It could happen to you: introducing “Scam Inc”
Economist Podcasts
The Economist
4.4 • 4.9K Ratings
🗓️ 7 February 2025
⏱️ 24 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Our new podcast series is a shocking look at transnational organised crime: nearly as big as the illegal-drug trade and far more sophisticated than you might think. Beware. After a week that started with bold tariff moves by the Trump administration, what can be gleaned from how things progressed (09:20)? And a staid, ancient game gets a glitzy modern makeover (16:20).
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Economist. |
| 0:07.0 | Hello and welcome to the intelligence from The Economist. I'm Jason Palmer. |
| 0:15.0 | And I'm Rosie Bloor. Every weekday, we provide a fresh perspective on the event shaping your world. |
| 0:29.1 | We started the week with some startling moves on tariffs by the Trump administration. |
| 0:34.6 | After some serious paroxysms of the markets, the scene is already very different. |
| 0:38.3 | We ask what's to be learned from all that White House whiplash. |
| 0:47.0 | And strap yourself in for some glitzy sporting action today. There will be tension, there'll be expert analysis, there will be top flight players battling it out with dramatic voiceovers. It'll be |
| 0:54.0 | chess. |
| 1:01.9 | But first... |
| 1:07.2 | In parts of Thailand this week, panicked residents queued for fuel |
| 1:13.3 | after the authorities deliberately cut off power in several towns on the country's eastern fringe. |
| 1:19.6 | Thailand's Prime Minister herself authorised the move. |
| 1:23.4 | It was an extraordinary measure designed to curb an extraordinary industry. |
| 1:28.3 | Workers at scam centres operating just over the border in neighbouring Myanmar |
| 1:32.3 | have been conning people into fake investment schemes. |
| 1:35.3 | But the problem isn't limited to remote border towns. |
| 1:39.3 | All over the world, there are scam compounds like these, |
| 1:42.3 | stealing billions of dollars. It's an industry |
| 1:45.5 | everyone is having to wake up to. Online scams are a big story on my beat as Southeast Asia |
| 1:53.6 | correspondent. And I've been covering it for a couple of years here in Asia. Then I heard about |
| 2:00.6 | the collapse of a bank in America |
| 2:02.7 | that was somehow connected to the rise of online scams in this part of the world. |
... |
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