Cyber Scamming: The Rise of Industrial-Scale Operations and Human Trafficking

Cyber scamming operations have evolved from individual criminal activities into sophisticated, industrial-scale enterprises generating tens of billions of dollars annually. Research from the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime (GIATOC) reveals how these networks, primarily based in Southeast Asia, have become what experts describe as “compound crimes” – both physically housed in secured compounds and involving multiple interconnected criminal markets.

These cyber scamming operations represent a convergence of cybercrime, human trafficking, and transnational organised crime, creating a new paradigm in digital fraud that law enforcement agencies worldwide are struggling to combat. While much research has focused on Southeast Asia, similar patterns are emerging globally, including Ghana has become a significant hub for cyber scamming operations targeting international victims.

Sakawa and Yahoo scamming in Tamale

Cybercrime in Ghana is nothing new. The practice of Sakawa, the Ghanaian term for informal scamming or Yahoo, the Nigerian equivalent, represents small-scale operations compared to the highly organised networks described in the report. Both Sakawa and Yahoo incorporate an African “spiritual” element, with practitioners believing that rituals, charms and amulets can enhance their cyber scamming success, influence victims, and help them avoid detection. Ironically, their conspicuous displays of wealth make them instantly recognisable. There are many reports of human sacrifice related to Yahoo in Nigeria, and for the last decade, such rituals have been increasingly reported in Ghana.

However, the culture of Sakawa and its Nigerian counterpart of Yahoo, is pervasive, with a significant number of boys in our focus groups aspiring to engage in cyber scamming from a young age. They view scamming as easy money – low cost, high reward, and status-enhancing. Visit any western-style restaurant in Tamale and you’ll quickly spot the “Sakawa boys”: young men typically driving Burkina-plated cars, dressed in original high-end brands and clutching MacBooks, iPads, and multiple iPhones. For more information on Sakawa in Ghana you can listen to this BBC World Service podcast or read this essay by BBC correspondent Hannah Ajala.

Another sinister aspect to scamming in Ghana is the rise and influence of highly organised Nigerian operations operating in the country. In April 2025 the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) arrested 219 foreign nationals, mainly Nigerians, in a swoop on an estate in Oyarifa, in the Ga East Municipality of the Greater Accra Region. The operation followed the EOCO/NCA UK Reporting Fraud Campaign launched in March 2025 and marked a significant step in Ghana’s efforts to clamp down on transnational organised crime. Most of those arrested had been trafficked, victims of what the GIATOC report terms job/task cyber scamming, which exploits economic desperation and legitimate job-seeking behaviour.

The Human Cost: Trafficking for Forced Cyber Scamming

Behind sophisticated cyber scamming operations lies a dark reality of human exploitation. Hundreds of thousands of people have been trafficked and trapped in compounds across Southeast Asia, forced to conduct cyber scamming under conditions of debt bondage, psychological coercion, and physical threats.

Victims are often recruited through false job advertisements promising legitimate employment in technology or customer service roles. Upon arrival, they discover they’re trapped in heavily guarded compounds where they must meet strict quotas for contacting scam targets or generating stolen funds. Those who fail to cooperate face restricted wages, physical punishment, or worse. Some facilities even force workers to pay inflated costs for basic necessities like food and medical care, creating insurmountable debt (debt bondage) that makes escape nearly impossible.

The trafficked workers represent a crucial link in the scamming ecosystem – they provide the human element needed to build trust with victims, particularly in romance scams that require sustained emotional manipulation over weeks or months. This pattern of exploitation extends beyond Southeast Asia, with vulnerable populations in various regions, including parts of Africa, being targeted for recruitment through false promises of legitimate employment opportunities.

The Seven Major Types of Cyber Scamming

1. Romance Investment Cyber Scamming (“Pig Butchering”)
The most lucrative category of cyber scamming, where scammers build romantic relationships with victims over weeks or months before introducing fraudulent investment opportunities. The GIATOC report highlights that these cyber scamming operations average nearly $4,600 per transfer, with some victims losing their entire life savings – documented cases include losses of $70,000, $290,000, and $1.5 million. The term “pig butchering” reflects the process of “fattening” victims with trust before the financial “slaughter.”

