Victims of fake job offers in South Asia find themselves far from home, forced to work digital fraud scams with high ransoms demanded for their freedom.
A handshake and job contract. (Credit: Nzewi Confidence’s Images)
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When Faizan Rasool left his home in downtown Srinagar — Kashmir’s biggest and oldest city — he expected to travel to Thailand for a promising job.
He carried with him the hopes of his family and dreams of a suitable career, a ‘salary in dollars,’ and a hope of getting out from the chronic unemployment that grips his conflict-ridden homeland of Kashmir.
Instead, Rasool was taken to Myanmar where his passport was snatched and he was beaten. His family, who had anticipated money, instead received a ransom demand.
Rasool is among dozens of Kashmiri youth who, lured by fake job offers shared via social media and encrypted apps like Telegram and WhatsApp, have ended up trafficked to cyber-scam centres in Southeast Asia.
Many of these operations are linked to organized crime rings based in Cambodia, Myanmar and parts of China, often hiding behind the promise of legitimate tech jobs and other work.
“I was promised a good salary and a comfortable job,” Rasool said. “Once I landed, everything was fine. Two people posing as officials from the company received me at the airport and took me on a long journey of nearly 6–7 hours. At the end of the journey, everything changed and there, I found myself trapped.”
The dream turns into a nightmare.
Rasool said that his phone and passport were taken, and he was confined in a cell. “A ransom amount of $4,500 was demanded from my family in Kashmir for my release,” he said. “I was tortured mentally and physically and beaten as I refused to cooperate.”
What Rasool went through has become so common that last month the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime called for urgent international cooperation to respond to the growing overlap between trafficking and cybercrime.
In a 32-page report it wrote: “Driven by billions in illicit capital inflows, cyber-enabled fraud and scam centers have taken on industrial proportions in Southeast Asia, with independent and scattered fraud gangs being replaced by larger, consolidated criminal groups often operating under the guise of industrial and science and technology parks as well as casinos and hotels.”
It called for nations to coordinate responses at the national level and end the silos that separate the different institutions involved in prevention, enforcement, regulation and protection.
Rasool’s nightmare only ended when the Indian Embassy in Thailand and the Myanmar military launched a joint rescue mission. On 9 March 2025 a group of Indian victims was released from one such compound and handed over to Thai authorities. Rasool was sent back to India where he was deeply briefed by the rescuing agencies, before being handed back to family.
Promises of prosperity
Momin Majeed, a young boy from Sopore, north Kashmir, also told of a similar ordeal. “The job here in China was arranged through a consultancy agent named Bilal from Kupwara, north Kashmir,” he said. “He assured my family that everything from the visa to the passport was legal and valid.”
The boy was promised a decent customer service position in China. “I was told I will be working in a corporate setup, earning a decent salary,” Majeed said. “But after arriving in China, I was told the company had shut down.”
Majeed said that his passport and phone was seized. “We were monitored constantly, locked in and forced to follow instructions,” he said. “No real job was ever given. It was a scam setup. We had to execute fraudulent operations online — mostly targeting people in the West and back in Kashmir.”
He was allowed to make a short phone call home during the Muslim festival of Eid al-Fitr. Later, on 3 April, he called again, this time pleading for help. The captors demanded money for his release. Out of fear, his family sent $703. Only then was he allowed to leave the compound and return home.
Another youth from Kupwara, also trapped in the same building, was lured by the same agent. “We were trafficked like goods. All we wanted was a job,” he said.
A passport to imprisonment
The stories of Rasool and the Majeed are not isolated. Across north and central Kashmir, families share the same narrative: a local agent, promises of jobs and suitable salary abroad, large sums of money paid upfront and silence — until a desperate call comes from a foreign land.
“We sent our son with dreams,” said the father of young Sameer Ahmad Bhat from Pattan Baramulla. “Now he’s mentally shattered.” Bhat is believed to be in a remote and mountainous area where the borders of Thailand, Laos and Myanmar meet.
“He was promised a safe job,” his father said. “But now he’s underpaid, overworked and has no means to come back. His passport is gone.”
Bhat had already paid more than $1,400 to secure the job. Now his family fears he has been beaten and tortured. They have been ordered to pay more money as ransom to secure his release.
Some victims return from abroad with physical injuries. Others, like Majeed and Sameer still remain missing and trapped.
Most of the agents operate under the guidance of job consultancies, unregistered firms with no accountability. They often charge applicants between $1,800 and $3,600, promising secure employment, lodging and long-term visas. In reality, they feed a supply chain of human labour for crime syndicates.
“We trusted someone who claimed to be from our own Kashmiri community and that’s what hurts the most,” said Majeed’s mother.
A global network of scam
Recent cases have revealed that many of these fake job centres are compounds in Southeast Asia where victims are coerced into running phishing campaigns, romance scams, crypto frauds and fake investment schemes that mostly target people in Asia and North America.
A cybercrime expert, requesting anonymity, said these operations use tech-savvy slave labour. “The fraud networks are global,” he said. “The recruitment is local. And in places like Kashmir, where joblessness, desperation and digital literacy gaps collide, young people are easy targets.”
These scams are planned. Fake offer letters, visa assistance and ticket bookings make everything appear legal and legitimate. But upon arrival, the nightmare begins.
Some compounds are surrounded by armed guards and those who resist are beaten or subjected to mental torture. “It is cyber slavery,” said the cybercrime expert.
Local authorities in Kashmir are aware of the trend. Cyber Police Kashmir recently flagged more than 200 social media accounts spreading misinformation and extremist content. Nearly half were traced to foreign locations, many linked to trafficking and recruitment.
Cross-border crime
Law enforcement has begun tracking Telegram and WhatsApp groups involved in job scams. “We are building cases and have started arresting agents operating on the ground,” said an officer from cyber-crime Srinagar. “But the cross-border nature of these operations makes it complex.”
Cyber police have also begun counselling youth caught up in digital fraud rings. “We are dealing with a hybrid crisis, online exploitation and real-world trafficking,” the officer said. Despite these efforts, families say the crackdown has been slow and reactive.
“The agent who trafficked my son still roams free,” said Majeed’s mother.
At the core of this growing crisis lies Kashmir’s struggling youth, with an unemployment rate around 35% among urban youth aged 15–29, and around 53% among females aged 15–29 in urban areas of the region, according to the Union Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation’s National Statistics Office.
Also, years of political instability and limited private sector development has left thousands of graduates without prospects. “When opportunities don’t exist at home, people look elsewhere and often blindly,” said an unemployed, but highly-educated scholar from South Kashmir. “These scams target that desperation,” he said.
Reports say the lack of regulatory oversight of recruitment agencies has worsened the problem. While the Indian Ministry of External Affairs lists authorised overseas job consultants, most agencies operating in Kashmir are unregistered.
Families and job scam victims are now calling for urgent reforms and a crackdown on unlicensed recruitment consultancies. They say there should be mandatory verification of overseas job offers, counselling and rehabilitation support for rescued youth and, most importantly, public awareness campaigns in schools, colleges and online spaces.
“We need a systemic response, not Band-Aids,” said a local resident from Srinagar. “What is happening is not just fraud, but it is a form of modern-day slavery.”
Questions to consider:
1. What is cybercrime?
2. Why are young people accepting jobs and traveling to far off places without knowing anything about the company that hired them?
3. If you are offered a great job from someone you just met, what should you do?
Sajad Hameed is an India-based journalist and filmmaker covering human rights, politics, culture, health and science and technology in India. His work has been featured in a range of international and local media outlets.
Rehan Qayoom Mir is a journalist from Kashmir who reports on the region’s landscapes.