John Wojciech
Appearances
SCAMMERLAND
Small Q’s Escape and the Fight to End Forced Scamming
They're extremely efficient in integrating new technologies that can increase their efficiency and empower them. Traditionally, government systems do not operate the same way, right?
SCAMMERLAND
Small Q’s Escape and the Fight to End Forced Scamming
Little word called sovereignty. Yeah, I mean, you know, the way that things work, unfortunately, perhaps is not as you've described. I've been asked previously, like, why can't the UN mobilize some sort of a cross-border effort to, you know, launch an offensive on, you know, what's happening on the Thai-Myanmar border, for instance, right?
SCAMMERLAND
Small Q’s Escape and the Fight to End Forced Scamming
First and foremost, we don't have that capability and we don't have that mandate. We are a law enforcement adjacent agency. We don't conduct operations or investigations. Secondly, UN peacekeeping forces wouldn't be drawn into that kind of a conflict. And at the end of the day, from my understanding, they would need to be invited by the host government.
SCAMMERLAND
Small Q’s Escape and the Fight to End Forced Scamming
Even for the Thai government, for instance, who shares a border with some of those operations on the Myanmar side. they're finding it very difficult to address the situation as well, even despite the fact that the Thai tourism industry is now suffering from some of these human trafficking incidents.
SCAMMERLAND
Small Q’s Escape and the Fight to End Forced Scamming
Yeah, I mean, you know, the way that things are trending right now, it's, uh... There's maybe a few things that I would say is first and foremost, we're seeing the criminal groups involved in this activity very quickly emerging into more sophisticated cyber threat actors, right? So they're leveraging malware, they're leveraging advanced methods of laundering their money.
SCAMMERLAND
Small Q’s Escape and the Fight to End Forced Scamming
and they're developing new platforms in which they can conduct their business.
SCAMMERLAND
Small Q’s Escape and the Fight to End Forced Scamming
What do you mean by new platforms?
SCAMMERLAND
Small Q’s Escape and the Fight to End Forced Scamming
I'm talking about illicit online marketplaces that have specifically popped up in the region on Telegram. They offer, like I mentioned, a bunch of different sort of specialty services from laundering to web hosting to malware as a service. A bunch of these different things can be found in those platforms.
SCAMMERLAND
Small Q’s Escape and the Fight to End Forced Scamming
Yeah, I would say so. But it's all happening very much out in the open. A lot of these groups have upwards of like a million users, hundreds of thousands is very common. So I would sort of frame this under a more broader professionalization that's taking place within the industry. And I think, unfortunately, we're kind of just getting started with where this is heading.
SCAMMERLAND
Small Q’s Escape and the Fight to End Forced Scamming
Is the way forward just like ruthless cynicism at all times?
SCAMMERLAND
Small Q’s Escape and the Fight to End Forced Scamming
It's a question I struggle with, honestly. You are vulnerable. I'm vulnerable, right? And you're being targeted in one way, shape or form. I'll guarantee you with a platform like yours, with a profile like yours, There are plenty of criminal groups who would love to have access to your Twitter account or to your email to pump out some malicious links to your followers, right?
SCAMMERLAND
Small Q’s Escape and the Fight to End Forced Scamming
And so I think brushing up on, again, lame cyber hygiene, cyber awareness, as lame and stupid as it sounds, these days is more critical than ever, right? Go check if your emails have been compromised. A lot of open source tools to kind of work on that hygiene piece, right? see where you're exposed online, see what comes up when you Google yourself, right?
SCAMMERLAND
Small Q’s Escape and the Fight to End Forced Scamming
If you've got the resources, maybe pay a company to help you wipe that out. And unfortunately, I think for a lot of people, it's going to take some growing pains, if you will, right? Whether that means being scammed or having an email sent to yourself from your own email that asks for Bitcoin.
SCAMMERLAND
Small Q’s Escape and the Fight to End Forced Scamming
I would love to hear it. Absolutely.
SCAMMERLAND
Small Q’s Escape and the Fight to End Forced Scamming
Well, Small Q, this has been such a pleasure. I mean, it's a horrible story, but talking to you and sharing this with you has been a real pleasure.
SCAMMERLAND
Small Q’s Escape and the Fight to End Forced Scamming
How did you get this job? I studied law, politics, and philosophy. Found my way into the UN working as an intern. Ended up moving to the regional headquarters here in Bangkok, where I started to really dig into more of the organized crime portfolio.
SCAMMERLAND
Small Q’s Escape and the Fight to End Forced Scamming
No worries, because there's actually no Z in my last name.
SCAMMERLAND
Small Q’s Escape and the Fight to End Forced Scamming
Yeah, it's a pretty daunting question, isn't it?
SCAMMERLAND
Small Q’s Escape and the Fight to End Forced Scamming
So we try to work to sort of expedite that information sharing through formal and informal channels to ideally protect victims, but also in an ideal scenario, freeze and seize and recover some of the assets that have been stolen.
SCAMMERLAND
Small Q’s Escape and the Fight to End Forced Scamming
So sort of bridging that gap between hardline, frontline law enforcement and the policymaking folks who are in the business of designing solutions and responses.
SCAMMERLAND
Small Q’s Escape and the Fight to End Forced Scamming
Things like digital evidence, digital forensics, you know, a lot of intelligence can be collected from devices, right? But in a lot of these cases, those processes to collect that information, to analyze it and to utilize it in a court of law, not really present.
SCAMMERLAND
Small Q’s Escape and the Fight to End Forced Scamming
Yeah, it's definitely a problem. I mean, they are highly entrepreneurial, they're extremely agile, and they run their criminal enterprises in the same way that Amazon or Microsoft or any large-scale transnational enterprise might do so, right? They're based on bottom line. They're very rapid in their decision-making.