2. Cryptocurrency Investment Cyber Scamming
Sophisticated fake investment platforms that appear legitimate, often using mirror websites with randomly generated addresses and spoofed IP addresses. Victims convert legitimate currency into cryptocurrency, connect their digital wallets to fraudulent apps, and unknowingly grant access through malicious smart contracts that drain their accounts.

3. Job/Task Cyber Scamming
False employment advertisements targeting job seekers, particularly in developing economies. Victims either pay recruitment fees (often hundreds of dollars) for non-existent positions or are trafficked into forced labour at cyber scamming compounds. These scams exploit economic desperation and legitimate job-seeking behaviour.

4. Impersonation Cyber Scamming
Criminals pose as government officials, law enforcement, tech support, or trusted institutions to extract money or personal information. While individual losses average around $948, lower than romance cyber scamming, the volume of these operations makes them highly profitable.

5. Sexual Extortion Cyber Scamming (Sextortion)
Victims are manipulated into compromising situations through fake romantic connections, then blackmailed with threats to release intimate content to family, friends, or employers unless payments are made.

6. Liquidity Mining and Crypto Ponzi Cyber Scamming
Fraudulent cryptocurrency investment opportunities promising high returns through “liquidity provision” or other technical-sounding mechanisms. These often start with small, successful returns to build trust before requesting larger investments that are then stolen.

7. Fraudulent Gambling and Gaming Cyber Scamming
Fake online casinos and gaming platforms that appear legitimate but are designed to steal deposits and manipulate outcomes. These often overlap with other cyber scamming types and serve as money laundering vehicles for criminal proceeds.

The Technological Sophistication of Modern Cyber Scamming

Modern cyber scamming operations employ cutting-edge technology to appear legitimate. They create mirror websites of real financial institutions, use artificial intelligence for translation and communication, and employ blockchain technology for money laundering. Some scamming operations even use deepfake technology to bypass identity verification systems.

The scale and sophistication of these operations represent a fundamental shift in cybercrime – from individual hackers to organised criminal enterprises operating with corporate efficiency and generating revenues that rival legitimate multinational corporations.

Education as Prevention: The HEP Solution to Cyber Scamming

The interconnected nature of cyber scamming and human trafficking demands comprehensive prevention strategies that address both criminal exploitation and the vulnerability factors that make individuals susceptible to recruitment. This is where educational programs like the Hope Education Project (HEP) become crucial in disrupting cyber scamming by empowering potential victims.

In regions like northern Ghana, where economic pressures and limited opportunities make fraudulent job offers particularly appealing, HEP’s targeted education serves as a vital first line of defence. The program helps individuals recognise that legitimate-seeming employment opportunities abroad often mask dangerous trafficking situations where victims become trapped in cycles of exploitation and cyber scamming, facing both legal consequences and further victimisation.

Implications for Law Enforcement and Cyber Scamming Policy

The convergence of human trafficking, cyber scamming and money laundering in these operations creates complex jurisdictional challenges. Victims may be trafficked from one country, forced to engage in cyber scamming targeting victims in another, while the criminal proceeds flow through financial systems across multiple jurisdictions.

Understanding these different cyber scamming types and their interconnected nature is crucial for developing effective countermeasures. As cyber scamming operations continue to evolve and scale, the international community faces an urgent need for coordinated responses that address not just the financial crimes, but the underlying human trafficking that makes these cyber scamming operations possible.

Prevention through education, such as the work being done by HEP, represents a cost-effective and sustainable approach to reducing both the supply of trafficking victims and the number of individuals who might otherwise be lured into cyber scamming participation. By building awareness and resilience in vulnerable communities, such programs can help break the cycle of exploitation that fuels these transnational cyber scamming enterprises.

This analysis is based on research by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime published in August 2025. “The business of exploitation: The economics of cyber scam operations in Southeast Asia” authored by Kristina Amerhauser and Audrey Thill and can be read in full here