I have not used a wallet for over 10 years. Here’s why I think more people should embrace going walletless

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GOING WALLETLESS HAS Gains

When was the last time you actually needed to use your actual Circuit? Pull out your wallet right away.

And for those of you who claim that you need your IC to buy beer and watch specific movies, allow me to ask you another problem: Doesn’t our electronic device( which can be accessed at any time and place ) perform the same tasks as our physical device, which can cost up to S$ 300 to replace?

Of all, there will be times when a real Circuit is required( such as when sending official papers or going to the bank ). However, in those circumstances, it is still safer to send just your IC rather than your full budget.

This now examine your funds and coins. & nbsp,

I can use them at the stall center, you’re definitely saying.

You are correct, too. Despite having the highest implementation rate of contactless payments in Southeast Asia, many of these locations only accept cash. I don’t charge them individually. They still have to help older people who are less likely to live without money.

Do we actually have as little money on us, though?

Personally, I think having my funds in my bank account has more advantages than not. Your income is generally healthy and you get to earn interest. E-scams are undoubtedly on the rise, but at least the majority of banks will assist you if you are the target of one.

Try locating a lender that will pay back the$ 400 in income you lost.

Additionally, paying S$ 8.80 via PayLah at Gong Cha makes much more financial sense than paying with a S$ 10 word and receiving S$ 1.20 in change. That change is essentially money gone because these days, what can you actually get with Mho$ 1.20?

Lastly, take a look at all the memories you’ve tucked away in your wallet’s several pockets. In every sense of the word, those ticket receipts, pictures, and like records are unique. What will you do if your finances disappears and those keepsakes turn into remote memories?

IT ALL HAS TO DO WITH HOW MUCH YOU’RE REASONABLE TO Hazard

I am aware that my telephone and credit cards are also vulnerable to theft, of training. But, replacing two products is much simpler than replacing the gold treasure of priceless things kept in a bag. & nbsp,

In the end, it’s up to you whether or not to throw away your budget, but I’ll just say that the last ten centuries have been easier for me. Now that my hands are lighter, I only need to watch my cellphone when I’m out, and I always have to worry about misplaced priceless items. & nbsp,

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Sikkim: Deadly Indian glacial lake flash flood exposes lack of warning system

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Sikkim floodsReuters
Written by Navin Singh Khadka
BBC World Service environmental editor

According to experts, India immediately needs to fit sophisticated early warning systems for its hazardous glacial rivers after a deadly flash flood in the north-eastern state of Sikkim.

After South Lhonak, a glacial lake in the Himalayas, burst its banks last week, at least 70 people — including nine soldiers — have died and more than 100 others are still missing.

For outbursts, as well as the abrupt discharge of water from a glacier-fed river, can be brought on by torrential rain, seismic events, or mudslides.

Authorities can leave people quickly and available the flood gates from upstream dams with the aid of an early warning system to reduce damage.

India’s National Disaster Management Authority( NDMA ) revealed that it had surveyed two at-risk lakes in early September in order to set up early warning systems for real-time alerts in the event of glacial lake outbursts following the Sikkim disaster.

According to the BBC, one of the lake surveyed was at South Lhonak, where some job for first instructions was started.

But given that the river has long been known to be dangerous, the flood that occurred just a few weeks afterwards has caused people to wonder why there wasn’t an effective early warning system in place now.

A general view shows the damaged Teesta V power plant along the Teesta River some 6 Km from Singtam in India's Sikkim state on October 5, 2023, a day after a flash flood triggered by a high-altitude glacial lake burst. Indian rescue teams searched on October 5 for 102 people missing after a devastating flash flood triggered by a high-altitude glacial lake burst killed at least 14, officials said. (Photo by Pankaj DHUNGEL / AFP) (Photo by PANKAJ DHUNGEL/AFP via shabby pictures)

shabby pictures

It is still unclear what sparked the South Lhonak explosion. While some claim a cloudburst may have caused it, others claim there was no such large, concentrated downpour.

They blame the moraines, which are made up of soft boulders, rocks, and soil at the glacial lake’s edge, for the catastrophe. Some have even connected it to a seismic event.

There was a great chance of South Lhonak river flooding, according to several reports.

A fast melting ice that feeds the lake had caused its region to grow more than 2.5 times over the previous three decades. To stop the lake from overflowing in 2016, government withdrew some of its waters. However, there was no early warning system in place.

When instructed to open the groundwater floodgates, workers at the Chungthang bridge, which is upstream of the Teesta valley and collapsed due to the flood, claimed it was too late because flood waters had already begun to hit the facilities.

