfake software service providers "targeting criminal groups involved in cyber-enabled fraud in Southeast Asia."

Words in This Story

browser - n. a computer program used for accessing sites or information on a network (such as the World Wide Web)

deepfake - n. an image or recording⁷ that has been convincingly altered and manipulated to misrepresent someone as doing or saying something that was not actually done or said

malware - n. software designed to interfere⁸ with a computer's normal functioning

cryptocurrency - n. any form of currency that only exists digitally, that usually uses a decentralized system for issuing new units and reording transactions, and that relies on cryptography to prevent fraudulent transactions

vendor⁴ - n. seller

fraud - n. the use of dishonest methods to cheat another person of something valuable

1 investigators   

n.调查者，审查者( investigator的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• This memo could be the smoking gun that investigators have been looking for. 这份备忘录可能是调查人员一直在寻找的证据。
• The team consisted of six investigators and two secretaries. 这个团队由六个调查人员和两个秘书组成。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 browser   

n.浏览者

参考例句：

• View edits in a web browser.在浏览器中看编辑的效果。
• I think my browser has a list of shareware links.我想在浏览器中会有一系列的共享软件链接。

3 supervision   

n.监督，管理

参考例句：

• The work was done under my supervision.这项工作是在我的监督之下完成的。
• The old man's will was executed under the personal supervision of the lawyer.老人的遗嘱是在律师的亲自监督下执行的。

4 vendor   

n.卖主；小贩

参考例句：

• She looked at the vendor who cheated her the other day with distaste.她厌恶地望着那个前几天曾经欺骗过她的小贩。
• He must inform the vendor immediately.他必须立即通知卖方。

5 vendors   

n.摊贩( vendor的名词复数 )；小贩；（房屋等的）卖主；卖方

参考例句：

• The vendors were gazundered at the last minute. 卖主在最后一刻被要求降低房价。
• At the same time, interface standards also benefIt'software vendors. 同时，界面标准也有利于软件开发商。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓

6 actively   

adv.积极地，勤奋地

参考例句：

• During this period all the students were actively participating.在这节课中所有的学生都积极参加。
• We are actively intervening to settle a quarrel.我们正在积极调解争执。

7 recording   

n.录音，记录

参考例句：

• How long will the recording of the song take?录下这首歌得花多少时间？
• I want to play you a recording of the rehearsal.我想给你放一下彩排的录像。

8 interfere   

v.(in)干涉，干预；(with)妨碍，打扰

参考例句：

• If we interfere, it may do more harm than good.如果我们干预的话，可能弊多利少。
• When others interfere in the affair,it always makes troubles. 别人一卷入这一事件，棘手的事情就来了。