Asia & Pacific
The UN migration agency has warned of a dramatic increase in the number of people forced into working in Asian scam compounds, saying people from more than 80 countries have been lured in through social media, with some being sexually abused.
Computer monitors are kept on desks inside a workstation at a compound in O'Smach that the Thai military said was used for scam operations, at the Chong Chom-O'Smach border crossing, after clashes between Thailand and Cambodia in December 2025, in Samraong, Oddar Meanchey province, Cambodia, March 6, 2026. (Reuters/Chalinee Thirasupa)
The UN migration agency on Tuesday warned of a dramatic increase in the number of people forced into working in Asian scam compounds, saying people from more than 80 countries have been lured in through social media, with some being sexually abused.Huge scam centers employing as many as 300,000 workers across Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos have emerged to deploy online schemes to defraud often older individuals in the West, the International Organization for Migration said.
But a significant portion of those were themselves tricked into employment, the UN agency said, describing fake job advertisements offering lucrative work contracts for those with strong English skills and a college education.
