Forced
scamming
Rachel Hemphill and Ben McMechan from International Justice Mission (IJM) highlight the littleknown crime of ‘forced scamming’, one of the fastest growing forms of modern slavery in the world.
I
’m sure you’re no stranger to scam messages – we’ve all received the texts, calls and emails trying to deceive us. Often pretending to be a company or person you know and trust, convincing you to send your personal information or engage in conversation. It can be really challenging to identify fraud and keep yourself safe. It’s no surprise that these scams generate billions of US dollars each year. Like me, you may have noticed these are only becoming more frequent. But have you ever considered that the person scamming you could be trapped in slavery, unable to escape? In the past year, forced scamming has emerged as one of the fastest growing forms of modern slavery in the world. Criminal networks are tricking and trafficking people, trapping them in heavily-guarded compounds and forcing them to scam people like you and me across the world – including people in the UK and
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Herald November 2023
Ireland. Victims are made to perfect fit. She was excited commit this crime against to move from her home in their will, under the threat Indonesia for the role in of extreme violence, even Cambodia. electrocution. Imagine Miracle’s horror Trafficking, slavery and when she arrived and forced labour aren’t new discovered that the job crimes. But being held had never existed. Imagine against your will and forced the panic she felt when to scam people for their she realised that she was money is. trapped. Instead of the job This nightmare is a reality Illustration of Miracle, by Anna she’d accepted, Miracle Bonsignorio for thousands of people like was forced to commit the Miracle*. Just like many crime of scamming people. of us, Miracle was working to save for She had to create her retirement. In search of a new job, false profiles on Miracle accepted a role that looked like a social media sites and convince people around the Criminal networks are world to invest tricking and trafficking their money in people, trapping them in cryptocurrency scams. Miracle heavily-guarded would work for up to 20 hours a day, six days a week. Disobeying orders was compounds and forcing high risk. She says, “The supervisor them to scam people… electrocuted one of my colleagues after
