The Continued Threat of Scam Compounds Across Southeast Asia

Since Blue Dragon first reported on the emergence of forced online scamming as a growing form of slavery at the end of last year, the phenomenon has continued to grow and develop

Scam Compounds

Forced online scamming emerged in Cambodia during the COVID-19 pandemic. The crime has continued to grow in scale ever since, spreading to criminal-run areas of Laos and war torn regions of Myanmar. 

The criminals who run the scams are constantly developing their tactics. They lure unsuspecting people into their grasp with false promises of jobs – often based in Thailand – that do not exist. When people arrive expecting to go into the job they applied for, the criminals enslave them in large compounds.

It is estimated that there are now more than 300,000 people enslaved in scamming operations across Cambodia, Myanmar and Laos. Forced scamming is now the leading form of exploitation we encounter, and Myanmar is the country where most Vietnamese people are enslaved. 

Environment 

As we rescue more people from forced online scamming, we are constantly learning more details of the ordeals they suffer. 

Once enslaved, people are forced to scam others out of their money with fake online profiles and advertisements, which are often tailored to the gender and financial situation of the individual being scammed. 

Some people are forced to work in tiny, blacked out rooms for inhumane hours. Captors set them incredibly difficult – and often impossible – daily quotas, such as engaging with a certain number of people online or successfully completing a certain number of scams. 

Brutality

When the people enslaved in scam compounds fail to meet the quotas set by their captors, they are beaten, starved and tortured. People we have rescued from these places talk of being electrocuted, starved, and even having their organs removed.

Vinh, a young man we rescued from a scamming operation in Myanmar, had already tried to escape once before we found him. When his captors caught him, they beat him so badly that he now needs a wheelchair.

Vinh’s doctors are hopeful that he will be able to walk again with regular physiotherapy, but it will be a long, excruciating process. 

Many scam compounds have brothels attached to them, where women and girls are forced into sexual slavery. Last week, Blue Dragon rescued three women from one such brothel in Laos. All three had suffered regular beatings as their captors tried to break their spirits. 

These are just two of the many stories of brutality we have heard from people we have rescued. 

Enjoying the first steaming hot bowl of noodles once safe.

The Fight Goes On

Human traffickers are constantly evolving their tactics, but so are we.

Since 2022, Blue Dragon has rescued over 304 people from forced online scamming across Cambodia, Myanmar and Laos.

As well as our rescue operations, we are continuously expanding and developing our work with vulnerable communities across Vietnam. We have assembled anti-trafficking boards in more than 140 villages in some of the country’s most impoverished areas. 

We are implementing sustainable development initiatives – from water tanks to solar-powered street lights – for families living in crisis. 

We are keeping record numbers of kids in school, providing more vocational training courses year on year, and expanding our community initiatives into new areas of the country.

We are far from done, and we will not stop until we make ordeals like those of Vinh and Cong a distant memory.