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The
global police coordination body said law enforcement from more
than 20 countries in October carried out inspections at hundreds
of trafficking and smuggling hotspots, many known to be used to
traffic victims to commit online fraud "on an industrial scale,
while enduring abject physical abuse".
The coordinated operation, which led to hundreds of arrests,
demonstrated the "expanding geographical footprint" of the
crime, the agency said, with examples including Malaysians lured
to Peru by promises of highly paid work and Ugandan nationals
taken to Dubai then Thailand and Myanmar, where they were
confined under armed guard and taught to defraud banks.
While most cases are still in Southeast Asia, Rosemary Nalubega,
Assistant Director, Vulnerable Communities at Interpol, said in
a statement "this modus operandi is spreading, with victims
sourced from other continents and new scam centers appearing as
far afield as Latin America."
The phenomenon emerged in Southeast Asia, where the United
Nations says hundreds of thousands of people have been
trafficked by criminal gangs and forced to work in scam centers
and other illegal online operations that have sprung up in
recent years.
The fast-growing scams centers are generating billions of U.S.
dollars in revenue each year, the U.N. said.
A Reuters investigation last month detailed the emergence of the
crime and its financing, examining how a crypto account
registered in the name of a Chinese national in Thailand had
received millions of dollars from a crypto wallet that a U.S.
blockchain analysis firm said was linked to scams. The victims
of one was a U.S. national.
(Reporting by Poppy McPherson; Editing by Martin Petty)
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