Kuala Lampur, Oct. 17 -- When the US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned three Singaporeans and 17 Singapore-registered entities this week for their alleged links to a massive crypto-scamming syndicate in Cambodia, the news reverberated across Asean.

For years, Southeast Asia has been seen as the "testing ground" for transnational cybercrime networks - where weak regulation, porous borders and digital naivety have created the perfect storm for illicit profits. Yet this time, the message is unmistakable: no scam is too large, too complex or too cross-border to punish.

The scale of this case is staggering. The US has seized nearly US$15 billion in Bitcoin - the largest asset forfeiture in its history - from an in...