American-made AI tools and U.S. internet companies are powering a global scam industry that stole at least $10 billion from Americans in a single year — and almost nobody in Washington is doing enough to stop it.
Story Snapshot
- Scammers in Myanmar used software built with ChatGPT and Gemini to run fake romance schemes across dozens of languages.
- One in five internet signals from four sanctioned scam compounds in Myanmar traveled through U.S.-registered companies like AT&T and Cogent Communications.
- Americans lost at least $10 billion to Southeast Asia-based scams in 2024, with losses expected to grow.
- A bipartisan U.S. commission warned that the federal government’s response is fragmented and under-resourced.
AI Tools Built for Deception
Scammers operating out of compounds in Myanmar built specialized software using American AI models — chiefly ChatGPT and Gemini — to run their operations at scale. The tools let them work across dozens of languages, monitor workers inside the compounds, and identify and target victims around the world. Blockchain analysis found that scammers who bought these AI-powered tools took in tens of millions of dollars. The investigation was a joint effort by the Associated Press, the PBS series FRONTLINE, and C4ADS, a Washington-based nonprofit focused on global security.
The scam model is sometimes called “pig butchering.” Operators spend days or weeks building fake romantic relationships with victims online. Once trust is established, they push victims into fake investment deals — usually involving cryptocurrency — and drain their savings. A newer version, described by Chinese state media and cited by the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, is called “foreigner butchering.” It uses translation software and messaging apps to target Western victims specifically.
U.S. Internet Companies Carry the Traffic
The scam compounds don’t just use American AI — they also rely on American internet infrastructure. Reporters analyzed more than 200,000 device connections from four sanctioned scam compounds in Myanmar over the course of a year. The data, provided by International Justice Mission, an anti-trafficking nonprofit, showed that one in five signals from those compounds passed through a U.S.-registered internet service provider. The companies identified include Cogent Communications, AT&T, DigitalOcean, and Oracle.
None of those companies are accused of knowingly helping scammers. But the findings raise hard questions about whether major American firms are doing enough to screen the traffic they carry. The U.S. government has sanctioned dozens of individuals and businesses in Southeast Asia tied to online fraud. Still, the infrastructure that connects those operations to American victims runs, in part, through American companies — a fact that has drawn little public scrutiny or regulatory action.
Billions Lost, Response Falls Short
Americans lost at least $10 billion to Southeast Asia-based scams in 2024, according to a U.S. government estimate cited by the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission. Losses are projected to keep rising. Romance scams in the U.S. have trended upward almost every year since 2006, with only a brief pause between 2016 and 2018. The criminals running these operations have stolen an estimated $75 billion globally since 2020, according to a 2024 University of Texas study.
Truth Desk Media Report 1: Hybrid Scams Surge in Australia – $2.18 Billion Lost as Transnational Networks Expand Reach
⁰July 5, 2026
Australians lost a staggering $2.18 billion to scams in 2025, marking a 7.8% increase from the prior year despite some reporting dips. Hybrid…— Truth Desk (@Nizibizizbig) July 5, 2026
The bipartisan U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission warned that the federal government’s efforts to fight these scams are fragmented and under-resourced. Local and federal law enforcement face a basic problem: the scammers are overseas, making arrests and prosecutions extremely difficult. This is exactly the kind of failure — a known threat, a documented harm, and a government too slow and too divided to act — that leaves ordinary Americans exposed while officials focus on other priorities. Whether you lean left or right, it’s hard to argue that losing $10 billion a year to foreign criminal networks is acceptable, especially when American technology is part of the pipeline.
Sources:
pandasecurity.com, abcnews.com, linkedin.com
