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 ]