Southeast Asia’s Scam-Centre Trafficking Crisis: How Human Trafficking Became the Labour Force of Global Cybercrime

Scam centers in Southeast Asia are workplaces where criminal networks run online fraud. In trafficking cases, people are recruited through false job offers, confined and forced to scam others. Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos are major locations, while recruitment and financial victims extend far beyond the region.

Someone sending a fraudulent message may be acting under threats or violence. The person receiving it can lose savings, security and trust. Understanding both harms is essential to investigating the crime and protecting those affected.

Reviewed and updated October 5, 2026. Estimates below are attributed to their reporting dates and should not be read as a live count.

Key facts

• Fake jobs can lead to confinement, document confiscation and forced participation in fraud.
• In July 2026, IOM reported victims from more than 80 countries. This is a dated agency finding, not a complete global count.
• Educated jobseekers with language and technology skills are among those targeted.
• Raids need to be followed by victim identification, protection and support for recovery.

Latest developments in scam-center trafficking

September 23, 2026, Cambodia hosts an anti-scam summit

At a conference in Phnom Penh, Prime Minister Hun Manet said Cambodia would not be a safe haven for scam syndicates. Reuters reported that officials promoted enforcement efforts, while analysts questioned their effectiveness. Government announcements need to be assessed alongside evidence about whether compounds close and survivors receive protection.

July 28, 2026, IOM reports victims from more than 80 countries

At a UN Geneva briefing, IOM Director General Amy Pope described recruits deceived by job offers, then prevented from leaving. IOM reported victims from more than 80 countries. INTERPOL’s earlier finding of 66 countries, as of March 2025, remains a separate dated observation; the two figures are not a like-for-like measure of growth.

June 2026, Investigations describe continuing operations

The June Reuters, Amnesty International and AP/FRONTLINE reporting cited below documented people still trapped and operations continuing despite crackdowns. Those findings remain relevant historical evidence rather than an October headcount.

What are scam centers?

Scam centers are organized compounds or controlled workplaces where people are forced, coerced or pressured into conducting online fraud. The fraud may include romance-investment scams, cryptocurrency scams, impersonation fraud, online gambling schemes, task scams, extortion and other forms of cyber-enabled deception.

The term “pig butchering” is often used to describe one common model of romance-investment fraud. In these schemes, a scammer builds a relationship with a target over time, gains trust, then persuades the person to invest money through a fraudulent platform. The phrase is widely used in law enforcement and cybercrime reporting, but it can be dehumanizing. It is more accurate to describe the crime as long-form romance-investment fraud.

The trafficking element begins before the fraud itself. According to OSCE’s 2026 exploratory assessment, victims are recruited through deceptive job advertisements that appear to offer legitimate employment, often with relocation support or above-market pay. Upon arrival, victims may experience confinement, confiscation of documents and violence.

OHCHR has warned since 2023 that hundreds of thousands of people were being forcibly engaged in online criminality in Southeast Asia. UNODC has also described the wider transformation of Southeast Asian organized crime, arguing that cyberfraud, underground banking and illicit online marketplaces have fundamentally reshaped the region’s criminal ecosystem.

The industry’s growth is linked to several overlapping conditions: pandemic-era economic disruption, the shift of some casino-linked economies into online fraud, weak regulation in border zones, corruption, armed conflict, illicit finance, online recruitment and the rapid availability of digital tools that allow criminals to target victims globally.

Where are scam centers located in Southeast Asia?

Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos are major documented locations. Countries where people are recruited, transit through or lose money are not necessarily countries hosting compounds.

The crisis is concentrated in Southeast Asia but no longer confined there. INTERPOL reported in 2025 that human trafficking-fueled scam centers had expanded globally, with victims from 66 countries trafficked into online scam centers as of March 2025. INTERPOL said 74 percent of identified trafficking victims were brought to centers in the original hub region of Southeast Asia, while scam-center activity had also been observed in the Middle East, West Africa and Central America.

