Global Trends

Google's has Financial services policy for India's playstore, which allows only regulated entities to publish apps, is bypassed by wrapping the product as a “credit line,” “expense tracker” or “data analytics” app. Lending apps never declare the app as the personal-loan app.

The Strike Force team, which was in country for two weeks, supported the local authorities related to the take down of 13 scam centers that were being operated by Chinese organized crime syndicates. The Strike Force team assisted in the processing of more than 3,200 electronic devices. The Strike Force team has also opened their own investigations on the basis of interviews conducted of the nearly 400 arrestees, at least approximately 30 of whom where Chinese leaders

Faisalabad officers arrest eight more suspects a month after a 14.4-million-rupee case, as NCCIA steps up action against fraud targeting Pakistanis seeking jobs in Canada. The action targets scams that exploit Pakistanis seeking overseas employment opportunities, part of NCCIA's broader efforts to combat cyber-enabled immigration fraud through its Faisalabad regional unit.

79 suspects were apprehended in a transnational cybercrime scam centre operating in Lusaka, Zambia. Multiple Starlink terminals were seized in the operations. Authorities have indicated that the illegal setup was a national security threat. 11 Chinese nationals were apprehended in the operation.

Singapore Police Force’s Digital Disruption Centre sits under the new Cyber Command, launched on 3 July 2026 at Police Cantonment Complex, and is the unit tasked with finding and taking down online threats before they reach the public—scam sites and other scam enablers, ransomware and malware, and content that is racially or religiously inflammatory—using tools such as AI-assisted detection and powers under the Online Criminal Harms Act rather than waiting for victims to report after the fact.

Google built that licence-verification machinery in response to almost exactly this crisis in India, Kenya, Nigeria and Pakistan between 2021 and 2023. It has not extended it to Bangladesh, a market of some 190 million people where every one of the preconditions — heavy microcredit demand, near-universal mobile wallets, and an app economy running well ahead of its regulator — is present.

Recent months have also seen several cases involving Chinese nationals arrested in Kenya on cyber-related charges. In July 2026, detectives arrested 18 Chinese nationals in a Kilimani apartment described as a suspected cyber fraud workstation, recovering phones, passports and cash.

X’s disclosure of a suspected Chinese bot farm targeting the U.S. AI data-center debate reveals a sophisticated, AI-enabled influence effort that exploits genuine energy-grid stress in the Mid-Atlantic to slow American technological scaling.

Elderly victims aged 65 and above made up 14.4% of all scam victims in the first six months of the year, down from 15.0% a year ago. Yet the average amount lost per elderly victim rose to S$42,347 from S$35,374 in the same period last year — the highest among all age groups.

While police disruption efforts intensified, with over 37,500 WhatsApp lines and 31,600 online monikers taken down, scammers continue to exploit Meta's social reach and messaging scale to run e-commerce, job and investment scams — using Facebook ads to lure victims before shifting them to WhatsApp groups for the final con.

OnePay resembles like Chinese 刷单 (brushing / order-completion) pattern used by illegal payment gateways

India orders Google to disable 160+ Firebase projects used as banking malware backend as per notices uploaded on Lumen DB. The move will safeguard thousands of banking customers who have been infected by android based malwares