Cybercrime in east and southeast Asia: The case of Taiwan

This chapter aims to scrutinize cybercrime as one of the security threat types of transnational organized crime (TOC) in East and Southeast Asia region in the era of globalization. This chapter examines the nature of cybercrime and how it has evolved in the Asia-Pacific region in the era of globalization. Following the booming economy in East and Southeast Asia, the internet has been used as a terrain to conduct transnational crimes, and the criminals try to utilize the loopholes between legal and judicial systems among the countries in the region. This chapter examines the threats that have been posted by cybercrime, which is different from the “traditional” organized crime activities. This chapter uses Taiwan (the official name is the Republic of China, R.O.C.) as a case study. Following globalization and technological development, Taiwan’s underworld went into a new stage of development, penetrating political, economic and other aspects in the society. Thus, many organized crime groups vigorously expand their organizations oversees into East and Southeast Asia. As a result, Taiwan exported many masterminds of telecommunication and internet fraud crime and those criminals form organized crime groups in the third countries. The whole region is affected by the telecommunication frauds conducted by transnational criminal groups that are in many cases headed by Taiwanese. This phenomenon has become a security threat to the region that requires cross-border cooperation and joint effort.