Philippines still getting reports of citizens trapped in scam centers

July 16, 2025 | 8:08pm

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines expressed concern Wednesday, July 16, over continued reports of its citizens getting trapped in cyberfraud compounds across Southeast Asia, two years after regional leaders first vowed to stamp out the trafficking networks.

The Department of Foreign Affairs said it continues to receive reports of Filipino trafficking victims held in scam centers in Thailand, Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia, and is working with Philippine embassies and host governments to rescue the distressed Filipinos.

"We remain committed to the rescue and repatriation of all Filipino [human trafficking victims] that are working in illegal call centers in the region," the DFA said in a statement.

The problem persists two years after ASEAN leaders first adopted a declaration specifically targeting technology-enabled human trafficking at their 2023 summit in Indonesia. This January, ASEAN foreign ministers again pledged to combat trafficking and online scams during a gathering in Malaysia. 

Organized scam centers across mainland Southeast Asia typically lure unsuspecting job-seekers with fake employment offers. Once recruited, victims are held against their will in decrepit conditions and forced to run online scams, including romance cons, crypto fraud and other digital swindles.

With hundreds of thousands estimated to have been trafficked into the scam compounds, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime has called Southeast Asia “ground zero for the global scamming industry."

On Wednesday, the DFA specifically asked families to report information about their relatives who they believe are trapped in the cyberfraud centers near the Myanmar-Thailand border.

"Relatives of Filipinos who wish to provide verified information on their kin that they believe may be trapped in scam hubs in the vicinity of the Myanmar-Thai border may reach out to the Philippine Embassies in Yangon and Bangkok through Yangon PE’s Assistance-to-Nationals (ATN) hotline (+95 998 521 0991), email at [email protected], or through the official Philippine Embassy in Myanmar Facebook Messenger, and Bangkok PE’s Assistance-to-Nationals (ATN) hotline +66 81989 7116 or email through [email protected]," the DFA statement read.

"We call on all our kababayans, including our Filipino communities abroad, to support all efforts to prevent all modes of recruitment and victimization of our Filipino nationals in schemes that lead to forced criminality and participation in scamming operations," the department said.

The DFA also reiterated its advice for Filipinos to follow proper deployment procedures by the Department of Migrant Workers before leaving the country for overseas employment.

Over 200 Filipino victims of scam centers in mainland Southeast Asia were repatriated earlier this year. 

Not confined to Southeast Asia. Data shared by the Interpol indicates that nearly three-quarters, or 74%, of all trafficking victims are brought to centers in Southeast Asia.

But scam operations have also increasingly been observed in other regions, with West Africa emerging as a potential new regional hub.

Criminal networks are also exploiting artificial intelligence to create convincing fake job advertisements and generate deepfake profiles for romance scams and sextortion schemes, according to Interpol.