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From fake jobs to forced crime: IOM sounds alarm on human trafficking behind online scams

A job offer can conceal a criminal network and a single click can lead to a nightmare. Lured by false promises of legitimate employment abroad, hundreds of thousands of people are being trafficked each year, held captive and forced to carry out online scams.

Ahead of World Day Against Trafficking in Persons marked on 30 July, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) is raising the alarm over a rapidly expanding multibillion-dollar criminal industry that turns job seekers into victims of forced cybercrime.

“We're seeing victims from over 80 different countries being trafficked into the scam centers, which are specifically playing out across Asia,” said Amy Pope, IOM Director General. Briefing the media at the UN in Geneva, she explained how criminal networks are luring people with the promise of a job. “The job opportunities are being advertised on social media networks by and large. They present completely as a regular job. They're recruiting people who often speak English very well, who often have graduate degrees, some level of education.”

Once they arrive at the scam center, victims are locked inside the compounds, stripped of their passport and phones. They’re often subjected to constant surveillance, and forced to carry out online scam operations targeting people worldwide through violence, threats and debt bondage. “They're often subjected to physical or mental abuse. They are often unable to leave and they find themselves in circumstances that are well beyond their control.”

“What often presents as something that looks like an ideal job opportunity is just too good to be true,” she warned. People who are looking for jobs can be very easily exploited and they may not be asking the follow-on questions that one might ask before being sent abroad. As an example, IOM noticed that many people are coming in on tourist visas. “They're not being given the proper visas that would enable them to work. So that's one key question you should ask: will you help me get the proper visa,” explained Amy Pope.

IOM also insisted people forced to commit crimes inside scam centers are victims of trafficking, not criminals, and as such, they should be protected, not punished. “We're seeing many of the survivors of trafficking actually being identified as criminals, but in reality, they are the victims of this crime, this scam,” said Ms. Pope.

Trafficking people into online scam operations has become one of the world's fastest-growing forms of human trafficking. “It is highly organized, highly, highly profitable, and it's increasingly global,” outlined IOM Director General.

Although the scam centers are essentially based within Asia, traffickers recruit victims worldwide through social media, allowing criminal networks to expand far beyond the region.

According to IOM, dismantling the trafficking networks requires stronger cross-border cooperation, government partnerships, prevention effort and better protection for victims.

Between 2022 and 2025, the organization assisted more than 3,500 victims trafficked into forced criminality across South-East Asia. The survivors came from 39 countries, with the largest groups from Indonesia, India, Sri Lanka, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Bangladesh.

Rescue marks only the beginning of the recovery. Back home, many survivors often face severe psychological trauma, social stigma, debt, missing identity documents and the fear of prosecution for crimes they were forced to commit. Long term support is critical to help them rebuild their lives.

The financial scale of the crime is staggering. New United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) data estimates combined annual losses from scam offences across East Asia, South-East Asia, Australia, and New Zealand are between USD 88.3 billion and USD 114.1 billion for 2025 alone. Much of the activity is tied to organized crime and scam compounds across the region are believed to hold hundreds of thousands of trafficked workers.

“When you think about something that is defrauding people in the billions of dollars -between East and Southeast Asia, Australia, New Zealand, annual losses are $88 to $114 billion US dollars last year alone and then you think about the very, very, relatively disproportionately small resources that are going to fight trafficking, whether it's support for a UN agency, whether it's support for a government and its capacity on the ground, it just doesn't measure up. So, unless we take the issue quite seriously, we anticipate it will continue to grow,” warned Amy Pope.

The International Organization for Migration is calling for greater investment in victim protection, safe return and long-term reintegration, alongside wider public awareness of traffickers’ tactics to help people recognize fraudulent recruitment schemes before they become victims.

Ends

Human trafficking in online scams - IOM

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