The United Nations Office at Geneva
Multimedia Newsroom
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
Story: “Human trafficking in online scams - IOM” – Tuesday 24 July 2026
Speaker: Amy Pope, IOM Director General
TRT: 02’36”
SOURCE: UNTV CH
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
ASPECT RATIO: 16:9
DATELINE: 24 July 2025 - GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
Geneva Press briefing
SHOTLIST
- Exterior medium shot: UN flag alley.
- Wide shot of the podium with speakers at the press conference room.
- SOUNDBITE (English) Amy Pope, IOM Director General: “We're seeing victims from over 80 different countries being trafficked into the scam centers. They're specifically playing out across Asia. 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.”
- Wide shot of the press conference room.
- SOUNDBITE (English) Amy Pope, IOM Director General: “When the victims themselves show up at the scam center, their passports are confiscated. 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. This is one of the fastest growing areas of human trafficking in the world. It is highly organized. It is highly, highly profitable, and it's increasingly global.”
- Wide shot: journalists at the press conference room.
- SOUNDBITE (English) Amy Pope, IOM Director General: “What often presents as something that looks like an ideal job opportunity is just too good to be true. And people are looking for jobs, and so they're very easily exploited, and they're not asking the follow-on questions that you might ask before you're being sent. Now, one thing we've seen, for example, is 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 be asked: will you help me to get the proper visa.”
- Cutaway: medium shot of journalists in the press conference room.
- SOUNDBITE (English) Amy Pope, IOM Director General: “We're seeing many of the survivors of trafficking actually being identified as criminals, but in reality, they are the victims of this crime, of this scam.”
- Wide shot of the press conference room and control room.
- SOUNDBITE (English) Amy Pope, IOM Director General: “When you think about something that is defrauding people in the billions of dollars, as I said, between East and Southeast Asia, Australia, New Zealand, annual losses are $88 to $114 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.”
- Various shots of the press conference room.
Similar Stories
1
1
1
Edited News | UNICEF , IFRC
Six weeks after Nepal’s deadly flooding disaster, communities are still struggling to rebuild their lives, but they will need sustained help as global warming increases the risk of another Himalayan catastrophe, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said on Friday.
1
1
1
Edited News | WHO
In suspected Russia plague death, testing and monitoring underway – WHO
The death of a lab worker in Russia’s Siberia region has sparked concerns about plague being the cause, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday, adding that it was following the situation closely.
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk on Friday provided and oral update to the 63rd session of the Human rights Council on Ukraine.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk on Friday provided and oral update to the 63rd session of the Human rights Council on the human rights situation in Haiti.
1
1
1
Edited News | WHO
Repeated delays in bringing lifesaving medicines, prosthetics and more from Israel into Gaza risk having devastating consequences on Palestinians who urgently need them in the wartorn enclave, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday. “A truck full of non-priority supplies or the right supplies arriving too late, doesn't save lives. That's the question that actually matters," said Dr Reinhilde Van De Weerdt, WHO Representative in the OPT.
1
1
1
Edited News | WHO
DRC: Early access to care and oxygen decisive for Ebola patients’ survival – WHO
In the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), health workers fighting the country’s largest-ever Ebola outbreak are struggling to overcome critical challenges to patient care, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) warned on Tuesday.
1
1
1
Edited News | OCHA , UN
Civilians in Iran are continuing to feel the consequences of months of conflict and military escalation, the UN’s top official in the country has said, as loss of life, damage to civilian infrastructure and mounting economic pressures leave many facing continued uncertainty.
1
1
1
Edited News | WHO , UNICEF
Aid agencies in Yemen highlighted the growing hunger emergency sparked by renewed fighting between Houthi opposition forces and Government troops, after mobile health clinics reported that hundreds of children displaced by the violence are suffering from the most deadly form of malnutrition.
1
1
1
Edited News | UNHCR
Displacement on the rise in Yemen as fighting continues - UNHCR
As hostilities worsen in Yemen, more people have been fleeing their homes, further intensifying the humanitarian crisis within the region, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) warned on Tuesday.
