UN warns of rapid rise in human trafficking for online fraud FAST-MOVING
The United Nations has warned that human trafficking to staff online fraud operations is one of the fastest‑growing forms of modern slavery. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) estimates that about 300,000 people worldwide are forced to work in such fraud centres, with hundreds of thousands trafficked each year.
Traffickers lure migrants with promises of well‑paid jobs abroad, often using tourist visas, and now target individuals with good English skills and university degrees, increasingly from Africa. Victims are locked, monitored and compelled to commit fraud, and reports describe torture, sexual exploitation, threats, forced debt repayment and extortion of families. The UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) estimates the economic damage from these centres in East and South Asia, Australia and New Zealand at up to $114.1 billion (about €100 billion) in the last year. Between 2022 and 2025 the IOM helped more than 3,500 people from 39 countries – including Indonesia, Bangladesh and Kenya – to escape. A new IOM strategy to protect potential victims was presented on the World Day Against Human Trafficking (30 July).
Entities: Amy Pope · Geneva · International Organization for Migration · United Nations · United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime
Claims
What the coverage asserts, and how well corroborated each claim is across sources.
- [● 7 SOURCES] Traffickers lure victims with promises of well‑paid jobs abroad, often using tourist visas. (IOM)
- [● 7 SOURCES] IOM estimates that about 300,000 people worldwide work in online fraud centres. (IOM chief Amy Pope)
- [● 7 SOURCES] UNODC estimates the economic damage from fraud centres in East and South Asia, Australia and New Zealand at up to $114.1 billion (≈€100 billion) last year. (UNODC)
- [● 7 SOURCES] Between 2022 and 2025 the IOM helped more than 3,500 people from 39 countries—including Indonesia, Bangladesh and Kenya—escape forced fraud work. (IOM)
- [● 7 SOURCES] IOM presented a new strategy on World Day Against Human Trafficking (30 July) to protect potential victims. (IOM)
- [● 7 SOURCES] Trafficking networks increasingly target individuals with good English skills and university degrees, especially from Africa. (IOM chief Amy Pope)
- [● 7 SOURCES] Hundreds of thousands of people are trafficked each year for online fraud according to IOM. (IOM)
- [● 7 SOURCES] Victims are forced to take part in fraud schemes and face torture, sexual exploitation, threats, forced debt repayment and family extortion. (IOM survivors)