SCAM CENTRES | The Investigator

Scam Centres, their role in criminality and how they can be disrupted, 24 February 2027

This workshop examines the industrialisation of online fraud through scam centres and scam-compound operations.

It explores how organised crime combines social engineering, human trafficking, digital infrastructure, artificial intelligence and specialised laundering networks to run fraud at scale.

The workshop follows the lifecycle from recruitment and victim targeting through payment and laundering, before turning to investigative techniques and disruption opportunities.

Session One: Inside the Scam-Centre Business Model

The first session explains how scam centres are structured and why they increasingly resemble organised commercial operations.

The evolution and global spread of scam centres beyond their original regional hubs.
Recruitment, trafficking and forced criminality, including the distinction between offenders, facilitators and exploited workers.
Division of labour inside scam operations: management, victim engagement, technical support, finance and money laundering.
Common fraud models including investment scams, romance fraud, impersonation, job scams and sextortion.
Use of scripts, CRM-style systems, fake platforms and performance management to industrialise victim engagement.

Session Two: From First Contact to Cash-Out

This session follows a scam from the first approach to the laundering of proceeds, highlighting where investigative traces are created.

Victim acquisition through social media, messaging applications, dating platforms and fraudulent advertising.
Social-engineering escalation: trust building, grooming, urgency and controlled victim journeys.
Use of AI-generated content, voice cloning and deepfake video to strengthen impersonation and credibility.
Technical infrastructure: domains, fake investment platforms, messaging accounts, devices and account reuse.
Payment pathways involving bank transfers, mule accounts, payment services, virtual assets and cryptocurrency wallets.
The role of professional money launderers and underground banking networks in moving and settling scam proceeds.

Session Three: Investigating Scam Centres – Indicators, Case Studies and Disruption

The final session focuses on how investigators can connect apparently separate fraud reports to the infrastructure and organisations behind them.

Recent INTERPOL and UNODC case studies illustrating scam-centre structures, AI-enabled fraud and transnational operations.
Using OSINT, digital footprints, domain and platform intelligence, financial analysis and blockchain tracing to generate leads.
Identifying common infrastructure across victims: accounts, wallets, devices, domains, telephone numbers and communication profiles.
Combining victim evidence, financial intelligence and digital evidence to map roles and organisational structure.
Human-trafficking considerations and the importance of distinguishing coerced participants from organisers and facilitators.
Applied case-study exercise: moving from an individual victim report to a network-level investigative hypothesis and disruption plan.

Held online Via Teams

Certificates of CPD available

Our Expert

Antonio Rossi is a Certified Fraud Examiner with over a decade of experience in the fields of financial crime, fraud investigation, and anti-money laundering (AML). After working for ten years with a Big Four firm across Europe, he now focuses on training and advisory services for law enforcement agencies, financial institutions, private sector and international organisations.

HOW TO BOOK

Cost: £235 + VAT (GBP) per delegate per workshop (LEA and Government Agency rate). £285 + VAT (Industry rate), per delegate

Group bookings: We offer various discounts for group bookings depending on numbers, please contact us for details.

Booking: Please send the delegates name(s), email address(es) and purchase order (made out to The Investigator) to booking@the-investigator.co.uk or telephone +44(0)844 660 8707 for further information.

Payment can be made by PayPal/debit/credit card. The meeting link will be sent out 7 days before the event.