Thai police have arrested a 33-year-old Indonesian man accused of defrauding Americans out of $10 million in romance scams, local media and AFP reported. The arrest took place on Friday at a luxury resort on the island of Phuket.

The arrest followed a tip-off from the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), according to AFP. Immigration police representative Suriya Poungsombat said the FBI informed that the suspect was wanted for committing fraud against Americans of about $10 million.

The suspect had allegedly traveled from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, to Thailand on Wednesday. After his arrest, he was sent to an immigration detention center in Bangkok and is awaiting extradition to the US.

Southeast Asia has emerged as a hotspot for cyberscam operations in recent years, with organized criminal groups using casinos, hotels, and fortified compounds as bases to carry out sophisticated online cons.

Local media reported that from 2022 to 2026, the suspect contacted victims through dating apps and social media. He allegedly hired models to lure victims into relationships and then encourage them to invest in fake platforms with false profit projections. Numerous victims were identified in the US.

According to a 2025 UN Office on Drugs and Crime report, foreign workers in the UAE have been “lured into scam work in Southeast Asia,” suggesting Dubai is becoming a global hub for recruitment and trafficking linked to the cyber-enabled fraud industry.

Source: www.aljazeera.com