According to experts, glaciers are melting more quickly as a result of global warming, which has raised the water levels in some Alpine lakes.

Additionally, it has resulted in the formation of new rivers or the fusion of ancient lake. These lakes are now hazardous because avalanches, cloudbursts, and rockfalls may cause them to disaster.

The NDMA states that it intends to” fit early warning systems for real-time emails at most of 56 at-risk glacial rivers in India.”

Up to 200 glacial rivers across the Himalayas are thought to be in a hazardous condition, according to the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development, an NGO that specializes in Healayan risks. They may, in other words, suddenly tumble, just like South Lhonak.

More than 700 small and large glacial rivers can be found in Sikkim only, and researchers estimate that about 20 of them are at risk of bursting.

Lhonak was being watched and classified as unsafe, according to Dhiren Shrestha, chairman of Sikkim’s science and technology division. However, he chose not to respond to the BBC’s inquiries regarding the lack of an early warning system and the subsequent notification of towns and significant houses inland.

The NDMA, the Central Water Commission, and the Ministry of Water Resources were among the other governmental organizations in India that did not respond to these queries.

In South Lhonak, Switzerland has assisted the NDMA in installing an early-warning method. The BBC was never given any information or an explanation for why the job was taking so long by its ambassador in Delhi.

Rejeev Rajak, a glaciology scholar at Sikkim University, said that” Apparently the lack of an early warning system has to do with government and also the fact that some national and international firms are involved in this job ] setting up the system.”

According to some politicians who have been opposing the building of reservoirs on rivers that originate in the Himalayas, South Lhonak Lake was delicate from a defensive standpoint, which may have slowed down the implementation of the warning system.

A candidate who declined to be named said,” The river is in the area that borders China’s autonomous area of Tibet, and that definitely entails military differences which means any non-military work will take day.”

However, glaciologists claim that changes brought on by global warming are occurring quickly in the Himalayas and call for ongoing surveillance and risk-reduction measures.

Senior cryosphere specialist Miriam Jackson of the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development( ICIMOD ) said,” We are running out of time.”

She continued,” And there is a ton of work to be done, such as keeping an eye on the lake, setting up early warning systems, involving the local populations, and ensuring that the tracking and alerting equipment is kept up.”

Sikkim floods

GUWAHATI PRO DEFENCE

However, as the climate has warmed, there are more and more things that make glacial lakes dangerous.

Historically, the key issue was typically thought to be fast-melting glaciers fast filling up glacial lakes. However, the thinning and retreating glaciers have also made the landscape of the area more fragile, causing rockfalls and mudslides.

According to experts, rising temperatures are causing geographical instability in mountainous areas around the world, including the Himalayas, which will result in storms at higher altitudes where it has typically snowed in the past.

Heat also entails the melting of permafrost( area that would otherwise remain completely frozen on mountains ), which can result in slope failures( a slope that collapses suddenly as a result of rain or other factors) and flood glacial lakes.

According to Jacob Steiner, an ICIMOD researcher,” there is proof that the hill that caused the South Lhonak to storm moved faster than it has in decades.”

” Scientists are currently examining side failures across all lakes using satellite images, mapping every side around every lake, and determining how many have moved exceptionally quickly.”

However, if early warning systems are in place for when a glacier lake bursts, as South Lhonak did next year, none of that surveillance will be useful.

YouTube then hosts BBC News India. To listen and view our documentaries, explanations, and features, visit here.

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Israel-Hamas war to spike oil and torch Asia

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TOKYO- Do to declare, on their financial Bingo accounts, almost no one in Asia experienced an increase in oil prices of 5 % or more in a one day in October.

This surprise may be insignificant in light of the knowledge gaps between Jerusalem and Washington that surround the shocking Hamas strikes on Israel over the weekend. However, the consequences is a game-changer for Eastern governments and central banks that are already dealing with high inflation and rising US Treasury bill provides.

The Bank of Israel and the NBP have previously struggled to scrape up about$ 45 billion to maintain the local money, the dinar. The sudden Middle East crisis is changing the calculations for the Bank of Japan, People’s Bank, China, and other Asian financial government. This is coming two days after the most recent slugfest of a US work document, in which the largest economy in the world added 336, 000 jobs in September only.

Despite the highest inflation costs in Japan in 30 years, the BOJ, for instance, has been soft-pedaling goes to” trim” plan. Governor Kazuo Ueda has surprised investors betting on the BOJ leaving 23 times of quantitative easing since taking the position in April. Ueda has so far maintained its” yield-curve control” policy and report cash flow.

The BOJ’s determination to slow-walk moves to adjust rates seemed to be supported by information last week that wage growth was slower than anticipated in August, rising only 1.1 % year over year.

