Organised crime networks are trafficking hundreds of thousands of people into forced labour inside online scam compounds, according to the International Organization for Migration.
Victims are typically lured by bogus job adverts before being trapped inside heavily guarded compounds, stripped of their passports and coerced — through violence, threats and debt bondage — into running scams targeting people across the world.
Survivors have described torture, sexual violence, starvation and solitary confinement.
Many are then treated as criminals rather than victims once discovered, according to Amy Pope, the IOM’s 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,” she said.
The scale of the industry is vast: the UN Office on Drugs and Crime estimates that scam networks across East and Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand stole between $88 billion and $114 billion in 2025 alone.
The IOM has now launched a regional strategy for Asia and the Pacific, running to 2030, aimed at protecting victims, preventing trafficking and improving cross-border cooperation between governments.
Since 2022, the agency has assisted more than 3,500 people from 39 countries who were trafficked and forced into criminal activity, including scams — though officials caution that rescue is only the first step, with many survivors requiring years of support to recover from trauma and rebuild their lives.
