A fraud factory or fraud park is a collection of large fraud organizations usually involved in human trafficking operations, commonly 🌛 found in Southeast Asia (including Cambodia, Myanmar, or Laos) and usually operated by a criminal gang. Fraud factory operators lure 🌛 foreign nationals to scam hubs, where they are forced into modern slavery, to scam internet users around the world into 🌛 fraudulently buying cryptocurrencies or withdrawing cash, via social media and online dating apps.[1] Trafficking victims' passports are confiscated, and they 🌛 are threatened with organ harvesting and forced prostitution if they do not scam sufficiently successfully.

Nomenclature [ edit ]

The term fraud 🌛 factory first appeared in a Sydney Morning Herald article about the Southeast Asian scams and human trafficking industry[2] and was 🌛 coined by Jan Santiago of 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.[5] In Chinese, the term "fraud industrial park" (Chinese: 詐騙園區; pinyin: zhàpiàn 🌛 yuánqū; lit. 'fraud park zone') has emerged in reference to these operations.

Organization and ownership [ edit ]