Human trafficking for forced criminality is increasing across the world, with authorities raising particular concern about a rapidly growing form of exploitation: trafficking to commit cyber-enabled fraud and online scams.
On the World Day Against Trafficking in Persons, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the European Union (EU) call for urgent and coordinated international action to tackle this form of trafficking and ensure victims receive the protection they need.
Criminal groups recruit people through deceptive job advertisements and false promises of legitimate employment, only to exploit them in scam centres. They use digital and artificial intelligence-facilitated technologies to expand their operations and evade detection, while victims remain largely hidden from public view and are often treated as offenders rather than victims.
“Governments and law enforcement agencies must strengthen efforts to dismantle the criminal networks behind these operations,” says Ilias Chatzis, Acting Chief of the Organized Crime Branch at UNODC.
“We must strengthen international cooperation and ensure that victims are identified and protected rather than punished for crimes they were forced to commit,” Chatzis adds.
“Scam centres are a complex security threat at the intersection of trafficking in human beings, cybercrime, fraud, financial crime and linked to organized crime. Therefore, the EU promotes a broad multidisciplinary and international partnership to prevent and combat criminal activities linked to scam centres and to protect the victims,” states Diane Schmitt, EU Anti-trafficking Coordinator.
The global scale of the problem is becoming increasingly clear. By late 2025, victims identified came from nearly 80 nationalities. While Southeast Asia remains a major hub, the model is spreading to the Middle East, Africa, Eastern and Southeastern Europe, South Asia the Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean. No region is immune.
According to United Nations estimates, more than 300,000 people in Southeast Asia are currently being forced to conduct cybercrime including online scams operations, often working under harsh and abusive conditions.
These scam centres are run by highly organised transnational criminal networks. UNODC estimates that cyber scams generated between $18 billion and $37 billion in illicit profits in 2023 in that region alone.
In the coming months, the European Commission will present an EU Action Plan to combat digital fraud and a new EU Strategy on combating Trafficking in Human Beings which will address these issues.
Together, UNODC and the EU support countries across Africa, Asia, the Middle East and South America by training investigators, prosecutors and other criminal justice professionals to dismantle criminal networks, identify victims and ensure they can access justice and support services.
