Interpol warns of global threat from scam centres
A new resolution aims to combat transnational scam centres that force victims into financial fraud, often through violence and exploitation.
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Interpol’s General Assembly has adopted a resolution to combat the growing threat of transnational scam centres, criminal hubs linked to large-scale fraud, human trafficking and abuse.
Victims are often lured under the pretext of lucrative overseas jobs and forced to carry out illicit schemes, including voice phishing, romance scams, investment fraud and cryptocurrency scams targeting individuals worldwide. While not all workers in these centres are trafficked, those held against their will may endure physical violence, sexual exploitation, torture and rape.
The resolution, proposed by the Republic of Korea, highlights the increasing use of advanced technologies by criminals to deceive victims and conceal their operations. Interpol emphasises the need for a coordinated, global response to these highly adaptive networks.
To tackle the threat, Interpol recommends real-time intelligence sharing, multinational joint operations, targeting criminal financing, standardized emergency protocols to locate and repatriate victims and awareness campaigns aimed at vulnerable groups such as youth and job seekers.
“To effectively counter these criminal networks, we must strengthen collaboration, improve information sharing and move forward with coordinated, decisive action,” Interpol Secretary General Valdecy Urquiza said. “Interpol is committed to supporting the resolution’s implementation and working with member countries to break these operations apart and protect the people who are most at risk.”
The organisation’s June crime trend update revealed victims from more than 60 countries have been trafficked into scam centres worldwide, with operations often overlapping with other illicit markets, including drugs, firearms and wildlife trafficking. In 2024, Interpol’s largest-ever global operation targeting trafficking-fuelled fraud across 116 countries led to over 2,500 arrests, with additional regional operations carried out in Africa and Europe.
Interpol first raised the alarm on scam centres in 2022 with a Purple Notice on social media recruitment, followed by a 2023 Orange Notice warning that human trafficking-fuelled fraud represents a serious and imminent threat to public safety.