However, a new wave of political conflict is now being brought on by constrained US labor markets and higher Treasury debt yields. The economic fallout will only last a short time, according to the positive outlook.

According to Commonwealth Bank psychoanalyst Vivek Dhar,” for this conflict to have a long-lasting and significant impact on petrol markets, there must be an ongoing reduction in oil supply or transport.” Then, as history has demonstrated, other market forces can easily outweigh the good oil price reaction, which is typically temporary.

The” essential for areas” is whether the issue is contained or spreads to other areas, particularly Saudi Arabia, according to scientist Brian Martin at ANZ Group Holdings. At least initially, it appears that markets may assume that the situation’s range, duration, and effects on oil prices will be constrained. However, higher volatility is be anticipated.

Political crises in the Middle East have typically led to an increase in oil prices while a decrease in stock prices, according to economist Ed Yardeni, president of the research firm. However, he continues,” more often than not, they’ve even tended to be stock market buying opportunities.”

However, it is not commonly believed that the Israel-Hamas issue won’t jeopardize important oil supply sources. According to Henning Gloystein, an analyst for the Eurasia Group, there is a chance that the conflict will worsen locally. Although we are not already it, there may be supply problems if Iran is drawn into it.

The managing director at SPI Asset Management, Stephen Innes, issues a warning that” historic research suggests that crude prices tend to experience prolonged increases after the Middle East catastrophes.”

Iran continues to be a major wild posting, according to Strategist Helima Croft at RBC Capital Markets, and we’ll be watching to see how harshly Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu accuses Tehran of aiding Hamas in these attacks by giving them weapons and administrative support.

It is impossible to evaluate all of the factors that could change market relationships. According to Pierre Andurand, director of the wall account,” Over the past six months, we have seen a very large boost in Egyptian supply due to weak protection of punishment.”

According to Andurand, there is a good chance that the US administration may tighten its sanctions on Iranian oil exports because Iran is also responsible for Hamas’ strikes on Israel. The petroleum industry would become even more constrained as a result. Additionally, there is some chance that this will result in a strong fight with Iran.

The strong exchange of the US dollar is likely to last as a flight-to-quality trade picks up speed. Economists at Barclays claimed that stronger-than-expected job growth put US labor markets” significantly out of balance” and may create US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell” wary” that financial conditions are strong enough yet before Hamas attacked Israel.

According to planner Bob Savage at BNY Mellon Capital Markets, the” money charge holds and the uncertainty over development and inflation continues.” ” In areas and in finance, in monetary and fiscal policy, we are more likely to see an increase of issue than a resolution at home and abroad.”

The yen, which is at the psychologically significant 150 degree( it is down almost 14 % this year ), is likely to experience further downward pressure as a result of all of this. The danger that Japan will buy additional inflation due to rising energy and food prices increases as the yen depreciates. and Tokyo government might step in if the risk is greater.

As a softer yen did more to increase Japanese exports and juice gross domestic product ( GDP ) than fan inflation, Ueda had hoped to bide his time up until this point. West Texas Intermediate petrol increased to over$ 86 per chamber on Monday, raising the possibility that bet could fail.

As the gap between US and Japanese prices widens, Powell’s staff in Washington is more likely than ever to keep tightening the story. Powell may step up his efforts to temper inflation expectations, even though US economic policy has little impact on a” fear deal” that drives up petrol prices or Saudi Arabia’s actions to cut back on production.

This considerably complicates Ueda’s math. 160 hankering to the money was essentially guaranteed if he refused to close the yield gap with the US. Chinese yields may increase if Ueda decides to withdraw liquidity, endangering the financial system and stalling the recovery of the economy.

According to researchers at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia,” the chance” is increased fuel prices, a decline in securities, and an increase in uncertainty that supports the penny and yen and undermines” risk” assets.”

An oil production platform in Iran's Soroush oil fields. Photo: Reuters / Raheb Homavandi
a platform for producing petrol in Iran’s Soroush petroleum fields. Raheb Homavandi, Reuters, and Asia Times Files

The Financial Services Agency of Japan recently announced plans to stress-test at least 20 important Chinese lenders. Problem: Japan runs the risk of a Silicon Valley Bank-like blowup or two as the BOJ works to dismantle QE policies that have been an integral part of the world filament since 2000.

Meanwhile, Southeast Asia doesn’t typically prosper in the midst of strong dollar rallies, from the region’s 1997 – 98 crisis to the present. For instance, the Thai baht has already fallen by more than 7 % this year, showing a decline in the country’s economic outlook.