Inside the compounds, the system is often highly organized. OSCE describes a hierarchy that can include compound owners, political or protection-linked elites, operations managers, supervisors, team leaders and trafficked workers. It also notes that compounds can function as self-contained ecosystems with dormitories, canteens and internal control structures.

The digital side is increasingly sophisticated. AP and FRONTLINE reported that specialized scam software used AI models to generate automated replies, support role-play personas, translate across more than 100 languages and track worker performance. AP also reported that one in five device signals from four Myanmar scam compounds linked to sanctioned entities was routed through US-registered companies, based on analysis of more than 200,000 device connections provided by International Justice Mission.

Scam operations are also resilient. AP reported that at least 25 new scam compounds had appeared or grown in Myanmar after a high-profile crackdown, according to satellite imagery it verified, and that scammers from at least 13 new outposts used Starlink IP addresses between early March and late May. Again, the significance is not that one company alone caused the crisis. The significance is that organized crime groups are able to move, reconnect, rebuild and continue operating even after visible enforcement action.

Cambodia remains another major focus. Amnesty International reported in June 2026 that Cambodia’s crackdown had failed to dismantle the vast majority of scam sites it identified and had not adequately protected people subjected to trafficking, torture and slavery. Amnesty said its research identified an additional 33 scamming compounds and included testimony from 73 survivors from 16 countries. The Cambodian government has rejected Amnesty’s findings and has pointed to enforcement actions, arrests and deportations, according to Reuters.

How are people recruited and trafficked into scam compounds?

The connection to human trafficking is direct. This is not only a workplace abuse issue, and it is not only a cybercrime issue. It involves recruitment, deception, movement, coercion and exploitation for profit.

The process often follows a pattern. A person sees a job advertisement online, sometimes for customer service, sales, translation, hospitality, marketing, gaming, cryptocurrency or administrative work. The offer may promise high pay, accommodation, travel support or visa assistance. After arrival, the person may be transferred through several handlers, taken across a border, brought into a guarded compound, stripped of documents and told they owe a debt. They may then be forced to contact strangers online, build false relationships, persuade targets to invest in fraudulent platforms or participate in other scams.

OSCE’s assessment found that recruitment linked to cyber scam centers follows similar patterns across jurisdictions and is structured to blend into legitimate labor-market infrastructure, meaning risk is often visible only when multiple indicators appear together. That matters for prevention. A single job advert may not look obviously criminal. The danger lies in the combination of unrealistic pay, relocation pressure, private messaging channels, vague employer identity, accommodation control and unclear job duties.

Once inside, exploitation can include forced labor, debt bondage, deprivation of liberty, threats, violence, surveillance, food restriction, sexual exploitation and sale between compounds. OSCE cites lived experience accounts describing 12 to 18-hour days, no regular leave, debt bondage and victims being sold between compounds depending on language skills.

What is trafficking for forced criminality?

This is also forced criminality. Victims are compelled to commit crimes for the benefit of traffickers. That creates a major protection problem. A person forced to scam others may be treated by authorities as a suspect, immigration offender or cybercriminal rather than as a trafficking victim. IOM has warned that victims of forced criminality are too often arrested for crimes they were made to commit, according to reporting summarizing the agency’s position.

The legal and moral distinction is essential. Being forced to participate in fraud does not erase the harm suffered by financial victims. But it does require authorities to recognize coercion, identify trafficking indicators and avoid punishing people for acts committed under threat or control.

How do scam networks overlap with other crimes?

INTERPOL’s 2025 assessment described overlaps between trafficking routes and other illicit activity, including wildlife trafficking. This supports examining shared criminal networks; it does not establish that scam centers themselves constitute ecocide.

Who is most at risk of scam-center trafficking?

The people most at risk are not a single demographic. Scam-center trafficking affects men and women, migrants, jobseekers, students, people with language skills, people with IT skills, people in debt, people seeking overseas work and people displaced by economic or political instability.

