This Anti-Corruption Helpdesk brief was produced in response to a query from one of Transparency International’s national chapters. The Anti-Corruption Helpdesk is operated by Transparency International and funded by the European Union.
Query
What is the role of the role of corruption in scam centres and compounds linked to transnational organised criminal groups?
Summary
Scam centres have emerged as a sophisticated and widespread form of cybercrime in recent years, targeting victims on a global scale. The proliferation of the scam industry is a significant governance and human rights issue enabled by corruption. The paper finds that large-scale scam operations often depend on some form of official complicity or facilitation. Such arrangements give criminals the operational protection and freedom needed to recruit, move and exploit victims of human trafficking, as well as to receive information about potential crackdowns, escape accountability or, in some cases, control scam operations in collusion with, or under the direction of, high-level government officials. Corruption-enabled scam operations are sustained by a number of enabling factors, such as weak governance and regulatory gaps. Responses therefore need to address the conditions that allow corruption in scam operations to take root, including poor oversight of high-risk border areas and special economic zones (SEZs), weak or absent anti-corruption legislation or limited cross-border cooperation.
Main points
- Scam centres vary significantly in their operations and physical makeup, ranging from small apartment based operations to large compounds with defined organisational structures. Despite this, they all share similar functional components, such as a physical site, a workforce, management structures, access to digital tools and some form of local protection or enabling environment. This, coupled with their low infrastructure requirements and ability to relocate, makes them highly replicable across jurisdictions, and has contributed to proliferation in recent years.
- Corruption is generally a core enabler of scam centre operations. Bribery, political protection, official control and law enforcement collusion create a criminal ecosystem free from legal or regulatory interference.
- In Myanmar, evidence has been found that the Karen Border Guard Force, which is connected to the Myanmar military, controls and provides security to scam compounds in exchange for a cut of the profits.
- In Georgia, allegations against senior officials and politically connected actors illustrate how scam centres can become embedded in state-linked protection networks, with corrupt actors reportedly shielding operations in exchange for kickbacks.
- In Cambodia, scam operations are reportedly housed in hotels, resorts, casinos and office parks connected to political elites, while wider kleptocratic and patronage networks help protect and enable the scam economy.
- Corruption in scam operations is enabled by long-standing and embedded relationships between organised crime groups and state officials, which are sustained by recurring and self-reinforcing patronage and rent-sharing arrangements
- Scam centres are also sites of serious human rights abuse. Many workers are migrants deceived through fraudulent job offers, then subjected to forced labour, debt bondage, violence, surveillance and restrictions on movement.
- Corruption facilitates human trafficking linked to scam centres at multiple stages, such as during the recruitment stage, at border crossings and in detention centres post-escape. Therefore, anti-trafficking responses must address public sector complicity and facilitation.
- Weak governance, regulatory gaps, limited oversight of border areas and special economic zones (SEZs), conflict affected areas or areas with contested authority, poor inter-agency coordination and weak cross-border cooperation create the conditions for corruption to take root in scam operations. Therefore, responses must focus on these enabling conditions.
Authors
Sam Parrett-Jung
Reviewers
Jamie Bergin, Franziska Schlichting (TI)
Date
18/08/2026
