Scam Networks Shift To Smaller Operations: FATF

New Delhi: Criminal networks operating scam compounds are shifting to smaller, dispersed and mobile operations as enforcement pressure mounts, the Financial Action Task Force has warned.

In a report released in Paris, the global money-laundering watchdog said large, fortified compounds were giving way to operations in apartments, houses, hotels and leased office floors, sometimes disguised as legitimate outsourcing or marketing businesses.

A decline in visible mega-compounds should not be mistaken for a reduction in the criminal networks or the illicit funds flowing through them, said the report, to which India contributed.

The FATF cited a Global Anti-Scam Alliance estimate that fraud costs about $500 billion worldwide annually. Losses linked specifically to scam compounds are estimated in the tens of billions of dollars.

The industrial-scale scam-compound model expanded rapidly from around 2020, alongside the Covid pandemic. Operators have targeted victims in more than 100 jurisdictions, including India.

The report cited Cambodian operations against scams run from rented rooms, coffee shops and moving vehicles. In the Philippines, gangs have operated call centres with 20 to 300 workers from leased premises that can be abandoned quickly during raids.

Operators lure people with promises of lucrative jobs, traffic them across borders and force them to commit online fraud. Those who refuse can face confinement and violence.

One case involved Indians held in a scam compound in Bavet, Cambodia, who issued an SOS in 2025. The Indian embassy contacted them and asked the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) to locate the site using open-source information.

Coordination with Cambodian authorities led to the rescue of 81 Indians over two days.

“Debriefings of 15 Indian nationals repatriated from scam compounds in Cambodia, Lao PDR and Myanmar in 2023-2024 identified common recruitment, trafficking and operating patterns,” the report said.

The victims had been promised well-paid customer-service or IT jobs, generally taken through Thailand and subsequently forced into scam operations. The cases were evenly distributed across the three countries.

In Laos, sub-agents facilitated transfers to inland locations, while the Myanmar cases involved compounds in conflict-affected areas.

Recruitment fees of ₹50,000 to ₹70,000, paid in cash or online, contributed to debt bondage. The debriefings also yielded information about trafficking routes, compound locations, coercion and the scams victims were forced to carry out.

Another case supplied by India illustrated how networks divided functions, with staffing, salary payments, IT and physical infrastructure managed within the compound.

The FATF highlighted I4C’s integrated approach to victim reporting, financial intervention, disruption of criminal infrastructure and coordination among state police forces.

Its Citizen Financial Cyber Fraud Reporting and Management System, integrated with the National Cybercrime Reporting Portal, connects complaints with financial institutions, payment aggregators, e-commerce platforms and virtual-asset service providers to support real-time money tracing and freezing of assets.

Sahyog facilitates requests for virtual-asset service provider data and removal of online content. Samanvaya supports interstate case linkage and investigative assistance, including a module covering rescued victims and illegal recruiters.

The report warned that criminals moved money far faster than victims or authorities could respond. Thailand reported that illicit funds could reach an exit point in the financial system within three to five minutes, while victims took about 20 hours on average to realise they had been scammed.