Scam center

Trafficked victims' passports are confiscated, and they are threatened with organ harvesting and forced prostitution if they do not successfully scam sufficiently.

The term fraud factory first appeared in a 2022 Sydney Morning Herald article about the Southeast Asian scams and human trafficking industry[2] and was coined by Jan Santiago of the Global Anti-Scam Organization (GASO), a victims advocacy group, in describing scamming operations in the region.

[3][4] The term was used by Kenya's Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the activity of trafficking victims to Asia where they use digital media to meet westerners and sell them cryptocurrencies.

[citation needed] Fraud factories are often operated by Chinese criminal syndicates based in Southeast Asia.

[13] Victims are lured by the false promise of high-paying jobs, and are trafficked through major cities like Yangon and Bangkok, and transit points like Mae Sot and Chiang Rai.

[9] In late 2023, the United Nations Human Rights Office estimated that at least 120,000 people in Myanmar were trafficked there and are being held in online scam compounds.

[14][15] In May 2023, the Philippine Senate's Committee on Women, Children, Family Relations and Gender Equality conducted an inquiry into the proliferation of illegal activities involving foreign nationals, including human trafficking and racketeering, within scam hubs in various points of the archipelago.

Senator Risa Hontiveros presented videos and reports of recent raids made by Philippine law enforcement agencies on a number of commercial and residential properties in Clark, Pampanga, that resulted in the rescue of 1,300 victims and the confiscation of over ₱180 million in cash.

[17] In March 2024, more than 800 Filipinos and foreign nationals were rescued from a large scam hub in Bamban, Tarlac, after it was raided for alleged illegal activities that included crypto and love scams; the hub was legally registered as a Philippine Offshore Gaming Operator (POGO) firm.

A 2024 congressional investigation of scam and trafficking operations by a Tarlac POGO hub led to the arrest of Bamban mayor Alice Guo and her alleged sister and sister-in-law, Shiela Guo and Cassandra Ong, as well as a manhunt for Duterte's former spokesperson, Harry Roque, who has been on the run after questions on his sudden wealth led to questions about his role in a Pampanga POGO hub, identified as Lucky South 99, that was also managed by Cassandra Ong.