Crypto, the favorite playground of Asian scammers
It’s no coincidence that Asia is currently the hub of crypto-related legal news. Within a matter of hours, two separate cases erupted simultaneously in Vietnam and India, revealing fraud schemes as sophisticated as they are alarming. Here’s an overview of two cases that each illustrate, in their own way, the potential pitfalls of a sector still in the midst of regulatory construction.
Vietnam: The ONUS platform at the center of a manipulation scandal
Vietnamese authorities have arrested several suspects linked to the ONUS exchange platform, one of the country’s most well-known crypto marketplaces. According to police, those accused orchestrated an elaborate fraud scheme involving digital tokens.
The modus operandi described by investigators rests on three classic pillars of market manipulation: misleading promotions designed to attract investors, artificial price manipulation to inflate the perceived value of assets, and finally centralized market control that allowed the fraudsters to remain in command at all times.
To put the mechanism in plain terms: imagine being sold concert tickets while being promised the artist is a global superstar and that ticket prices will skyrocket, when in reality you’re the one organizing the concert in your garage. That’s essentially what the suspects are accused of.
This case is particularly notable because ONUS enjoyed a certain level of credibility within Vietnam’s crypto ecosystem. It’s a reminder that a platform’s reputation never provides absolute protection for users, and vigilance remains essential, even with seemingly established players.
India: Workers trapped in scam centers in Myanmar
Thousands of kilometers away, India’s Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) announced the arrest of a suspect directly involved in a criminal network of an entirely different nature. The man is accused of recruiting Indian nationals by offering them lucrative fake jobs, before transporting them to complexes located in the Myawaddy region of Myanmar.
These facilities, grimly known as “scam compounds,” have become a genuine scourge in Southeast Asia. Once there, victims are forced to work for criminal organizations specializing in crypto scams, notably the so-called “pig butchering” fraud — a term as evocative as it is sinister, referring to a technique where scammers patiently build a relationship of trust with their targets before stripping them of their savings.
In this type of network, recruiters play a key role: they are often the first interface between potential victims and criminal organizations. The CBI’s arrest is part of a broader international effort to dismantle these operations, which combine human trafficking and financial cybercrime.
Two cases, one underlying symptom
While these two cases seem quite different on the surface — one involving classic crypto market fraud, the other a form of modern slavery in service of online scams — they share a common denominator: the exploitation of trust placed in the world of cryptocurrencies.
In both cases, individuals used the promise of financial gains from digital assets to trap their victims. This is precisely what makes crypto so attractive to fraudsters: the sector remains surrounded by a certain mystery for the general public, which facilitates the spread of lies that non-experts find difficult to verify.
Putting it in perspective
These arrests come at a time when Asian regulators are intensifying their oversight of the crypto sector. Vietnam, which has long wavered between tolerance and mistrust of cryptocurrencies, now appears ready to take firmer action against abuse. India, meanwhile, is multiplying operations against criminal networks exploiting the popularity of digital assets.
On a global scale, these cases add to a long list of reminders: blockchain technology itself is not in question, but the environment surrounding it can still serve as a cover for large-scale fraudulent practices. For users, caution remains the best strategy — though this naturally constitutes no financial advice whatsoever.