Interpol has announced Operation Storm Makers II, a coordinated effort among 27 individual Asian countries targeting cyber-fraud operations engaging in human trafficking to perpetuate their scams. But it appears that this kind of insidious operation is expanding to other parts of the world as well.
Victims are promised well-paying jobs across Southeast Asia, but are instead forced to “commit online fraud at an industrial scale, while enduring abject physical abuse,” according to Interpol’s announcement of the operation. These cybermills have been identified as staffing call centers for social engineering, running fake gaming sites, or working on cryptomining, among other things.
After a five-month investigation, law enforcement was able to arrest 281 as perpetrators, and rescue 149 victims of human trafficking, Interpol said. The information gathered through the busts also allowed law enforcement to open an additional 360 investigations, Interpol added.
Troublingly, cyber fraud fueled…