EU–ASEAN Cooperation on Cyber Fraud and Scams: Operationalising UN Norms and the UN Convention Against Cybercrime

From principles to practice: protecting citizens, economies, and digital trust Organised by the European Union and the Czech Republic

Scams and cyber-enabled fraud are today among the most pervasive forms of cybercrime, undermining public trust in digital services, inflicting billions in economic losses, and targeting citizens across Europe, ASEAN, and the wider Indo-Pacific. Organised criminal groups increasingly exploit cross-border infrastructure, digital payments, and emerging technologies such as AI to operate at scale, making scams one of the most urgent transnational threats. Both the European Union and ASEAN have placed countering scams high on their agendas. For the EU, scams threaten not only citizens and businesses but also the integrity of the Digital Single Market. For ASEAN, scams have become a major societal and security concern, as reflected in the creation of the ASEAN Working Group on Anti-Online Scam, the ASEAN Regional CERT, and the Vientiane Declaration on job scams. Countries such as Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia have taken visible leadership, dismantling criminal networks, tightening regulation, and driving regional coordination. This panel discussion will bring together senior officials from the EU, ASEAN, and global partners to explore how the UN framework of responsible state behavior in cyberspace and the UN Convention against Cybercrime can be operationalised to fight scams. It will highlight complementarity between EU and ASEAN approaches, showcase operational models, and identify joint priorities for future cooperation.