Rising oil prices are a very unpleasant growth for the PBOC. At a time when Riyadh is cutting back on fuel supplies, China has also seen the yuan decline this time. Owing to its Russian network, Beijing has been able to reduce energy challenges up until this point. However, the Middle East conflict upends that solution, as does Moscow’s demand for higher power export charges.

Consumer prices are likely to” rise a little more than they did in August as stimulus measures and higher commodity prices wash through ,” according to economist Denise Cheok at Moody’s Analytics, when China releases its most recent inflation data on Friday.

However, economists are currently unsure of what the October files will reveal. On the one hand, rising costs might put an end to the Chinese recession story that has recently alarmed international markets. However, in order to maintain island need, they might restrict PBOC Governor Pan Gongsheng’s alternatives.

It hardly helps that as international unrest worsens, Asia’s post-Covid – 19 debt surge then puts the governments of the region in danger. According to Thomas Rookmaaker at Fitch Ratings, the common government’s debt to GDP ratio in the Asia-Pacific region are expected to decline between 2023 and 2025.

The level of the drop, he adds,” seems reasonable in the framework of strong regional economic growth and the significant rise in government debt in most markets during the Covid – 19 crisis.”

According to Rookmaaker, the sovereigns of the Asia-region” face headwinds in the near phrase from continued poor outside need.” Fitch analysts predict that debt / GDP will continue to rise in 2023 – 2025, building on increases that were already significant during the pandemic, in emerging markets like China and India.

The region is becoming more and more vulnerable to rising oil prices as a result of the region’s large US yields in nearly 20 years and higher Eastern debt levels. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries ( OPEC ) cartel’s apparent lack of interest in setting price caps does not help either.

According to scholar Warren Patterson at ING Bank, losing this supply would have the effect of tightening the world oil stability throughout 2024. ” At the moment, we are assuming that Iran’s stockpile will remain around 3 million barrels per time through the following month, but given subsequent developments, there is obviously a upside risk to this.”

The surplus that we now anticipate in the first quarter of 2024 would generally vanish, leaving the market about in balance early the following year, according to Patterson, if this loss occurs. Deeper deficits may be present for the majority of 2024, especially over the second half of that year.

Patterson continues,” There would be some upside risk to our current Brent forecast of$ 90 per barrel for next year under this scenario.” We don’t anticipate OPEC to change their output policy as a result of recent developments, Patterson says for the time being. However, it’s possible that Saudi Arabia may begin to reverse their more deliberate supply cut if we saw significant price strength, such as Brent buying above$ 100 per cylinder.

On November 24, 2020, a worker at the Saudi Aramco fuel plant in the Red Sea area of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, is standing close to an injured container. AFP / Fayez Nureldine image

He continues,” There are indeed points at which the Saudis would begin to worry more and more about the potential for need death.”

Additionally, all of this adds to the list of factors that are already causing higher global inflation, according to analyst Richard Martin at consulting IMA Asia. According to Martin,” the causes of architectural prices are significant signal paying during Covid-19, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, an upcoming El Nino weather event, a wave of populist politicians with tariffs and patriotic industry policies, and quickly tight labor markets.”

Martin continues,” Some items are going wrong at the same time, with the fundamental rise in inflation being the symptom, not the reason.” One of the most effective tools used by central banks to control inflation is higher interest rates, but they are a harsh application with little connection to the root causes. These factors are flourishing, and in the coming year, others might join them.

William Pesek, formerly X, can be reached by following him on Twitter at @ William Peasek.

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Srettha defends wallet scheme

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According to experts, the 10,000-baht release might increase prices.

8 October 2023 at 06 : 52 was PUBLISHED.

Srettha defends wallet scheme
At a campaign march in April, Srettha Thavisin of the Pheu Thai Party announced the group’s 10,000-baht online budget plan. ( Image: Pattarapong Chatpattarsill )

Just a small number of people have spoken out against the government’s planned 10, 000-baht digital wallet release scheme, according to Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, who dismissed critics of it.

Despite condemnation, he asserted that the government will continue to implement the program, which is intended for all Thai adults over the age of 16.

Mr. Srettha was speaking as he spoke with locals in a town in Yasothon’s Kham Khuen Kaeo region. He saw efforts being made to control flooding brought on by the bursting businesses along the Chi River.

Eventually, he paid a visit to Phra Khru Methi Thampundit, the head of Kham Khuen Kaeo’s religious city.

The prime minister responded to the monk’s inquiry about the modern finances system by saying,” The government is pushing for it.” Just a small number of individuals are opposed to it. The plan is significant to the populace. We may proceed.

The 56 million-person digital wallet system will be implemented with vigor by the Srettha government. On February 1, the program is anticipated to start.

