In the third week of April, Suresh Khadka, president of the Non-Resident Nepali Social Club in Oman, received a tearful call from a woman in Kathmandu. “My son has been out of contact for two weeks,” she said. “Please help me find him.”

Her son had told his family that he was working in the IT sector in Oman for three months. Within days, Khadka began receiving repeated calls from others reporting that relatives working in IT had gone missing. The victims were also pleading with the Nepali Embassy in Muscat to help locate their family members.

“We were shocked when we received complaints that 10-12 people had gone out of contact,” Khadka told the Post. “Nothing like this had been reported in Oman before.” After the investigation, 20 Nepalis were found imprisoned in a jail in Sohar, about 200 kilometres from Muscat. Club member Dewan Khadka discovered that they had been accused of cybercrime.

All the detained Nepalis had entered Dubai on visit visas, having been promised IT jobs by a Chinese company, and were then brought to Oman. One victim, Sanjay from Mahottari (name changed for privacy), had applied online for a data-entry officer position and travelled to Dubai on a visit visa.

“After working three months in Dubai, we were taken to a closed compound in Oman surrounded by high walls and guards. As soon as we arrived, they took our passports and phones,” Sanjay told the Post. “Later, we realised it was an online scam centre. We were forced to run fraud related to cryptocurrency and online scams. We had no other option and were threatened if we didn’t follow their rules.”

The UN Human Rights Office report Online scam operations in South-East Asia as sites of trafficking in persons stated that such scam centres have become modern-day slavery camps. Workers are trafficked, confined, beaten, and forced to scam global users via online gambling, cryptocurrency, and romantic conversations. The report states that workers forced to operate inside such areas fall under international definitions of trafficking victims.

On March 10, Sohar police arrested 257 people, including 20 Nepalis, from a building used for cybercrime. According to local court rulings, 19 Nepalis served six-month jail terms and paid 300 Omani rials fines, while two served six months and paid 600 rials. They have since been deported to Nepal.

The Royal Oman Police (ROP) reported a 50 percent rise in cybercrime cases in June 2025. ROP Criminal Investigation Director, Brigadier Jamal bin Habib al Quraishi, Director General of Criminal Investigation at ROP, told Muscat Daily that one of the most common methods used by criminals involves fake advertisements on e-commerce sites, offering products or services at unrealistically low prices. Unsuspecting buyers are persuaded to pay deposits or full amounts, only for the sellers to disappear without a trace. In some instances, fraudsters have resorted to deepfake videos and images to impersonate government employees and trick individuals into revealing sensitive personal and banking information.

In May 2023, 69 Nepalis were rescued from scam hubs in the Philippines, along with 1,137 other foreign workers. One rescued Nepali said, “The company contacted me via WhatsApp, promising a $1,000 monthly salary, free hostel and food, and airline tickets. But we were then forced to scam customers online. We were not allowed to leave, treated like prisoners, and kept under strict surveillance.”

Victims were made to work 18 hours daily searching for clients. “If we didn’t find clients, contracts were cancelled and salaries deducted,” one said. They were trained to create fake online romantic relationships to convince people to buy cryptocurrency or deposit money. Seven Chinese, two Indonesians, and one Malaysian were charged with human trafficking, abduction, and cybercrime.

Nepalis with IT skills, previously trapped in cybercrime in Myanmar, Cambodia, and the Philippines, are now victims in the Gulf. Traffickers start by offering normal-looking jobs in digital marketing, customer service, or specialist roles. Some victims undergo interviews and language tests, then are contacted through social media or professional sites. Traffickers arrange travel, fake documents, and sometimes legal entry into other countries (Thailand to Myanmar or Cambodia; the Philippines and Dubai to Oman). Upon arrival, passports are seized, and workers are locked in compounds under strict guard with no freedom of movement.

“This is digital slavery,” a 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 monitored 24/7. Some were chained to desks, denied food, and locked in filthy rooms. Medical care was almost nonexistent.”

The UN Human Rights Office stated that victims trapped in online scams should be treated as people needing rescue, not criminals. However, rescuing them is very difficult.

Nepali Ambassador to Thailand Dhan Prasad Oli said awareness is key. “We are rescuing those trapped through diplomatic cooperation, but public awareness must come first.”

Foreign Employment Board Director Basant Bahadur Bohara said it is essential to educate youth about the risks of being trapped as digital slaves.

Rameshwar Nepal, director at the rights organisation Equidem, said state mechanisms are weak for locating and rescuing victims. “Our embassies lack concrete rescue plans. Forcing workers into online or cybercrime is a new form of labour exploitation. Cyber scams and related human trafficking present a new human rights challenge.”

The UN report explains the modus operandi of cyber scam companies: workers follow scripts to contact victims via social media or dating apps, often using pig-butchering scams that build fake relationships over months to steal money. Fake cryptocurrency platforms or online casinos promise handsome profits. Operations are highly sophisticated, scripted, and enforced with threats.

“We hunted clients online, but we were also prey ourselves,” said a Nepali rescued from a scam company in the Philippines.

A UN report in April 2025 described Southeast Asia as the global hub of cybercrime. The lure comes from both workers seeking income and clients tempted by easy money. This results in millions lost by legally working Nepalis in Gulf countries and Malaysia who attempted online work.

The Nepali Embassy in Abu Dhabi reported a rise in complaints from Nepali workers scammed online. “We cannot take direct action against such scams; we advise filing complaints at local police stations,” an embassy official said.

Interpol launched Operation Storm Makers in 2023, involving 27 countries, including Nepal, targeting human trafficking-related scams. From October 16–20, over 270,000 inspections and police checks were conducted at 450 hotspots, resulting in 281 arrests and 149 victims rescued, with 360 investigation files registered.

“The human cost of cyber scam centres continues to rise. Only concerted global action can truly address the globalisation of this crime trend,” said Rosemary Nalubega, assistant director, Vulnerable Communities at Interpol, in the report. “While the majority of cases remain concentrated in Southeast Asia, Operation Storm Makers II offers further evidence that this modus operandi is spreading, with victims sourced from other continents and new scam centres appearing as far afield as Latin America.”