1
1
1
Edited News | IOM , OHCHR , UNFPA , UNOG , UNHCR , WHO
Yemen’s humanitarian crisis growing by the hour amid spike in displacement
Yemenis displaced by renewed fighting have described fleeing for their lives amid shelling and gunfire, aid agencies reported on Friday, while highlighting the dramatic increase in humanitarian needs in the country and in Djibouti, where thousands have sought shelter.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
The UN Human Rights Office issued on Friday a report documenting a shocking pattern of sexual violence amid Russia’s full-scale armed attack on Ukraine.
2
1
2
Edited News , Press Conferences | WMO
As world’s water reserves change, countries must prepare for a new reality: WMO
New data showing that rivers were at their lowest level for decades last year provides further evidence that the climate crisis is real and countries must act immediately to protect themselves from the increasing threat to communities and livelihoods, the UN World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Thursday.
The key findings from WMO’s State of Global Water Resources 2025 report covering the hydrological cycle and extreme events in the five-year period to last year:
- 2025 was one of driest years for river discharge in 35 years
- Past seven years have seen abnorfmal river flows
- Water storage on Earth’s land surface has decreased in past decade
- Widespread glacier loss across all regions for fourth consecutive year
- Asia and Africa are regions most affected by water-related disasters
- Water data availability has improved, but gaps remain in hard-hit areas
Highlighting the long-term decline in the Earth’s freshwater storage and glacier melt, WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo explained that the planet’s water reserves used to act as a planetary “savings account” that absorbed the occasional dry season, avoiding a water crisis. “One of the central stories of the 2025 report is what is happening to that savings account? And the simple answer is that we are depleting it,” she told journalists in Geneva.
Groundwater reserves are equally stretched and have been in decline since 2014, WMO’s report states, with nearly two-thirds of monitored wells worldwide showing levels lower than the historical norm and indicating a shift “further toward deficit…not recovery”.
“At the same time, we are seeing more water-related disasters,” Ms. Saulo said, while also stressing that the currently strengthening El Niño “will increase the risk of drought in some areas, and flooding in others”.
Glaciers disappearing
In 2025, for the fourth consecutive year, every major glaciated region on Earth lost ice mass, leading to short-term hazards including floods and long-term water insecurity, according to WMO.
Responding to a question about whether the changing global water cycle might have contributed to the deadly Nepal-China flooding disaster, Ms. Saulo explained that melting ice and rock was just one factor in the chain of events that ultimately sent a massive and deadly wall of water and debris downstream on 26 August, killing at least 1,367 people.
“You asked if it could happen again? Absolutely; the problem in this region is that there’s 63,700 glaciers at the last count,” she told a Press Conference in Geneva. “Even if you’re looking with remote sensing with satellites at these glaciers, you might see some faults, you might see some slight shifting, that does not mean necessarily catastrophic collapse. So, in order to plan for this, it’s very, very difficult. But the international community is looking very hard at ways in which we can bring people together to solve some of these monitoring issues.”
Data indicates that glaciers shrank between 2023 and 2025 with cumulative losses of 1,400 gigatonnes of water – or about one third of annual fresh water needs.
Every major glacier region on Earth lost ice for the fourth consecutive year.
“All 19 glacier regions around the globe lost ice; in Central Asia, Iceland, the Russian Arctic and western Canada and the United States, it was among the three worst years on record,” said Wayne Jenkinson, WMO’s Director of Hydrology and Cryosphere.
Some regions with smaller glaciers such as Central Europe, the Caucasus, the western Canada and the United States may already have reached “peak water”, Mr. Jenkinson warned.
“After this point, the glacier gives less meltwater each year simply because there is less ice left to melt. That matters for every community downstream that relies on water during hot, dry summers,” he explained.
Narelle van der Wel, WMO’s Head of Cryosphere Monitoring, Predictions and Services, stressed that while some further glacier loss is unavoidable, the eventual scale of the decline is not predetermined.
“Some glacier loss is inevitable, but total loss of glaciers is not yet inevitable,” she said, pointing to emissions reductions as central to limiting future losses.
Preparing for moving baselines
The report does not attribute every observed change to climate change alone. WMO says pressure on water resources and natural variability also contribute.
Mr. Jenkinson said governments need to prepare for “moving baselines” as historical patterns become less reliable.
“The situation 30 years ago is not where we are today,” he said. Countries, he added, need to prepare “for those changes that have really already arrived”.
ends