Although the estimated expenditure is 560 billion baht, the financing source has not yet been made public.

Former finance minister Thirachai Phuvanatnaranubala stated that foreign traders do not trust the government’s financial plan, particularly the electric wallet scheme, which may cost a sizable sum of money.

According to him, foreign investors think the government will eventually need to look for loans to fund the program, which will have a negative impact on the nation’s economic situation and increase its public loan.

According to Mr. Thirachai,” the government does back down or scale back the handout by allocating the funds to particular groups.” ” The government must prepare for a tempest of economic consequences if it insists on moving forward with it.”

99 financial experts recently urged the government to discontinue its digital wallet program.

Veerathai Santiprabhob and Tarisa Watanagase, former governors of the Bank of Thailand, as well as academics, researchers, and economics professors signed a statement arguing that the economy is already in the process of recovering. Many analysts predict that this year’s economy will grow by 2.8 % and in 2024, by 3.5 %.

That proves the need for such freebies, which could result in higher inflation and interest rates, they claimed.

According to the speech,” it is needless for the authorities to increase private use.” Instead, it ought to increase the open firm’s capacity for exports and investment.

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Singapore banks to allow customers to 'lock up' funds in latest move to guard against scams

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SINGAPORE: Singapore’s three local banks will soon permit their customers to set aside and” lock up” & nbsp, a certain amount of funds that cannot be transferred out of ones account digitally, as an additional precaution against rising scam cases.

By next month, DBS, OCBC, and UOB will be implementing their own versions of a” money lock ,” according to CNA.

Alvin Tan, the Minister of State for Trade and Industry, spoke in Parliament next month. The banking sector has studied the idea of a” money lock” to prevent an increase in con situations.

Customers of banks will be able to set off a certain sum in their records that” may be digitally transferred out without strict certification measures” thanks to this feature. & nbsp,

In response to a movement and nbsp to adjourn on measures to protect banking customers from schemes, he said,” This will further help to limit costs against frauds.”

DBS announced the upcoming roll-out of a new banking account called digiVault on Friday( Oct. 6 ) that will take the” digitally in, only physically out” approach.

Customers will therefore be able to transfer funds online into this innovative account, but not for talkative transactions.

The new digiVault will aid in preventing scammers from carrying out deceptive digital transactions because customers’ funds cannot be accessed online, according to DBS.

The lender added that customers will only be able to access funds in the future digiVault account, which is scheduled to launch by the end of November.

One such method is to require users to go to a bank branch with identification documents like an Circuit or recommendation. DBS is looking into other options, which will be revealed next month, in addition to in-person check at bank branches.

According to Han Kwee Juan, the company’s state head in Singapore,” digiVault is similar to a virtual safe deposit box in talons.” ” The money in the accounts are secured and will reassure our clients that they cannot access them digitally.”

ANNOUNCE Related FEATURES BY UOB AND OCBC

The other two regional institutions responded to CNA’s questions by stating that similar actions are imminent.

By the end of November, OCBC will launch a” money lock” feature that enables users to” ringfence an amount from their account balances that cannot be digitally transferred out” on its banking app.

According to Beaver Chua, head of anti-fraud at the bank’s group financial crime compliance, a” cross – channel authorisation measure” will be required once it is implemented to” unlock” the ringfenced funds.

For instance, a client may need to do the unlocking process at an OCBC ATM, which would require them to do so on another platform besides the application.

In light of the occurrence of scams, OCBC stated that a” solid and stable measure to access the ringfenced funds” must be in place, but that such actions” may inevitably create tension in banking.”

We will always work to strike the right balance between protecting our customers and the customer experience, as with any safety measure, and listening( to ) their comments, Mr. Chua said.

After carefully examining the idea, the bank at UOB will also introduce its own version of a” money lock” by November.

According to bank head of team conformity Daniel Ng,” We believe that the money lock can be an efficient tool to reduce risk exposure online because it can ringfence a portion of funds as designated by the customer from electronic transfers or intrusion.”

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SE Asia's casinos driving a cybercrime boom

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This article was originally published by ProPublica, a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom. Sign up for The Big Story newsletter to receive stories like this one in your inbox.

Mr Big had a problem. He needed to move what he called “fraud funds” back to China, but a crackdown was making that difficult. So in August, Mr Big, who, needless to say, did not list his real name, posted an ad on a Telegram channel. He sought a “group of smuggling teams” to, as he put it, “complete the final conversion” of the stolen money by smuggling gold and precious stones from Myanmar into southern China, in exchange for a 10% cut.

