Compound effect: On digital arrest scams Politics & News

The Supreme Court’s call for a comprehensive inquiry into the proliferating menace of digital scams reflects the alarming scale at which Indian citizens are being defrauded. The Bench’s particular focus on ‘digital arrest’ scams — where fraudsters impersonate law enforcement officials to extort money — underscores the sophistication and brazenness of these operations. What distinguishes the current wave of digital fraud from conventional cybercrime is its industrial scale and cross-border architecture. A sprawling network of “scam compounds” operates from conflict-torn regions and special economic zones across Southeast Asia, particularly in Myanmar, where state control is minimal and where, disturbingly, regime complicity appears evident. The mechanics of this modern-day slavery racket are chilling. Victims are lured through fraudulent job advertisements promising attractive salaries and perks, often via Bangkok, in exploitation of visa-free regimes. From there, they are trafficked across borders, primarily into Myanmar’s regions controlled by Border Guard Forces allied with the military junta. These compounds function as digital sweatshops where trafficked individuals are coerced through violence, torture, and sexual harassment to perpetrate elaborate scams, including “pig butchering”, a sophisticated combination of romance and cryptocurrency investment fraud. Myanmar’s civil war has created ideal conditions for these operations to flourish. The junta’s 2021 coup and subsequent conflict emboldened the ethnic militias, re-branded as Border Guard Forces, who found lucrative revenue streams in hosting scam centres that could be “taxed” to fund military operations.

Proceeds are laundered through “mules” and dubious financial institutions such as Cambodia’s Huione Pay before being converted into cryptocurrency, making tracing and recovery nearly impossible. Global monitors have identified Chinese-organised crime syndicates as the kingpins orchestrating these transnational networks. India faces a dual crisis: thousands of its citizens are trafficked into forced scam labour under brutal conditions, while thousands more at home fall victim to the very frauds these captives are forced to perpetrate. This demands a multi-pronged response. The Reserve Bank of India, along with Union and State governments, must launch extensive public awareness campaigns about these scams while strengthening cybercrime infrastructure and policing capabilities. India must leverage diplomatic channels to forge a coordinated regional response. Working with China, Thailand, Vietnam, and other affected nations, India should exert maximum pressure on the Myanmar junta and Cambodia’s regime to dismantle these operations. The United Nations must also be mobilised to recognise this for what it truly is: a modern manifestation of slavery that demands urgent international intervention.