CANBERA (dpa-AFX) - The UN International Organization for Migration, or IOM, has issued an alert over the rapidly expanding, multi-billion-dollar criminal industry that turns job seekers into forced cyber criminals.
A job advert can hide a criminal network, and a single click can lead to a nightmare. Hundreds of thousands of people are trafficked every year on the promise of legitimate work abroad, only to be held captive and forced into online scam operations.
'We're seeing victims from over 80 different countries being trafficked into the scam centers, which are specifically playing out across Asia,' IOM Director General Amy Pope told reporters in Geneva.
Recruiters target people who speak good English and often hold degrees, advertising what look like ordinary jobs on social media, she said.
Once victims arrive, they are locked inside compounds, stripped of their passports and phones, and put under constant watch.
Many are beaten or threatened and forced - through violence and debt bondage - to run scam operations targeting people worldwide. 'They're often subjected to physical or mental abuse. They are often unable to leave,' Pope said.
'What often presents as something that looks like an ideal job opportunity is just too good to be true', she added. One red flag IOM has identified is travel on a tourist visa rather than a work permit - a question every applicant should ask before departure.
Though the scam centers are based in Asia, traffickers recruit globally through social media. Between 2022 and 2025, IOM assisted more than 3,500 victims of forced criminality in South-East Asia, drawn from 39 countries - most from Indonesia, India, Sri Lanka, Ethiopia, Kenya and Bangladesh.
New UN Office on Drugs and Crime data put 2025 losses from scam offences across East and South-East Asia, Australia and New Zealand at between $88.3 billion and $114.1 billion.
Copyright(c) 2026 RTTNews.com. All Rights Reserved
Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX
© 2026 AFX News
