In the third week of April, a woman called Suresh Khadka, the president of the Non-Resident Nepali Social Club in Oman, from Kathmandu, crying, "My son has not been in touch for two weeks, I have to search for him." The woman's son had told his family that he had been working in the IT sector at a company in Oman for three months.

Within a few days, Khadka began receiving calls from others saying that their relatives working in the IT sector had gone missing. The victim was also pleading with the Nepali Embassy in Muscat to help find their relatives. 

‘We were surprised when we received a complaint that 10-12 people were missing. Such a complaint had never been heard in Oman before,’ Khadka told Kantipur, ‘While searching, 20 Nepalis were found imprisoned in a prison in Sohar.’ When Dewan Khadka, a central member of the Social Club working in Sohar, about 200 kilometers from Muscat, reached the prison, it was revealed that they had been detained on charges of committing cybercrimes. 

All the detained Nepalis had reached Dubai on visit visas. From there, a Chinese company had brought them to Oman on visit visas, promising to offer them work in the IT sector. Similarly, Sanjay (name changed) from Mahottari had also reached. Earlier, he had applied online and reached Dubai on a visit visa to work as a ‘data-entry officer’. ‘After working in Dubai for three months, we were taken to a closed compound in Oman. There were high walls and guards stationed all around. Upon arrival, they took away our passports and phones,’ Sanjay told Kantipur, ‘Only later did we come to know that it was an online scam center. From there, we were forcibly forced to run a fraud campaign through crypto-fraud, online fraud and fake profiles. We were threatened to follow the rules there, we had no other option.’ 

The latest report by the United Nations Human Rights Office on ‘Online Scam Operations in South East Asia as a Side of Trafficking in Persons’ states that fraud centers are not only places for criminal enterprises but also modern slave camps. ‘Laborers lured through false job advertisements are trafficked, imprisoned, and beaten. They are forced to defraud users around the world through online gambling, cryptocurrency and ‘romance scams,’ the report states, ‘The workers forced to work inside the cyber fraud compound are trafficked persons according to international legal definitions.’ 

A monthly salary of $1,000, free hostel and food were provided. The company also sent the air tickets. Later, from there, they lured customers online and forced them to defraud. It was forbidden to go outside the gate. We were kept like prisoners.  : Victim Nepali youth On March 10, the police arrested 257 people, including 20 Nepalis, from inside a building in Sohar. According to the local court’s verdict, 19 people were sentenced to six months in prison and three hundred Omani riyals, and two were sentenced to six months in prison and six hundred riyals in fines, and were recently ‘deported’ to Nepal.

According to the Royal Oman Police (ROP), cyber crime fraud cases have increased by 50 percent by June 2025. “Cybercrime is on the rise by creating fake advertisements, fake rental offers and fraudulent sites that look like government websites, claiming to be for domestic worker recruitment services,” Brigadier Jamal bin Habib Al Qureshi, Director General of Criminal Investigations at the ROP, told Muscat Daily. “They (workers) have been used to defraud money through various digital means, including fake employment, online investments and social media.”

In June 2080, 1,137 foreign workers, including 69 Nepalis, were arrested in raids at the Clark Sun Valley Hub Corporation in Clark Freeport, Pampanga, Philippines, and the Mawalacat Special Economic Zone. “I was told that the company had selected me through WhatsApp. I was told that I would receive a salary of $1,000 per month, free hostel and food. The company had also sent me my air ticket,” a Nepali youth who was arrested told Kantipur. “Later, from there, they were tricked into defrauding customers online. We were not allowed to go outside the gate. After the duty was over, we were taken to the camp and released. We were kept like prisoners.'

According to him, they were made to work for 18 hours a day to find customers. 'If customers were not found, they would threaten to cancel the contract. Their salaries would be cut,' he said, 'They were trained to create fake 'romantic online relationships' with strangers. Then they would make them buy cryptocurrency and deposit the money in fake bank accounts.' Seven Chinese, two Indonesians and a Malaysian citizen who ran the fraud business have been charged with human trafficking, kidnapping and cybercrime. 

Nepalese becoming digital slaves

Nepali workers who have been involved in online or cybercrime in Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos and the Philippines in the name of employment have recently started becoming victims in the Arab region. Earlier, it was revealed that they were trapped while working for online fraud companies run by criminal groups in Myanmar and Cambodia. The process begins with a job application that looks like a normal job.

