Cyberfraud hubs in Southeast Asia fueled by human trafficking: APG report
When Abhishek Negi and Ashish Tyagi were looking for lucrative work abroad, they approached a former colleague who offered to help them land a job with a Chinese company in Thailand with a salary of about $1,000 a month plus incentives. Not knowing what to expect, Abhishek also brought along his cousin Gaurav Bisht.
They were later persuaded to join the company in Myanmar. They took off from Delhi in March 2024, and halfway through the journey fellow passengers were warned that their destination, Myawaddy, was a “shady place”. Unknown individuals were waiting at Yangon airport to take them to the company headquarters. The three suspects instead contacted the Indian embassy, which arranged for their deportation back to India, according to a CBI case registered in August 2024.
Not everyone was so lucky. Hundreds of Indian citizens never made it in time. They were imprisoned and enslaved in cyber fraud centers, especially in Cambodia, Myanmar and Lao PDR. In response to a Rajya Sabha inquiry in February 2026, the government said that 6,998 Indians had been rescued from such centers since 2022 – 2,533 from Cambodia, 2,297 from Lao PDR and 2,168 from Myanmar.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA), Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Enforcement Directorate (ED) investigated several cases involving human trafficking agents in several states who were part of networks through which Indian nationals were sent to “cyber slavery” compounds. Many of the accused were arrested and charged.
Southeast Asia as a hub
The threat of cyber fraud centers in Southeast Asian countries was examined in the Asia/Pacific Group (APG) Yearly Typologies Report 2025. The report states that Southeast Asia has become a “hub for online fraud operations”, generating tens of billions of dollars annually.
The study, launched in early 2025 and led by Indonesia and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), revealed that cyber fraud centers impose debt obligations on trafficked individuals to cover costs such as transport, accommodation and living that victims are forced to repay over time.
In many cases, victims or their families are forced to pay between $3,000 and $20,000 to secure their release. Some victims are forced to lure others to secure their release. “Victims are forced to participate in the scams, defrauding unsuspecting individuals around the world, generating direct income for the perpetrators,” the report said.
Another source of income for these syndicates is again to target their victims by posing as agents capable of recovering stolen funds for a fee.
Physical abuse
Many of these compounds are concentrated in border regions and special economic zones (SEZs), where trafficked individuals working for cybercrime syndicates are held in prison and subjected to physical violence, from baton beatings and electric shocks to food deprivation and forced drug use. The report mentions victims from various countries, including Indonesia, Myanmar, the Philippines and jurisdictions as far away as Africa.
Criminal networks rely on mule accounts (often belonging to unsuspecting individuals), hawala networks, and cryptocurrencies to launder the proceeds of cyber fraud. The report cited a case study of money laundering through Philippine Offshore Gaming Operations.
Based on existing research and experience of APG members, the report found that cyber fraud centers are exploiting a number of vulnerabilities to create, expand and diversify their operations. In SEZs, they take advantage of low regulatory oversight and weak law enforcement.
They also use complex corporate structures such as shell companies, trusts, and other legal entities to hide true ownership. “Professional intermediaries such as lawyers, accountants, trust and company service providers (TCSPs) and company formation agents can either knowingly or unwittingly facilitate the formation and administration of these structures,” the report said.
“Public officials may directly facilitate or protect these activities in exchange for financial or economic incentives, or may fail to intervene due to limited capacity, reluctance, or conflicts of interest. Such compromised governance and regulatory environments significantly undermine oversight mechanisms, allow cyberfraudulent nodes to operate with minimal scrutiny, reduced risk of detection, and limited exposure to legal liability,” the report said.
Big challenges
Key challenges include the cross-border nature of cyber fraud centers and human trafficking networks, which require international cooperation and asset recovery, especially when cryptocurrencies are used to channel the proceeds of crime.
The report highlights emerging threats and states that cyber fraud centers are increasingly adopting decentralized strategies to avoid detection and disruption by law enforcement and regulators. The use of artificial intelligence (AI) through chatbots, deepfakes, voice cloning and fraudulent content generation increases both the sophistication and efficiency of their operations.
The report recommended that effective mitigation of the threat requires continuous monitoring, enhanced regional cooperation, targeted intelligence sharing and strengthening of anti-money laundering/countering the financing of terrorism frameworks across member jurisdictions. The project’s full findings and recommendations will be published in the forthcoming Cyber Scam Hubs and Human Trafficking Report (2026).
Published – 22 Jun 2026 01:25 IST