It’s unclear whether Mr Big ultimately succeeded; his ad has since been deleted, and ProPublica was unable to reach him. But the online forum where he posted his ad says a lot about why Americans and people around the world have found themselves targeted by an unprecedented wave of fraud originating out of Southeast Asia, whose vast scale is now becoming apparent.

In a single recent criminal investigation, Singapore police seized more than $2 billion in money laundered from a syndicate with alleged ties to organized crime, including “scams and online gambling.”

The Telegram channel that featured Mr. Big’s plea for assistance was a Chinese-language forum offering access to “white capital” – money that has been laundered – “guaranteed” by a casino operator in Myanmar, Fully Light Group, that purports to ensure that deals struck on the forum go through.

Fully Light also operates its own Telegram channels that advertise similar services. One such channel, with 117,000 participants, featured offers to swap cryptocurrency for “pure white” Chinese renminbi or “white capital” Singaporean dollars. (Telegram took down that channel after ProPublica inquired about it. Fully Light did not respond to requests for comment.)

The presence of a casino in facilitating such deals is no coincidence. A growing number of gambling operations across Southeast Asia have become key pillars in a vast underground banking system serving organized criminal groups, according to new research by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. The research has not been published, but the agency shared its findings with ProPublica.

There are now over 340 physical casinos across Southeast Asia (as well as countless online ones), and many of them show accelerating levels of infiltration by organized crime, according to the UNODC.

The casinos function as “a shadow banking system that allows people to move money quickly, seamlessly, jurisdiction-to-jurisdiction, with almost no restriction,” Jeremy Douglas, UNODC’s top official in Southeast Asia, told ProPublica in September. That has made money laundering “easier than ever before,” he said, and it’s been “fundamental to the expansion of the transnational criminal economy” in the region — especially cybercrime.

As ProPublica reported in detail last year, Southeast Asia has become a major hub for cryptocurrency investment scams that often start as innocent-sounding “wrong number”-type text messages. The messages frequently originate from seedy casino towns in Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar, where criminal syndicates lure workers with the promise of lucrative jobs, only to force them to work as online scammers.

UNODC’s map of known or suspected scam compounds shows a clear overlap with gambling hubs in Laos, Myanmar and Cambodia, where allegations of forced online scam labor have become so widespread that they recently prompted Interpol to issue a global warning about the problem, which the international police agency said was occurring on “an industrial scale.”

Gambling has long attracted organized crime, but never more than in Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos and the Philippines, where loose regulations and endemic corruption allow casinos to operate with little oversight or responsibility to report suspicious transactions.

Before the Covid-19 pandemic began, officials in those countries wooed Chinese casino operators in an effort to attract foreign direct investment. Criminal bosses, facing a crackdown in China and sanctions imposed by the US, began investing in casinos and cutting deals to run their own special economic zones in Myanmar and elsewhere where they could operate unfettered.

When the pandemic struck in 2020, travel restrictions emptied newly built casinos, hotels and offices of workers and visitors across the region. Criminal syndicates repurposed the facilities to house online fraud operations and turned to human smugglers to staff them up.

(For example, when Philippine authorities raided several online gambling operators between May and August, they discovered more than 4,400 laborers, most of them human trafficking victims forced to perpetrate online fraud.)

Fraud capital: Sihanoukville, Cambodia, where many human trafficking victims were forced to perpetrate online fraud. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Online casinos can be easily used for money laundering: They often accept cryptocurrency deposits that can be converted to virtual chips and placed in bets or cashed out in currency, making them seem like proceeds of legitimate gambling. That method of money laundering is becoming increasingly common in Southeast Asia.

Physical casinos have their own attractions for money laundering. They have become a draw for a parallel industry of junket operators, who organize gambling trips for high-rollers. Those junkets also attract organized criminal groups that need to move money across borders and do so using junkets’ gambling accounts, according to recent prosecutions by Chinese authorities.

Last year, 36 individuals connected to Suncity Group, once one of the biggest junket operators in the world, were convicted in China of facilitating about $160 million in illegal cross-border payments and transactions. The company’s ex-CEO, Alvin Chau, is in jail for running a criminal syndicate and other charges.

In northeast Myanmar, Fully Light Group has emerged as a “multi-billion-dollar business conglomerate and a key player” in casinos and illegal online gambling, according to research by Jason Tower, Myanmar country director for the United States Institute of Peace.

“These are not normal casinos in any way,” Tower said, because they’re located in what he calls “criminal enclaves” that are more under the control of organized crime than any government authority.

For instance, Tower found hundreds of criminal convictions by Chinese courts related to illegal casinos, fraud, kidnapping, drugs and weapons charges in the Kokang Special Administrative Zone, near Myanmar’s border with China, where Fully Light is based.

