2025 Articles

How Technology and Regulatory Gaps Fuel Scam Compounds

Scherling, Laura S.

Another seeming casualty of the US foreign aid freeze is the fight against human trafficking and forced labor in Southeast Asia. This includes the fight against scam compounds, a location typically operated by organized criminal gangs, where fraudulent operations occur at scale. Victims, some who were imprisoned in the region’s notorious scam compounds, have lost access to a shelter run by the Catholic charity Caritas. Global Alms, an NGO that combats human trafficking along the Thailand-Myanmar border, has reported losing their US State Department lifeline, which made up 60% of its funding. This article examines some of the dimensions of this ongoing "scamdemic" crisis.