Victims apply for jobs that appear to be specialist, digital marketing or customer service representatives. Some also take interviews and language tests. Many are contacted through social media or professional sites. The smugglers arrange their travel. They prepare fake documents. In some cases, they enter legally and smuggle them to another country (from Thailand to Myanmar or Cambodia, from the Philippines and from Dubai to Oman). Once there, their passports are confiscated. The victims are taken to a walled compound, where security personnel are closely guarded and they are not allowed to leave. 

‘This is digital slavery,’ one victim told a UN investigation team. ‘We were forced to lie all day. If we didn’t earn money, we were beaten at night. Those who didn’t work were kept under 24-hour surveillance. Some were chained to desks, not given food, and confined to dirty rooms. Treatment facilities are often nonexistent.’

No specific curriculum in place 

The United Nations Human Rights Office has stated that it is necessary to see victims (those caught in online fraud) as deserving of rescue, not as criminals. It has been said that rescuing those trapped in such a way is becoming very complicated. Nepali Ambassador to Thailand Dhan Prasad Oli, who is coordinating the rescue of those trapped in Cambodia and Myanmar, said that the main work is to sensitize Nepalis who come to work in this area. ‘We are rescuing them through diplomatic cooperation, which is a matter of after they are trapped,’ he said, ‘but before that, it is public awareness.’

The Foreign Employment Board has not yet prepared a special curriculum related to online fraud and cybercrime for workers going for foreign employment. Board Director Basanta Bohara said that it is necessary to inform the youth who dream of digital employment and work on online networks about the risks that can make them digital slaves. ‘This is becoming a new issue for us. Now it seems necessary to address this too,’ he said.

Rameshwar Nepal, director of Equidem, who is researching the human rights of migrant workers, said that the state's mechanism for searching for and rescuing its citizens trapped in fraud is weak. "Our embassy does not have a concrete rescue action plan. Labor exploitation in online or cybercrime is a new form of exploitation," he said. "The crisis of cybercrime and related human trafficking seems to have created a new challenge to human rights."

This is how online fraud is done

According to a report by the United Nations Human Rights Office, workers search for clients through social media and dating apps according to a prepared script within a cybercrime company. Often, through 'pig-butchering scams', they create fake love relationships with its users for months and then cheat them out of money. Similarly, messages are sent to customers through fake cryptocurrency platforms or online casinos that show incredible profits.

These operations are very sophisticated. 'Proof of profit' is shown by creating fake websites. Some are tricked into sending small amounts of money to gain trust. Everything is ‘scripted’, trained and implemented through violence. ‘We are preying on customers through computers. But, on the other hand, we are also being preyed upon,’ said a Nepali who was rescued from an online fraud company in the Philippines. 

According to a report released by the United Nations in April 2025, Asia is becoming the ‘global engine’ of cybercrime. Behind this are both workers and clients who are greedy for income. Due to this, Nepali workers working legally in the Gulf and Malaysia for foreign employment are losing crores in the greed of easy income online. According to the Nepali Embassy in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the number of Nepali workers coming forward with complaints alleging that they have been cheated online is also increasing. ‘We do not have the capacity to take action against such online frauds. We have been suggesting that a complaint be filed with the police office as per local laws,’ an embassy official told Kantipur. 

A report released by the United States Institute of Peace in 2024 stated that cyber scams generated $12.5 billion in Cambodia, $15.3 billion in Myanmar, and $10.9 billion in Laos. This is about 40 percent of the combined gross domestic product of these countries.

Interpol launched ‘Operation Storm Makers’ targeting fraud through human trafficking, involving 27 countries, including Nepal. The campaign involved Angola, Australia, Bangladesh, Brazil, Cambodia, China, Ethiopia, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Thailand, Turkey, Uganda, United Arab Emirates, and Vietnam.

From 16 to 20 October, more than 270,000 inspections and police checks were carried out in 450 human trafficking and migrant smuggling ‘hotspots’ in 27 countries. Many of these were regular routes used to transport victims to notorious cyber fraud centres in Southeast Asia. The operation resulted in 281 arrests for crimes including human trafficking, passport fraud, corruption, telecommunications fraud and sexual exploitation.