Over 1,000 from Tamil Nadu who travelled to Southeast Asian nations suspected to be caught in cyber slavery 

Tamil Nadu Cyber Crime Police warn of 'cyber slavery' in Southeast Asia, targeting job-seekers with fake offers.

The Cyber Crime Wing of the Tamil Nadu Police has issued an advisory on ‘cyber slavery’ in Southeast Asian nations. It has said that people in search of jobs abroad are being lured by fake agents with attractive offers and sent on tourist visas, and then forced to commit cyber frauds for survival. The Airports Authority of India has placed digital displays and standees at airports to sensitise passengers to the ‘cyber slavery’ risk.

The police said that organised gangs were operating mostly from Southeast Asian countries and were recruiting job-seekers from India through illegal recruitment agencies. The agencies would promise the victims data entry and call centre jobs. Once the victims reached these countries, the gangs operating there would collect their passports and prevent them from exiting the country. They were also forced to pay thousands of Chinese Yuan to return home.

Job-seekers from Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Haryana, and Delhi were sent to Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam, and Laos and treated as ‘cyber-slaves’, the police said.

These ‘cyber-slaves’ were forced to engage in digital arrest scams, such as Fedex frauds, investment frauds, and dating scams. About 400 complaints about investment frauds, involving a total loss of ₹800 crore, were registered on the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal from January to April 2024, the police said.

The Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre, under the Union Ministry of Home Affairs, has disclosed that 26 individuals were returned to India from scam compounds in Cambodia. It is reported that a total of 1,285 passengers from Tamil Nadu (39,735 passengers from across India) travelled to countries like Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam, and Laos on tourist visas from January 2022 to November 2023, and have not returned. Many of them were suspected to be engaged in cybercrimes and forced to deceive people in India.

Sandeep Mittal, Additional Director-General of Police, Cyber Crime Wing, said job-seekers should verify whether the recruitment agencies have been registered on the emigration portal of India (https://emigrate.gov.in/#/emigrate/emigrant/list-of-ra-consolidate-report). Fraudulent recruitment agencies could also be identified from the list of unregistered/illegal recruitment agencies displayed on the site.

Digital displays and standees placed in the airports to spread awareness amongst passengers flying abroad about the cyber slavery.