Forced online scams: IOM warns trafficking networks are booming
Hundreds of thousands of people are being trafficked every year on the promise of legitimate work abroad, only to be held captive and forced into online scam operations, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) warned on 28 July 2026, according to a press release. Briefing journalists in Geneva ahead of World Day Against Trafficking in Persons on 30 July, IOM Director General Amy Pope described a rapidly expanding, multibillion-dollar criminal industry that turns job seekers into forced cybercriminals. The alert focuses on scam compounds concentrated across Asia. Traffickers use social media to recruit globally, disguising abuse as opportunity. IOM is urging governments to treat those trapped inside as victims, not criminals.
The scam centres draw people from across the world into a coordinated criminal enterprise.
“We’re seeing victims from over 80 different countries being trafficked into the scam centres, which are specifically playing out across Asia,” Pope said.
Recruiters target people who speak good English and often hold degrees, advertising what look like ordinary jobs on social media. 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 scams targeting people worldwide.
Pope highlighted the personal toll on those trapped inside these operations.
“They’re often subjected to physical or mental abuse. They are often unable to leave,” she said.
The warning signs, she added, are visible to anyone willing to look, noting that “what often presents as something that looks like an ideal job opportunity is just too good to be true.” One red flag identified by IOM is travel on a tourist visa rather than a work permit, a question every applicant should ask before departure. Awareness, the agency stresses, remains a frontline defense.
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. IOM insists that people forced to run scams from inside these compounds are trafficking victims, not criminals, and should be protected rather than prosecuted.
“We’re seeing many of the survivors of trafficking actually being identified as criminals, but in reality, they are the victims of this crime,” Pope said.
Rescue, however, is only the start of recovery. Survivors often return home facing trauma, stigma, debt, missing documents and fear of prosecution.
The financial scale of the crisis is staggering. 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, dwarfing the resources devoted to fighting trafficking.
“Unless we take the issue quite seriously, we anticipate it will continue to grow,” Pope warned.
IOM is calling for greater investment in victim protection, safe return and reintegration, and wider public awareness of traffickers’ tactics. The agency released its latest findings ahead of World Day Against Trafficking in Persons, marked on 30 July.