NEW DELHI: Indian nationals were among victims trafficked to cybercrime compounds in Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia, where they were allegedly held in conditions resembling modern-day slavery, subjected to physical and psychological abuse, and forced to carry out online fraud, according to a report by the Asia/Pacific Group on Money Laundering (APG).
The report says victims were recruited with promises of well-paying customer service or IT jobs before being trafficked to scam centres operating across the Golden Triangle region, which spans parts of Thailand, Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia. Some of the compounds are located within special economic zones and are allegedly controlled by Chinese-speaking criminal syndicates.
According to the study, victims were trained to carry out a range of cyber-enabled financial crimes, including investment fraud, romance scams, impersonation schemes, social media fraud and illegal online gambling operations.
The APG said workers who failed to meet targets or attempted to resist were subjected to coercive measures including electric shocks, confinement in dark or isolation rooms, physical assault, financial penalties and psychological abuse.
The report was prepared by the Sydney-based APG, a Financial Action Task Force-style regional body, in collaboration with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). The study was led by Indonesia and involved 24 experts from the governments of Australia, Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Solomon Islands, the UAE and Vietnam.
The findings draw on interviews with 15 Indian nationals who were repatriated from Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia between 2023 and 2024.
According to the report, most of the victims were men aged 20 to 35 from nine Indian states. They were recruited through social media platforms or personal contacts, paid recruitment fees ranging from ₹50,000 to ₹70,000, and were transported through Thailand before being forced to work inside heavily guarded scam compounds.
“Compounds were run by Chinese-speaking syndicates, with multinational workforces and strict control, including passport confiscation and physical and psychological abuse,” the report said.
The APG also found that trafficked workers were routinely sold between scam compounds and subjected to confinement, violence and debt bondage.
“Interception operations and large-scale rescues have revealed victims from a variety of nationalities and regions, suggesting that recruitment practices have expanded beyond regional contexts,” the report noted. It added that victims were forced to conduct investment fraud, impersonation scams, romance fraud and illegal online gambling activities, with performance enforced through threats and violence.
The report said cryptocurrency-based financial systems served as a key enabler of these criminal operations.
It also highlighted the large-scale misuse of mule bank accounts and SIM cards sourced from India. In one case, bank accounts and SIM cards obtained from unemployed youth and drug addicts in Punjab were allegedly supplied to cyber fraudsters operating from the Philippines, facilitating scams worth more than ₹40 crore.
According to the report, victims were lured with fake job offers, instructed to open bank accounts and hand over their SIM cards, which were subsequently couriered to the Philippines for use in cyber fraud operations.
