I’ve always been an avid reader but sometimes struggle to remember what I’ve read after I’ve moved on to the next book. In order to record my own reading and help people find books they may be interested, I’m going to start posting brief reviews. Hope you enjoy!

For years I’ve resisted the temptation to be rude to the callers on the other end of spam calls, despite their increasing ubiquity. I came away from this book feeling as though not being verbally hostile was perhaps all I could do to help them.

Weaving together recent history and interviews with those who’ve managed to escape, the authors paint a grim portrait of an industry that has festered in the shadows underneath the information superhighway. They focus mainly on southeast Asia on operations that grew out of casinos. These increasingly corporatized operations, complete with HR departments and motivational office decor, hop from place to place as they try and stay one step ahead of attempts to quash them.

Some victims are lured by the promise of an easy and lucrative job. Others by those they’ve befriended online or someone from their hometown who assure them the opportunity is legit. But for many victims, it’s not until they’re behind the walls of these secretive compounds that they realize their fate is as sealed as the windows.

Balancing an image of these workers as both victim and perpetrator is but one contradiction that confronts the reader in this academic but readable account. Another is the contemporary dilemma of having the ability to contact anyone around the world while simultaneously lacking any freedom of movement due to draconian surveillance and constant threat of violence. Even if they escape the compound, they are often confronted by a local population and government whose livelihood depends on supporting the scam operations as cleaners, cooks, or protection from authorities.

Though the book left me wanting more detail on specifics inside these operations, it’s hard to fault the authors for that given how these groups operate. Highly recommend to anyone who has wondered what’s happening on the other end of these calls.

Scam : inside Southeast Asia’s cybercrime compounds / Ivan Franceschini, Ling Li, and Mark Bo. – Verso, 2025