Victims have been identified from across Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas. INTERPOL’s 2025 update stated that victims from 66 countries had been trafficked into online scam centers. Reuters reported that those believed to be trapped near the Myanmar-Thai border included Chinese, Philippine, Taiwanese, Malaysian and Brazilian nationals, among others.

OSCE notes that victims are often young adults with multilingual capacity and may possess university-level education or digital skills. This challenges a common misconception: trafficking victims are not only people with little education or no professional experience. In scam-center trafficking, skills can increase risk. English ability, technical familiarity, sales experience or comfort using social media can make a person more attractive to recruiters.

Women face specific risks. OSCE’s 2026 assessment identifies gender dimensions in recruitment, including advertisements targeting women through iGaming and hospitality roles, especially where relocation, employer-provided housing or private messaging are involved. Reporting by The Guardian in June 2026 also highlighted serious allegations of gender-based abuse in cyberscam centers, particularly affecting women trafficked through deceptive job offers.

Children may also be affected. Amnesty International’s 2025 report on Cambodia documented forced labor, child labor, deprivation of liberty and slavery in scamming compounds, according to its published summary.

How do technology, money and weak enforcement sustain scam centers?

The scam-center crisis is sustained by systems, not only individual criminals.

The first system is labor-market deception. Recruitment is built to look ordinary. Fake job adverts appear on social media, job boards and messaging platforms. OSCE found that messaging platforms including Facebook, Telegram, LinkedIn, WhatsApp and Viber are common contact pathways across categories.

The second system is borderland impunity. Scam centers are often located in areas where law enforcement access is limited, where militias or armed groups exert control, or where criminal networks can buy protection. Reuters reported that victims near Myanmar’s Thai border were believed to be confined at sites in militia-controlled areas.

The third system is digital infrastructure. Criminal networks need connectivity, hosting, messaging, translation, payments, identity management and fraud tools. AP and FRONTLINE found that US-linked technology infrastructure formed part of the digital supply chain connecting Myanmar scam compounds to global targets.

The fourth system is illicit finance. Cryptocurrency and underground banking can allow criminal groups to move proceeds quickly across borders. OSCE notes that crypto-enabled scams can move money through legitimate exchanges before funds are transferred to criminal-controlled platforms.

The fifth system is fragmented enforcement. Human trafficking units, cybercrime units, immigration agencies, labor inspectors, financial regulators and technology companies often work in separate lanes. Scam-center trafficking sits across all of them. When agencies do not share intelligence or apply victim identification standards, survivors can fall through the gaps.

What happens to people inside scam compounds?

The human impact is severe and layered. A trafficked person may lose freedom, documents, contact with family, physical safety, income, legal status and trust in institutions. They may also carry the burden of having been forced to harm others financially.

Verified survivor accounts are central to recent reporting. AP described the case of Safeer Mohammed Koorimannil, an Indian man trafficked into a scam operation in Myanmar, who said he impersonated a woman online and communicated with large numbers of people while supervisors monitored workers. AP reported that records he smuggled out showed he targeted people from at least 17 countries in one month.

The financial victims of scams also suffer real harm. AP reported on victims who lost life savings through sophisticated online deception. This dual harm is one reason the crisis is so difficult to explain. The person sending a fraudulent message may be exploited. The person receiving it may also be a victim. Both realities can be true at the same time.

Survivors need more than rescue. They need safe accommodation, legal protection, medical care, trauma-informed support, repatriation where appropriate, documentation, reintegration assistance and protection from retaliation or re-trafficking. Without this, crackdowns can simply move people from one unsafe condition to another.

What are governments doing about scam-center trafficking?

Governments and institutions are responding, but the evidence suggests the response remains uneven.

UNODC has made forced criminality in scam operations the focus of its 2026 World Day Against Trafficking in Persons campaign. INTERPOL has issued warnings and reported that the trend has globalized beyond Southeast Asia. OSCE has published a 2026 exploratory assessment focused on how trafficking into cyber scam operations affects the OSCE region, including recruitment patterns and prevention indicators.