In its review, UNODC found Kokang casinos – owned by Fully Light or by others – also played a major role in money laundering. They operate Telegram channels that openly advertise money laundering services, including some that link back to official Fully Light channels and offer the company’s guarantee to cross-border exchanges of cryptocurrencies.

Some Fully Light-affiliated Telegram channels include solicitations to participate in what are known as money mule “motorcades” that move funds through multiple cryptocurrency wallets or bank accounts.

Billions of dollars more are likely flowing into the region, thanks to online scams that show no signs of abating. Nick Smart of the cryptocurrency analytics firm Crystal Blockchain has been tracing the flows of crypto funds deposited into online platforms that are set up to look like investing sites in order to fleece victims.

Following the money trail from just one such website, which he suspects to be linked to criminal organizations in Myanmar, led him to a wallet that also pooled funds from 14 other known crypto scams. The wallet received about $44 million in various cryptocurrencies between December and July, when it ceased activity.

With thousands of such websites popping up every day, victims’ losses are easily “in the billions,” said Smart, the director of blockchain intelligence at Crystal.

The global cybercrime spree has prompted countries across the region to take a bolder tack. In June, Thailand cut off electricity to two cyberfraud hot spots across its border with Myanmar (with disappointing results).

More recently, Thai officials shut down six illegal cellular towers suspected of providing internet service to scam compounds in Myanmar.

Chinese authorities have also arrested thousands of their own citizens in dramatic operations that included a humiliating perp walk of hundreds of suspected cybercriminals across a border crossing from Myanmar to China’s southern Yunnan Province on September 6.

On September 26, UNODC unveiled an agreement with China and the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations to jointly combat organized crime and human trafficking linked with casinos and scams. An action plan accompanying the agreement calls on the countries to “make anti-money laundering and wider anti-corruption efforts a higher priority.”

But the challenge is steep. Even as multiple countries crack down, Laos, one of the poorest nations in the region, is getting ready to allow online gambling operators to set up shop within its borders and target foreigners.

And governments need to broaden their focus. Anti-money-laundering regulations often zero in on bank cash transfers of $10,000 or more. The UNODC’s Douglas said governments will need to turn their attention to casinos and other nontraditional financial players.

“Everyone’s been focusing on transactions of $10,000 going through banks and flagging suspicious transactions,” Douglas said, “and these guys are moving millions around the corner through the casino, laughing at the system.”

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China expands climate change surveillance on Himalayan peak

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BEIJING: To check the effects of climate change on Asia’s” liquid tower,” China has built weather stations on Cho Oyu, the sixth-highest mountain in the world on the Tibetan-Nepalese border. The Himalayas, which are home to the planet’s tallest mountains and the source of water for the river that hundredsContinue Reading

ASEAN, EU should work more closely tackling maritime cybercrime

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The regional bloc in Bangkok launched the ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific ( AOIP ) in 2019, which focuses on four areas of collaboration spanning maritime, connectivity, Sustainable Development Goals, economic, and other potential sectors of cooperation. & nbsp,

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations emphasizes maritime cooperation even more in the first edition of the ASEAN Maritime Outlook( AMO ), which was published in early August. & nbsp,

AMO, probably ASEAN’s second step in making its Indo-Pacific moves more significant, is a well-written policy document covering marine issues in accordance with the institutional architectures of the regional bloc. It acts as the policy directive for the leaders, policymakers, regional bodies, and dialogue partners in assessing the current and upcoming challenges managed by various sector-based bodies.

With AMO, ASEAN demonstrates its dedication to furthering marine cooperation and looking into ways to provide its member states with technical and financial support to improve their capabilities. The safety setup of one of ASEAN’s corporate partners, the European Union, seems to fit together with its needs like a puzzle.

The EU emphasizes six enhanced objectives in the most recent revision of its Maritime Security Strategy ( EUMSS ). One of them is to educate and train civilians in particular education programs in order to increase cross and computer security credentials, particularly among its non-EU partners.

After all, thanks to the success of its” Operation Atalanta,” which was launched in 2008 to combat pirates in the Gulf of Aden alongside the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and other East Asian nations through mutual activities, diplomacy, and capacity-building, the EU has a quite exceptional reputation for maintaining and enhancing maritime security throughout the Asian continent.

Secondly, if the two most significant regional organizations were to become more institutionalized in their cyber-maritime assistance, it would not be the first time that both organizations had engaged in cybersecurity-related partnership.

