Forced online scams: IOM warns trafficking networks are booming

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.The UN International Organization for Migration (IOM) issued an alert *on Tuesday over the rapidly expanding, multibillion-dollar criminal industry that turns job seekers into forced cybercriminals.International enterprise “We’re seeing victims from over 80 different countries being trafficked into the scam centres, which are specifically playing out across Asia,” said Amy Pope, IOM Director General, briefing journalists in Geneva.UN News’s Dan Dickinson went on assignment two years ago to the region and produced a hard-hitting series you can read here on the scam farms, facilitated by the UN crime-fighting agency, UNODCRecruiters target people who speak good English and often hold degrees, she said, 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...