Hundreds of thousands of cryptocurrency enthusiasts engage in cyber fraud against their will

Hundreds of thousands of people in the Asian region have been enslaved by criminal groups that force them to engage in cryptocurrency fraud. This was reported by Protos journalists with reference to a United Nations report.

Governments in Southeast Asia were advised to take measures to ensure human rights in response to the growing scale of slave trade associated with online fraud. Moreover, cryptocurrency exchanges need to cooperate with banks in the field of international human rights to prevent criminals from illegally converting cryptocurrency into fiat.

According to the FBI, criminals from Asia are actively advertising cryptocurrency-related jobs and then kidnapping people who respond to them into labor slavery. The fraudsters kidnap cryptocurrency job applicants to the regions of Southeast Asia. There, they are held by force to work on fraudulent online cryptocurrency projects.

To lure victims, the criminals offer competitive salaries, favorable benefits, and even transportation costs. Upon arrival at the place of work, the victims' passports are confiscated and they are threatened with physical violence.

Trafficking has intensified as criminal groups from China have begun to move to less regulated countries amid coronavirus lockdowns. Thanks to the growth of internet use in these regions, cryptocurrency fraud has begun to generate billions of dollars.

It is believed that about 120,000 people in Myanmar, 100,000 people in Cambodia, and tens of thousands in other countries in the Southeast region have been victims of slave labor. At the same time, law enforcement often treats these people as criminals. This means that if they try to escape, they may face prosecution or fines from the authorities.

As a reminder, in August 2022, an underground network of mining farms was discovered. In addition to illegal cryptocurrency mining, the criminals held an IT specialist in labor slavery. A group of Kazakhstani criminals used blackmail and threats to force the IT specialist to maintain the mining facilities. The underground business brought the fraudsters a profit of $ 300,000-$ 500,000.