The 2019 EU-ASEAN Statement on Cybersecurity Cooperation, which the EU and ASEAN jointly launched, represents the long-term responsibility of both parties to support security growth, change best practices, and advance digital literacy and norms across numerous channels and activities.

However, the EU and ASEAN may step up their efforts to combat cyber-maritime participation because offences escalate and thrive in high-level disputes, particularly in the face of continued global tensions like the Russian invasion of Ukraine, China and the US conflict, and post-pandemic global economic recovery woes.

For instance, as Russia started turning to its Asian neighbors for assistance, there is always a danger of regional and substitute spillover of the war in the northeastern sphere.

No defensive Southeast Asia

Southeast Asia is still the” next front” on maritime cyber-catastrophes, despite how fancy it may seem to a person.

In this regard, the NotPetya affair is relevant. On June 27, 2017, Ukraine launched NotPetya, the deadliest state-sponsored malware the world has ever seen. This had a significant global impact on other foreign and international businesses operating there.

The Danish-based Maersk Line, the largest shipping company in the world, suffered a loss of about US$ 300 million at the time. The system closing rendered almost half of its 76 world terminals, which are spread across nations from the Americas to Central Asia, inoperable, preventing them from receiving the required electronic data interchange records from approaching boats.

Also, due to the damaged infrastructure, vehicles headed for the waterways were unable to provide.

The domino effect started when an aristocracy hacking group connected to the Kremlin called Softworm inserted an illegal wormhole in the servers of a Russian software company that sold products like MeDoc, which are frequently used by companies and accounting firms operating within the state.

The malware took less than a minute to break down the system of significant Ukrainian industries, including banks and hospitals, on the day of the attack. Therefore, it didn’t take long for it to spread to large corporations that had MeDoc program installed on their computers, including Maersk’s business in the port town of Odessa in Ukraine.

The total amount of harm done to other victims, including Merck, FedEx, Mondelez, Reckitt Benckiser, and Saint-Gobain, according to the White House calculate, was a staggering$ 10 billion.

Such was the magnitude of the Russian-originating malware’s dangerous power; rather than seeking financial gain like ransomware does, it was designed to issue political warnings to nations that supported Ukraine in its initial invasion of Ukraine.

Worse yet, there is always a possibility that equally dangerous cyber-weapons will return at any time or location in the future for an unknown number of reasons, disrupting networks in land, sea, and air spaces and ultimately causing negative losses of assets, properties, as well as, of course, globally interconnected economies via the complex supply chain networks.

Preventative measures are required.

There haven’t yet been any immediate and strong crime threats of this magnitude in Southeast Asia. The only moment it even came close to one was in 2017, when Maersk cargo ships blocked delivery roads and ports due to its end operation’s immobilized sites.

Without proper preventive measures and policies, the South Eastern coastal region— which is home to some of the busiest marine straits in the world — could be extremely vulnerable to coastal cybercrime activities. This could very well expose it to irreparable negative effects. & nbsp,

Since these marine passageways have been the focus of attention in the Southeast Asian local coastal insecurities, maritime crimes like theft, fraud, terrorism, illegal immigration, and trafficking are nothing new. & nbsp,

However, these worries are not as serious as those posed by cyber-borne threats, which have no physical limits and have the potential to have severe effects on global economic activity, especially in light of the increasing level of digitization in nautical infrastructures and sectors.

Although the ASEAN Cybersecurity Cooperation Strategy ( 2021 – 2025 ) places a strong emphasis on strategic planning for increased capacity-building, coordination, and cooperation among member states to develop secure cyberspace in the region, the regional bloc actually consists of different levels of cybercapabilities and experiences in each nation, as well as lacked infrastructure, cyberexpertise, etc.

Despite how alarming it may sound, ASEAN’s capacity deficiencies in dealing with marine cyber-threats are clear, leaving its members resilient in the face of a world that is becoming more and more digitized and robotized, and which is already moving toward artificial intelligence and hybrid warfare techniques. & nbsp,

If ASEAN’s policies are not supported by sufficient pre-emptive measures and vigilant local consensus against the known and unknown threats, it may become a sitting duck in maritime matters generally and maritime-cyber matters in particular.

The EU Budapest Convention on Cybercrime, which enables practitioners in the witness states to discuss knowledge and forge valuable connections for participation in different fields as well as during emergencies, does not have a local security framework like ASEAN does.

The experience and high standards, such as those for data protection, are even worth working with. The EU may contribute to sharing experiences with regional frameworks to combat cybersecurity threats.

Simply the Philippines has ratified the ASEAN Convention as of right now out of the group’s 10 people. If ASEAN wants to collaborate with the EU on coastal computer security, it should do nicely to guarantee its commitment to the cause going forward.

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