Interpol Reveals Cyber Crime Network Over Widespread Human Trafficking Around The World

Interpol secured a boat filled with illegal workers. (photo: x @INTERPOL_HQ)

JAKARTA - Interpol announced on Friday December 8 that its first operation targeting cybercrime triggered by human trafficking shows that the criminal industry is now global. This crime even extends beyond its origin in Southeast Asia, with fraud centers emerging to Latin America.

The global police coordination agency stated that law enforcement from more than 20 countries in October conducted inspections at hundreds of trade and smuggling hotspots, many of which are known as places where victims are trafficked to commit "mass fraud, while suffering from severe physical abuse".

This coordinated operation, which resulted in hundreds of arrests, shows "an increasingly widespread geographic footprint" of the crime. For example, Malaysians who were tied to Peru with promises of high-paid jobs and Ugandans brought to Dubai and Thailand and Myanmar, where they were locked up under armed guard and taught to cheat banks.

Although most of the cases still occur in Southeast Asia, badminton Nalubega, Assistant Director of Vulnerable Communities at Interpol, stated in a statement that "this modus operandi is spreading, where victims come from other continents and new fraud centers emerge to Latin America."

This phenomenon emerged in Southeast Asia, where the United Nations said that hundreds of thousands of people had been trafficked by criminal gangs and were forced to work in other fraud centers and illegal online operations that have emerged in recent years.

"This fast-growing fraud center generates billions of US dollars annually," the United Nations said.

A Reuters investigation last month revealed the emergence of this crime and its financing, testing how the crypto accounts listed on behalf of Chinese citizens in Thailand have received millions of dollars from crypto wallets whose US blockchain analysis firms stated linked to fraud. One of the victims is a citizen of the United States.