Human trafficking: How middle-class Asians are being targeted for cyber-crime

Human trafficking targets young, educated and tech-savvy Asians to create online scams.

One of the impacts of globalisation on crime has been the rise of people being trafficked into lives of crime. Whilst may associate people the victims of human trafficking as being from lower socio-economic backgrounds, seduced by the lure of working overseas and finding themselves sold into modern slavery, a new trend has emerged that is targeting young and educated Asians.

According to this article in the Telegraph, young Asians are being targeted with the promise of high paid employment with reputable companies and then travelling to destinations in Cambodia and other emerging economies with these false promises. The human trafficking is thought to revolve around organised crime syndicates operating out of nearby China and Taiwan. Young professionals are tricked into travelling to cities in Cambodia, then forced to surrender their passports and are imprisoned in guarded facilities where they operate extortion scams, predominantly on victims in mainland China.

The article demonstrates the changing nature of crime in the era of globalisation, the growth of cyber-crime and the role of organised crime – all of which can be linked to contemporary forms of crime.

Read the full article here