Bangkok: The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has released a groundbreaking report exposing the enormous profits behind online scams, which are achieved at the cost of serious human rights abuses against hundreds of thousands of people.
According to Thai News Agency, the OHCHR report, 'A Wicked Problem,' released on February 20, 2026, compiled data from interviews with victims of human trafficking and forced labor in scammer centers, as well as information from various sources, including confidential sources. The data revealed that the enormous profits behind online scams have devastating consequences for hundreds of thousands of people in at least 66 countries worldwide. Most victims are lured in by promises of legal employment abroad, only to face detention, beatings, and coercion into online fraud schemes.
The OHCHR report states that the situation faced by victims within these scam centers is extremely worrying. Detailed interviews with survivors, combined with confidential information, indicate that the online fraud industry, or scam centers, has grown into an industrial-scale network. It is estimated that at least 300,000 people across Southeast Asia are forced to work in online scam centers. The majority of scam gang bases are located in the Mekong River basin; satellite imagery shows that 74% of these bases are situated in the Mekong region.
While it's difficult to precisely calculate the exact figures of how much scammer gangs profit from their online fraud operations, some economic estimates suggest the global total revenue could reach as high as US$64 billion, or approximately 2.24 trillion baht. In the Mekong region alone, the scamming industry could generate over US$43.8 billion per year, or approximately 1.53 trillion baht.
The OHCHR report also stated that these scam bases are well-established and fully equipped with resources, ranging from setting up operational centers in remote border areas to special economic zones and major cities.
Meanwhile, Volker Turk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, revealed that the statistics on torture and cruelty repeatedly faced by victims are both shocking and heartbreaking. Instead of receiving protection, care, rehabilitation, and access to justice as they are entitled to, victims often face skepticism, social condemnation, and even additional legal punishments.
Several survivors from scam centers have revealed details of life within the confines, describing the facilities as large cities, some covering over 1,250 acres. Multi-story buildings are surrounded by barbed wire walls, guarded by armed officers 24 hours a day. Inside some buildings, there are comprehensive facilities such as supermarkets, restaurants, casinos, and brothels.
According to the victims' statements, they consistently testified that they were forced to participate in various scams, such as impersonation, cryptocurrency investment scams, gambling solicitations, and romance scams. These scams were systematically managed, from victim recruitment and scriptwriting to money laundering through bot accounts and converting funds into cryptocurrencies before transferring them back into regular banking.
The report emphasizes that within the scam centers, all victims faced or witnessed horrific abuse, arguably torture. Those who failed to meet their sales targets were severely punished. One Sri Lankan survivor recounted being held in water for hours after failing to meet his monthly income quota. Others described being confined in dark rooms for days, or forced to physically assault coworkers while guards forced another victim to watch the torture.
Furthermore, the report stated that since 2024, there has been an increase in sexual violence within scam centers, including rape, forced prostitution, and forced abortions. One Filipino woman, rescued from a scam center, revealed that she was pregnant but was still beaten and electrocuted. Some victims reported being forced to work 19 hours a day without food or sleep, a common occurrence within the scam centers. Some recounted being starved for 15-20 days until they were too weak to stand.
In addition to physical abuse, these human trafficking victims also face debt they didn't incur because upon arrival, they are forced to sign binding contracts. For example, one Thai victim was forced to earn $9,500 USD per day from the scam to avoid abuse or being sold to another group. Meanwhile, some victims' families were held for ransoms of tens of thousands of USD, with the criminals making video calls while assaulting the victims to pressure relatives to pay quickly.
A key highlight of this report is the testimonies of victims alleging collusion between organized crime groups and government officials. Many victims reported unusually swift immigration procedures, as if pre-arranged between officials and the human trafficking gangs that hired them. Some victims even revealed that police officers collected money from executives at the scam centers.
The OHCHR states that corruption is deeply ingrained in the lucrative scamming networks. Despite numerous police and military raids on holding centers, rescuing thousands of victims-including the February 2015 raid on a scamming center near the Thai-Myanmar border which rescued 7,000 victims-observers point out that these raids are often superficial. After the dismantling, the call centers and scammers quickly either reopen or relocate their operations elsewhere.
Even after escaping, many victims face a "judging between a rock and a hard place" situation, often being detained in immigration detention centers, fined for expired visas, or prosecuted for crimes they were forced to commit. The High Commissioner for Human Rights therefore calls on governments to adhere to the "non-punishment principle" and to amend anti-trafficking laws to include cases of forced criminal acts, so that victims receive redress and genuine access to justice.
A key scenario to watch is whether allowing transnational criminal gangs to expand their online scams into a global industry, coupled with corruption among government officials, will impact the global Trafficking in Persons Report (TIP Report), to be released by the U.S. Department of State in mid-2026. What is the risk of Thailand being downgraded in the 2025 Trafficking in Persons Report? Various United Nations agencies have continuously highlighted the situation of human trafficking and online scams since 2025. These include reports from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the first UN agency to identify Cambodia as the world's largest hub for online fraud, and a recent report from the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), which emphasizes the problems caused by the online scam industry in the region. Even the 2025 survey on government commitment to combating corruption by Transparency International (TI) consistently mentions issues of transparency and setbacks in addr essing transnational crime and human trafficking. And the problem of online fraud in Cambodia and Myanmar, both of which share close borders with Thailand.