In a troubling phenomenon expanding across Southeast Asia, investigative reports have uncovered the escalation of operations luring youth from developing countries such as Indonesia, China, Ethiopia, and India to work in "electronic fraud farms" managed with advanced artificial intelligence technologies, run by transnational criminal gangs.
According to a report published by "Rest of World", thousands of youths are subjected to systematic deception through platforms like "Telegram" and "Facebook", where they are lured with appealing job offers in technology and digital marketing, only to later discover that they are victims of human trafficking, forcibly moved to closed and heavily guarded fraud centers in Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos, and the Philippines.
Fake companies and false promises
Anis Hidayah, a commissioner at the National Human Rights Commission in Jakarta, stated that thousands of fake job advertisements are promoted daily on social media, specifically targeting passport holders.
He added that recruits receive quick training not exceeding two days, before being thrust into fraud operations rooms managed using artificial intelligence tools, such as deepfake techniques, voice cloning, and large language models.
Billions in losses and America pays the price
Estimates indicate that these farms generate over 40 billion dollars annually, while Americans alone lost 12.5 billion dollars in 2024 due to electronic fraud operations, most of which involve investment deception, according to the Federal Trade Commission.
Former victims in the report spoke on condition of anonymity.
Some of them confirmed that their passports and phones were confiscated, and they were forced to work 15 hours a day in fraudulent call centers.
They were also forced to build fake romantic relationships through dating apps, pushing victims to invest thousands of dollars in phantom platforms.
Artificial intelligence: the new weapon of crime
UN reports indicate a 600% increase in the use of deepfake tools on "Telegram", where malicious software and services are sold, enabling fraudsters to perform precise hacking operations.
John Fujik, from the United Nations office in Bangkok, described the use of generative artificial intelligence in fraud as a "powerful multiplying factor" for transnational crimes.
"Facebook" and "Telegram" in the dock
Despite pledges from "Meta" and "Telegram" to combat fraudulent content, reports confirm that criminal groups continue to exploit loopholes and develop their technologies to evade monitoring.
A previous report by the "Wall Street Journal" stated that "Meta" classifies job-fraud as a low-risk priority.
One fraud victim, a young Indonesian IT graduate, was deported to Cambodia after falling for a "search engine optimization job" trap.
There, he was forced to defraud victims, including an Indonesian girl he persuaded to bet $10,000 in a fake casino.
In another story, a young social media influencer was kidnapped at Bangkok airport after applying for a job at "Lazada".
He was taken to Myanmar where he worked on artificial intelligence-driven face and voice spoofing operations, aimed at defrauding dating app users.
Hope for return
Some survivors from these farms, who managed to escape, returned to their countries to work in simple jobs.
One of them now works as a mechanic in a palm oil farm and hopes to revive his career in programming.
He said: "My hope is to return to the IT sector. As humans, we only have to dream and plan".