In the United States, the Department of Justice has created a Scam Center Strike Force focused on Southeast Asian cryptocurrency-related fraud and scams. The DOJ says the Strike Force combines the resources of the US Attorney’s Office with the Department of Justice Criminal Division, FBI and Secret Service. The US State Department also announced sanctions in April 2026 related to online scam centers in Southeast Asia and stated that Americans lost at least $10 billion to scam operations in Southeast Asia in 2024, citing a US government estimate.

Thailand has taken enforcement measures along its borders, including previous efforts to cut electricity, fuel and internet access to scam compounds, according to reporting. Cambodia has announced crackdowns, arrests and enforcement actions, but Amnesty International says the response has failed to dismantle many sites and protect victims adequately. The Cambodian government rejects Amnesty’s findings, according to Reuters.

The picture is therefore mixed. There is more recognition, more enforcement and more international pressure than before. But the business model remains resilient, and many victims remain beyond protection.

What protection do survivors need?

The first change is recognition. Governments must treat scam-center trafficking as trafficking for forced criminality, not simply as illegal migration or cybercrime. Victim identification must happen before detention, deportation or prosecution.

The second change is survivor protection. Rescue without protection is incomplete. Survivors need legal status, shelter, interpretation, medical care, trauma support, financial help, safe repatriation and reintegration assistance.

The third change is technology accountability. Technology companies should not be blamed without evidence, but they should be expected to assess foreseeable misuse, enforce terms of service, cooperate with lawful investigations and strengthen detection where their services are repeatedly exploited by organized crime.

The fourth change is financial disruption. Scam centers rely on payment channels, cryptocurrency flows, shell companies, underground banking and laundering networks. Enforcement must follow the money, not only raid compounds.

The fifth change is regional cooperation. Trafficking routes, recruitment channels, financial flows and digital infrastructure cross borders. No single government can solve this alone.

The sixth change is public understanding. People need to recognize that an online scam may involve two victims: the person losing money and the person forced to send the messages.

Why survivor protection matters to Not For Sale

Not For Sale’s perspective begins with the recognition that modern slavery adapts. Exploitation is no longer confined to factories, farms, brothels or domestic work. It now operates through phones, encrypted chats, fake job adverts, cryptocurrency platforms, artificial intelligence tools and digital supply chains.

A survivor-centered response must not reduce people to evidence in a cybercrime case. It must ask who recruited them, how they were controlled, what threats were used, what documents were taken, what debts were imposed and what protection they need now. It must also look upstream, at the economic conditions, migration pressures, conflict settings and technology systems that allow exploitation to scale.

The aim is not only to expose harm. It is to out-create it: to build prevention models, strengthen frontline knowledge, support survivor dignity and develop practical alternatives that make exploitation harder to organize and easier to detect.

How can jobseekers recognize fake overseas job offers?

Look for combinations of warning signs rather than assuming one feature proves trafficking. IOM’s July 2026 briefing highlighted fraudulent recruitment and tourist visas offered instead of appropriate work visas; OSCE’s 2026 assessment examines deceptive recruitment patterns.

Read our ways to prevent human trafficking for broader prevention guidance.

Where can people report suspected trafficking or online fraud?

Trafficking concerns and financial-fraud complaints require different support routes. Use verified services appropriate to the person’s location and circumstances.

Concern about trafficking

In the United States, contact the National Human Trafficking Hotline at 1-888-373-7888 or text 233733. For immediate danger in the United States, call 911. These are U.S. services, not a rescue hotline for Southeast Asian compounds.

For someone overseas, seek location-specific advice from their embassy or consulate and a verified trafficking-support organization. Consider whether communication or devices may be monitored before sharing identifying information. Avoid publishing a trapped person’s location or attempting a private rescue.

Money lost to online fraud

Contact your bank or payment provider promptly. In the United States, report internet-enabled fraud through the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3). Outside the United States, use the relevant national police or fraud-reporting service. A report does not guarantee recovery; preserve messages and transaction details when safe to do so.

