Forced Online Scamming

Forced scamming is a brutal new form of slavery. Right now, thousands of victims are being tricked, trafficked, trapped in guarded compounds and forced to scam people like you and me, under the threat of brutal violence. It’s being reported in global news outlets including The BBC, The Guardian and The Economist.

This crime is growing fast. Interpol has just announced that forced scamming is now a global crisis “representing a serious and imminent threat to public safety.” Banks are also warning of huge increases in online scams.

Forced scamming affects all of us – it’s urgent we stop it.​

This nightmare is a reality for thousands of people like Yaza* (pictured) in South East Asia.

After months of struggling to find work due to political instability in Myanmar, Yaza finally found a well-paid job abroad in online marketing – a job that would mean he could provide for his family back home.

His new employers even offered to pay for his flight from Myanmar to the Philippines. But Yaza’s dreams were shattered when he arrived at a compound surrounded by barbed wire and electric fences.​

The role he’d been offered wasn’t real. Instead, he was forced to create fake social media profiles and invite people to invest in cryptocurrency for up to 18 hours a day.​

Yaza was tortured by the security guards. He wasn’t the only one. ​