Madagascar busted 13 electronic fraud parks and 148 Chinese were extradited back to the country

(Deutsche Welle Chinese website) The East African country of Madagascar has launched raids on multiple online fraud centers in the country, revealing that these centers are linked to a similar fraud group operating in Cambodia. Madagascar authorities said they had destroyed a total of 13 fraud dens operated by the Chinese and have so far extradited 148 people back to China.

Madagascar's Ministry of Justice said these dens engaged in emotional fraud, cryptocurrency fraud and investment fraud, and were mostly run by Chinese nationals. The department said a total of 13 fraud parks were dismantled in operations conducted jointly with the U.S. Department of Justice in August and September.

The U.S. Department of Justice said in a statement that approximately $52 million in cryptocurrency was seized and more than 3,200 electronic devices were processed during the operation in just one day.

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime warned last year about the expansion of these networks, particularly into southern Africa.

Another 11 Chinese citizens who were individually arrested in an operation to combat online fraud were mysteriously released from a prison in Madagascar in August. The high-profile scandal allegedly implicates the head of the country's prison administration.

Officials said several Africans remain in custody despite preliminary investigations suggesting they may be victims of human trafficking.

Restore the crime process of the Chinese-speaking "liar police"

Recruiting through social media with promises of high salary

Like scams in Southeast Asia, the fraud hubs in Madagascar are suspected of luring Africans to the Indian Ocean island nation through social media and promises of high salaries.

Authorities said about 20 people from Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda and Zimbabwe were detained in the case.

"According to their statements, they were recruited through Facebook to come to Madagascar for commercial work," Hassan Mouigni, head of the police's criminal department, told AFP.

"But when they get here, most of them have their passports confiscated by their bosses and they are forced to engage in fraud," he said. "They are victims of deception."

According to US authorities, the person accused of running a relationship fraud ring is a Malaysian man, Chui Kok Wa, who lives in a villa in Ivato, an upscale neighborhood near the capital, Antananarivo.

"It can be inferred from the visa on his passport that he came here for the first time in 2024. According to the passport, he was in Cambodia before," Muini said.

The U.S. Justice Department said it believed his "criminal group with ties to Malaysia and China opened a fraud campus in Madagascar in early 2025 and likely diverted operations from there following a law enforcement operation in Cambodia."

Tsitohaina Ralihivao, coordinator of the cybercrime unit of the Ministry of Communications of Madagascar, linked the incident to Cambodia’s 2025 crackdown on fraud parks near the Thai-Cambodian border. At that time, the armies of the two countries also clashed.

"After the Thais destroyed the parks, they just moved the operations away. The same groups came to Madagascar," Lalithivao told AFP.

Shifting positions to defraud English-speaking countries

An FBI court document released by the U.S. Department of Justice reached a similar conclusion after interviewing three Brazilians who worked at a fraud complex in Antananarivo.

“These individuals reported that they initially applied for job opportunities posted online but ended up working at a campus in Cambodia.

"Later, in part as a result of the armed conflict between Cambodia and Thailand, and also as a result of Cambodian police operations targeting the fraud complex, these witnesses were transferred to Antananarivo, Madagascar in early May 2026," the document said.

"As such campuses are shuttered in Southeast Asia, cyber fraud centers are increasingly opening in Africa," the FBI said.

Muini said U.S. authorities got involved because the centers "mainly target English-speaking countries," including the United States, Canada and Pakistan.

That's why "people from English-speaking Africa are needed," Lalithivao added.

The arrival of the fraud center did not go unnoticed in the capital of Madagascar.

“They used to live in a relatively secluded villa. What caught our attention was that they started booking out entire hotels,” Muini said.

The suspected person in charge of a campus at the Live Hotel in the city is a Chinese citizen and was among those extradited back to Beijing.