Supporting survivor-focused work and sharing carefully sourced reporting can help build understanding without blaming people harmed by fraud or coercion.

Frequently asked questions

Are all people working in scam centers trafficking victims?

No. Compounds can include trafficked workers and willing participants. IOM’s July 2026 briefing explicitly distinguished the overall workforce estimate from people held against their will. Individual assessment of coercion and control is essential.

Can educated professionals be targeted by fake job offers?

Yes. IOM has described recruitment targeting people with college degrees, English proficiency and technology skills. Professional experience does not make someone immune to deceptive recruitment.

What is the Southeast Asia scam-center trafficking crisis?

The Southeast Asia scam-center trafficking crisis refers to the trafficking of people into guarded compounds where they are forced to carry out online fraud. These operations are concentrated in parts of Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos and the wider region, but INTERPOL says the model has now expanded globally.

How are scam centers linked to human trafficking?

Scam centers are linked to human trafficking when people are recruited through deception, transported or transferred, confined, threatened and forced to conduct fraud for someone else’s profit. UNODC describes this as trafficking in persons for forced criminality.

What is forced criminality?

Forced criminality is a form of exploitation in which trafficked people are compelled to commit crimes. In this crisis, victims may be forced to run romance scams, cryptocurrency fraud, fake investment schemes or other cyber-enabled crimes.

Where are the main scam centers located?

Major scam-center activity has been documented in Southeast Asia, especially in Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos, with related activity in other countries. INTERPOL says the model has also appeared beyond the region, including in the Middle East, West Africa and Central America.

Who is most at risk of being trafficked into scam centers?

People seeking overseas work, migrants, multilingual workers, young adults, people with IT or sales skills, economically vulnerable jobseekers and people recruited through online platforms can be at risk. Victims have been identified from dozens of countries.

How do traffickers recruit people?

Traffickers often use fake job adverts promising high pay, accommodation, visa help or relocation support. OSCE found that recruitment commonly uses platforms such as Facebook, Telegram, LinkedIn, WhatsApp and other messaging channels.

What happens inside scam compounds?

Victims may face confinement, confiscation of documents, surveillance, threats, forced labor, debt bondage and violence. OSCE cites lived experience accounts describing 12 to 18-hour days, no regular leave and debt bondage.

Are the people sending scam messages criminals or victims?

Some may be perpetrators, but many are trafficking victims forced to commit fraud under coercion. Authorities need to screen for trafficking indicators before treating people as criminals or immigration offenders.

How is AI being used in scam-center operations?

AP and FRONTLINE reported that specialized scam tools used AI models to generate replies, support fake personas, translate across languages and track worker performance.

What are governments doing about the crisis?

UN bodies, INTERPOL, OSCE, the United States, Thailand, Cambodia and others have taken steps including reports, warnings, sanctions, crackdowns and law enforcement operations. However, evidence from Reuters, Amnesty and AP suggests that many operations continue, relocate or rebuild after enforcement action.

Is this connected to ecocide?

This is primarily a trafficking and digital exploitation crisis, not a direct ecocide case. However, INTERPOL has warned that the same routes used to traffic people to scam centers can also be used for drugs, firearms and protected wildlife trafficking, creating a wider organized-crime and environmental-risk context.

What can readers do?

Readers can share verified information, recognize risky job offers, support survivor-centered organizations, ask technology and finance companies how they detect misuse, and avoid blaming people who may have been forced to participate in scams.

Further reading from Not For Sale

• Human trafficking terms and definitions
• Human trafficking facts
• Women trafficked into cyber scam centers
• U.S. technology and the infrastructure of scam centers

Sources

UN Geneva briefing with IOM, July 28, 2026; Reuters on Cambodia’s anti-scam summit, September 23, 2026.

