Singapore – Meta’s latest report outlines a widening spectrum of online threats affecting the APAC region, highlighting the persistence of fraud schemes, the expansion of coordinated inauthentic behaviour (CIB), and the growing role of AI-driven adversaries.
The report shared that APAC remains one of the most targeted regions globally due to its high digital adoption and cross-border cybercrime networks.
In the analysis of financially motivated scams, the report revealed that criminal groups continue to operate sophisticated fraud ecosystems that span multiple Southeast Asian markets. It details how syndicates frequently impersonate law enforcement agencies and regulators from countries such as the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam, using fabricated logos, badges and agency names to deceive users seeking help after earlier scams.
These “loss recovery” schemes rely on directing victims to private messaging channels, where they are pressured to pay various “processing” or “transfer” fees that are never returned. Many of these operations are linked to larger scam compounds across the region, including networks based in Cambodia, which enable criminals to scale their activities across borders.
The report also highlights how fake and compromised accounts remain a critical infrastructure for fraud, with Meta blocking millions of attempted fake sign-ups each day. It highlighted that scammers increasingly mirror authentic online behaviour to avoid detection, and commonly encourage users to move conversations off-platform during the early engagement phase — a tactic seen across APAC markets, including the Philippines and Thailand.
Beyond scams, the report identified several influence operations removed during the period, illustrating how CIB campaigns exploit political and social tensions in different regions. One network from India, for example, used AI-generated profile photos, biographies and content to build convincing fictitious personas while amplifying political messaging at scale.
Although these specific CIB cases were not APAC-led, the report noted that similar tactics routinely appear in Southeast Asia, where high social media use and fragmented information ecosystems offer fertile ground for influence operators. In the Philippines and Thailand, threat actors often blend political messaging with local issues, using deceptive accounts to seed narratives across civic groups and online communities.
Meanwhile, the report also highlighted the rapid advancement of generative AI and its impact on digital threat activity worldwide. The report observed that adversarial actors are increasingly using AI to generate deepfake newscasters, create tailored articles for influence campaigns, impersonate celebrities in scam advertisements, and design fake job postings or romance scam content.
Following this, Meta is simultaneously deploying AI for defensive purposes, including scaled integrity systems that detect fake accounts, automated warnings for suspicious interactions, and tools such as the Llama Firewall to help prevent prompt injection and other risks to its models. Continuous red teaming, including automated adversarial testing, has also been expanded to identify vulnerabilities more quickly.
The report emphasised that addressing digital threats across APAC requires cooperation among technology platforms, financial institutions and regional law enforcement.
With scammers, influence operator, and AI-enabled adversaries evolving their tactics, Meta warned that sustained cross-sector vigilance will be essential to protecting users in markets such as the Philippines, Thailand, and the wider APAC region.
