As romance scams soar, the dark world of cyber slaves is exposed

In the first half of 2023 alone, Brits lost £580 million to scammers.

Unsuspecting consumers fell for ID theft, bank scams and even police impersonations.

Others were duped by romance scams, a particularly cruel ploy in which people pretend to fall in love with their victim, before asking for or extorting money. Finance UK, which describes romance scams are ‘particularly nasty’, reported a 29% rise.

For victims, losing potentially vast sums of money while at the same time being emotionally manipulated is traumatic – but sometimes, the scammers are victims too. 

They are cyber slaves.

This new form of human trafficking has led to hundreds of thousands of people being tricked into parting with their own money on the promise of a good job in another country, only to find themselves trapped in a nightmare.

Forced to spend day after day calling unsuspecting victims and attempting to steal their money, they have no means of escape. The organised crime syndicates that trafficked them into the country typically take their passport and mobile on arrival. 

And even though they’re on the phone all day, trying to hit scam targets for fear of punishment, it is near enough impossible for them to call for help. 

One trafficking victim, Ali – whose name has been changed – found this out the hard way.

The 33-year-old Pakistani graduate saw a promising advert on social media for a digital marketing job in Cambodia.

Having paid $4,000 for a tourist visa to get into the country, he met a broker on arrival who asked for a further $1,475 as a visa processing fee. 

But instead of being set up in his new job, Ali and his cousin Ahmad, also not his real name, found themselves being driven to a compound in the country’s capital Phnom Penh. Here, they were forced to scam at least five people a day, or have their ‘salary’ deducted. If any of the workers tried to escape, they were starved or beaten.

‘If we break any rules, they will deduct $50 in each violation,’ said Ali. ‘Unfortunately, I committed two violations when I tried to call and send an email to our embassy to report our whereabouts. I was not successful. The manager broke my phone, and I was physically beaten.’

Ali was told he would be paid $1,000 a month, but only received this for three months. When he tried to resign, the manager said he would have to recruit two new people to replace him.

‘I felt helpless taking away money from other people,’ said Ali. ‘There were many nights I couldn’t sleep well because of guilt, but I had no other choice.’

Fortunately for Ali and Ahmad, with the help of the International Justice Mission (IJM), a co-worker was able to call a police hotline. The next morning, they and five other workers were released from the compound – but around 1,000 were thought to be still inside.

Shortly after their rescue, the Chinese scam operation moved, taking the other victims with it.

The IJM gave Ali, Ahmad and the other survivors food, necessities and help returning home. 

‘Going out from the compound was like seeing the light at the end of the tunnel – it was the best thing that happened to me,’ said Ali.

Hundreds of thousands aren’t so fortunate. A recent United Nations report highlighted the scale of the activity across Southeast Asia, where many of the operations are based. They estimate at least 120,000 people in Myanmar are currently being forced to conduct scams, with another 100,000 in Cambodia.

Thailand, the Philippines and Lao PDR are also involved both in the trafficking and transit of victims.

‘People who are coerced into working in these scamming operations endure inhumane treatment while being forced to carry out crimes,’ said UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk. ‘They are victims. They are not criminals.

‘In continuing to call for justice for those who have been defrauded through online criminality, we must not forget that this complex phenomenon has two sets of victims.’

Most of those trafficked are men in search of work, but women and teenagers have also been ensnared by gangs. Like Ali, many are well-educated, with undergraduate or postgraduate degrees. Some come from a professional background, others are multi-lingual. 

But in the search for a better life, all have fallen victim to the ruthless criminals who con those in need – at both ends of the scam.

Robyn Phillips, director of operations at the Human Trafficking Foundation, told Metro.co.uk: ‘One of the challenges with tackling exploitation is that we do not know the true scale of the issue. Traffickers are constantly evolving their tactics and finding new opportunities in which to exploit people.

‘Increasingly we’re seeing traffickers using vulnerable people to exploit other vulnerable people online, with only the traffickers profiting.’