Over the past decade, cyber-scam centres dedicated to running online scams at a massive scale have proliferated across areas of South-East Asia, partly fuelled by a workforce of persons who have been trafficked for the purpose of forced criminality. Alongside the scams, which affect victims globally, these centres themselves have become sites of significant exploitation. Historically, women and girls constitute the majority of victim-survivors of trafficking overall, but the extent to which gender shapes pathways into, and experiences of, exploitation in this context is only beginning to be explored.
To understand women and girls’ experiences of trafficking into cyber-scam centres for forced criminality, the research involved qualitative consultations with 86 stakeholders in the South East Asian region and in-depth interviews with three victim-survivors.
Women and girls are predominantly recruited into cyber-scam centres through someone they know, using strategies that exploit relational trust. Women in cyber-scam centres commonly experience compounded forms of exploitation, most often forced criminality (online scamming) as well as sexual exploitation. Sex work, threats and extreme forms of violence are routine control mechanisms used by criminal organisations to make people of all genders perform and conform in this environment.
Gender-responsive approaches are imperative for addressing the complex and multiple forms of exploitation that women experience while inside cyber-scam centres and post-release. Recommendations are made for developing gendered awareness campaigns, trauma-informed victim identification processes and aftercare, and strengthening partnerships across the region.
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Content warning
This report contains discussion of sensitive topics such as serious violence, abuse and exploitation, including sexual assault. People who have experienced these forms of violence may find some of this content difficult. Similarly, those who have not been exposed to this content before may find the information confronting and challenging.
Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Acronyms and abbreviations
- Abstract
- Content warning
- A note about language
- Executive summary
- Background
- Methods
- Key findings
- Introduction
- Trafficking into cyber-scam centres for forced criminality
- Intersection of gender and trafficking for forced criminality
- Current responses to trafficking into cyber-scam centres
- Aim and methods
- Research partners
- Research questions
- Data collection
- Ethics approval
- Analysis
- Limitations
- Results
- Characteristics and backgrounds of women trafficked into cyber-scam centres
- Recruitment of women into cyber-scam centres
- Women's experiences in cyber-scam centres
- Exit routes
- Intervention and response
- Recommendations
- Prevention campaigns
- Victim identification
- Victim-survivor support and aftercare
- Policy
- Partnerships
- Conclusion
- References