UNODC, World Day Against Trafficking in Persons 2026, “Trapped behind the scam”
https://www.unodc.org/endht/

UNODC, World Day Against Trafficking in Persons 2026: Get involved
https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/endht/get-involved.html

Reuters, “Over 5,000 people trapped in Myanmar scam centres near Thai border, rights group says,” 23 June 2026
https://www.reuters.com/world/china/over-5000-people-trapped-myanmar-scam-centres-near-thai-border-rights-group-says-2026-06-23/

Associated Press and FRONTLINE, “Four days to make victims fall in love: How global scammers use US tech to fleece people,” 30 June 2026
https://apnews.com/article/12f549d5203abd38857c4e2f2fb1c986

Associated Press and FRONTLINE, “Methodology for AP/FRONTLINE investigation into how US tech is abused for global scams,” 30 June 2026
https://apnews.com/article/scams-fraud-technology-ai-imposter-phishing-methodology-dae7c1964ab37eb7b89280be443f433b

Associated Press and FRONTLINE, “Takeaways from AP/FRONTLINE investigation into how US tech is abused for global scams,” 30 June 2026
https://apnews.com/article/46553cd53a3daee8ab30e7cac7e12985

Associated Press, “Two victims on opposite sides of the global scam industry seek to rebuild their lives,” 30 June 2026
https://apnews.com/article/521edf24e2a39bad85d70fa2827f7db8

INTERPOL, “INTERPOL releases new information on globalization of scam centres,” 30 June 2025
https://www.interpol.int/en/News-and-Events/News/2025/INTERPOL-releases-new-information-on-globalization-of-scam-centres

OSCE, “Trafficking into Cyber Scam Operations: Implications for the OSCE Region,” 17 April 2026
https://cthb.osce.org/cthb/663307

OSCE, “Trafficking into Cyber Scam Operations: Implications for the OSCE Region,” PDF report, April 2026
https://cthb.osce.org/sites/default/files/documents/publications/2026/04/Cyber%20Scam_Screen_260429.pdf

OHCHR, “Hundreds of thousands trafficked to work as online scammers in SE Asia, says UN report,” 29 August 2023
https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2023/08/hundreds-thousands-trafficked-work-online-scammers-se-asia-says-un-report

OHCHR, “Online Scam Operations and Trafficking into Forced Criminality in Southeast Asia,” PDF report, 2023
https://bangkok.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/2025-01/online-scam-operations-2582023.pdf

Amnesty International, “Cambodia: Evidence suggests scamming compounds bypassed despite high-profile crackdown,” 8 June 2026
https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2026/06/cambodia-evidence-suggests-scamming-compounds-bypassed-despite-high-profile-crackdown/

Amnesty International, “I Was Someone Else’s Property: Slavery, Human Trafficking and Torture in Cambodia’s Scamming Compounds,” 2025
https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/asa23/9447/2025/en/

Reuters, “Amnesty says Cambodia scam centres still operating despite crackdowns,” 8 June 2026
https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/amnesty-says-cambodia-scam-centres-still-operating-despite-crackdowns-2026-06-08/

U.S. Department of Justice, Scam Center Strike Force
https://www.justice.gov/usao-dc/scam-center-strike-force

U.S. Department of Justice, “Scam Center Strike Force Takes Major Actions Against Southeast Asian Scam Centers Targeting Americans,” 23 April 2026
https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/scam-center-strike-force-takes-major-actions-against-southeast-asian-scam-centers-targeting

U.S. Department of State, “Imposing Sanctions on Online Scam Centers in Southeast Asia,” 23 April 2026
https://www.state.gov/releases/office-of-the-spokesperson/2026/04/imposing-sanctions-on-online-scam-centers-in-southeast-asia-2

U.S. Department of the Treasury, “Treasury Further Dismantles Overseas Scam Operations Targeting Americans,” 23 June 2026
https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/sb0538

U.S. Department of the Treasury, “Treasury Sanctions Cambodian Senator Kok An and Scam Center Network,” 23 April 2026
https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/sb0469

U.S. Department of the Treasury, “Treasury Sanctions Southeast Asian Networks Targeting Americans with Cyber Scams,” 8 September 2025
https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/sb0237