Cyber ​​slavery has gripped thousands, possibly tens of thousands, of Indians in Southeast Asia, where they are forced to work for online scammers who target Indians at home and swindle them out of millions of dollars. do Now the Indian government is cracking down on this new cyber crime.

The measures taken by the country’s telecom ministry included disconnecting 21.7 million mobile phone connections as well as blocking around 226,000 handsets.

See: Financial Fraud Top Cybercrime in India

An inter-ministerial panel has been set up, comprising the Ministry of Home Affairs, Bureau of Immigration, Financial Intelligence Unit, Reserve Bank of India, Ministry of Information Technology, National Investigation Agency (NIA).

Telecom operators have been asked to block incoming international “fake calls” that show Indian mobile numbers. Such dropped calls account for 35 percent of incoming international calls.

Telecom firms have also been asked to provide data of Indian mobile numbers using roaming facility in Hong Kong, Cambodia, Laos, Philippines and Myanmar, Indian Express said in a report on Monday (September 30).

It quoted a source as saying that 600,000 such phones were roaming in the Southeast Asia region between April and June this year.

Meanwhile, official data shows that out of 73,138 Indians who went to Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar and Vietnam on visitor visas from January 2022 to May 2024, 29,466 are yet to return.

The inter-ministerial panel has asked local governments in India to provide full verification of their background and whereabouts.

According to the Indian Express report, they mainly belong to Punjab (3,667), Maharashtra (3,233) and Tamil Nadu (3,124).

About 70 percent of the missing persons went to Thailand from India.

Earlier, according to Indian media reports, at least 5,000 Indians were trapped in Cambodia, which is the epicenter of cyber-slavery in Southeast Asia. Many of them went there thinking they were joining legitimate firms, but were forced to indulge in various cyber crimes.

Many of these crimes target Indians back home, often netting more than Rs 5 billion.

According to data from the Indian Cybercrime Coordination Center, 45 percent of cybercrimes targeting Indians originate in Southeast Asia. Around 100,000 complaints have been registered on the National Cybercrime Reporting Portal since January 2023.

There have been several reports this year of Indians complaining of being stranded in Southeast Asian countries, being held against their will or being rescued by government agencies.

In May, the government reported that 360 Indians working as cyber-slaves in Cambodia had been repatriated in the past five months.

In August, it was reported that more than 1,000 people from the southern state of Tamil Nadu who had traveled to Southeast Asian countries such as Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam and Laos were possibly working as cyber-slaves. Other original states include Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Delhi.

The same month, 47 Indians forced to run dating app scams were rescued in Laos.

Hundreds of them have been rescued so far by the Indian government or international organizations and NGOs.

According to the Cyberpeace Foundation, cyber slavery is a modern form of slavery “that begins with online deception and evolves into physical human trafficking.”

“This can take many different forms, such as forced involvement in cybercrime, forced labor in online fraud, exploitation in the gig economy, or involuntary servitude.”

Indians were ‘selected’ for high paying jobs, only to be forced to work 16 hours a day under harsh conditions.

Among the illegal activities they are forced to do online are money laundering, cryptocurrency fraud and dating/love scams.

According to Indian media reports, Indians from various states in their 20s and 30s are lured by cybercriminals for data entry jobs. Once they land in countries like Cambodia and Laos, these companies confiscate their passports and then force them to make cyberfraud calls, mainly targeting Indians.

Many of these calls involve the online equivalent of honeytrapping. Fraudsters ask Indians to create fake social media profiles of women. Scams range from cryptocurrency investing to dating.

Once victims deposit money, they are ghosted and their numbers are blocked.

(with input from agencies)