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Romance-and-investment scams combine a manufactured personal relationship with a false financial opportunity. A person builds trust online, introduces an apparently profitable investment, and directs the target to a fake brokerage or cryptocurrency platform. The displayed balance or returns may look real, but the target loses money when the platform will not let them withdraw. Some people who conduct these scams are themselves trafficked and forced to work in compounds; others may participate willingly or facilitate the operation. Those distinctions matter: the online target and the person coerced into defrauding them can both be victims.
How romance and investment fraud works
INTERPOL calls the relationship-led version of this fraud “romance baiting.” It uses emotional trust to make a financial pitch seem credible. The relationship may develop through social or messaging platforms, but the details differ across cases. There is no single script followed by every operation, and scam compounds do not all specialize in the same fraud.
The common pattern is a sequence of trust-building, an investment pitch, a transfer of money, and a blocked withdrawal. A fake platform can show an account balance or apparent gains that encourage a target to send more, but those figures do not establish that funds have been invested or can be recovered. UNODC also identifies fake online brokerages and cryptocurrency platforms among the fraud types trafficked recruits may be forced to carry out.
Romance baiting is a hybrid: it combines relationship-led deception with an investment fraud. That distinguishes it from other online scams that may rely on a false brokerage or crypto platform without first cultivating a personal relationship. The overlap matters because the emotional bond can make the financial pitch feel more credible, but it does not mean every online investment scam is romance baiting.
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1. Contact and relationship-building
The operator initiates or develops social contact and cultivates familiarity. The personal connection is part of the fraud’s mechanism: it can make an investment suggestion feel like advice from someone trusted rather than an unsolicited pitch. A relationship may be presented as romantic, but the sources do not establish that every case begins with the same kind of contact or follows an identical timeline.
2. An investment opportunity enters the conversation
Once trust has formed, the contact steers the target toward an opportunity described as lucrative. Cryptocurrency may feature, but the broader pattern also includes fake brokerages and other apparent investment platforms. The claim that an investment is promising comes from the person conducting the deception, not from an independent confirmation of its legitimacy.
3. The target is directed to a fake platform
The target may be asked to use a website or application made to resemble a brokerage or crypto service. An account page can create the appearance that money has been deposited or grown. An on-screen balance is not proof that a real asset exists, that a trade took place, or that the target controls the funds.
4. Money is transferred, then access fails
The target is asked to transfer funds to the purported investment. The loss becomes clear when the target cannot withdraw the money or the supposed returns. The exact payment route, platform design, and sequence vary from case to case; the defining deception is that the financial opportunity and apparent account do not deliver the access or investment outcome represented to the target.
Why compounds are part of the story
Scam compounds are not merely a backdrop to online fraud. In documented cases, organized groups operate from casino- or compound-type establishments and recruit people to carry out online criminality. UNODC describes a regional pattern involving recruitment, control, forced online criminality, compound locations, profits, victims, and state responses. That pattern explains how the fraud can be organized at scale without implying that every site has the same management, hierarchy, or funding arrangements.
INTERPOL describes financial-fraud networks as ranging from highly structured to loosely affiliated. The existence of an operation in a compound does not, by itself, establish who controls it, how it is financed, or how responsibilities are divided. Those details require evidence about a particular case. A broad description of the regional model should not be mistaken for a verified account of every compound.
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It is also important not to treat “Southeast Asian scam compound” as a precise description of one fixed kind of site. UNODC describes a regional pattern, not a verified map of every operation or a single organizational blueprint. A comparison between locations therefore needs to account for what is actually known about a particular case, when the evidence was gathered, and whether the site is an established or emerging hub. INTERPOL has reported increasing observations in the Middle East, West Africa, and Central America, but that does not establish that every location operates at the same scale or in the same way.
How people are recruited and controlled
Recruitment can start with deceptive job advertisements promising well-paid work. INTERPOL describes people being lured by false jobs and then detained and forced to conduct online social-engineering scams. UNODC says recruits can include young, educated, multilingual workers. The advertised job and the work actually imposed may therefore be radically different.
Reported forms of control and abuse include confinement, debt bondage, beatings, sexual exploitation, torture, and rape. These are serious harms, not incidental workplace conditions. A person’s apparent role in sending messages or making an investment pitch does not establish that they chose to do so freely. At the same time, evidence of trafficking in some cases does not make every participant in every operation a trafficking victim.
In the cases INTERPOL describes, a false job offer can be the entry point to detention and forced online social-engineering work. That is different from an account in which someone knowingly chooses to participate in fraud. The distinction depends on evidence about recruitment, control, and freedom to leave—not simply on the fact that a person was present in a compound or sent deceptive messages.
Forced criminality and willing participation are not interchangeable
People who have been trafficked into forced criminality may be compelled to deceive online targets under threat or confinement. Other people may take part willingly, and still others may act as facilitators. Treating all of them as one category obscures both the coercion documented in trafficking cases and the responsibility of those who knowingly organize or enable fraud.
For the same reason, “scammer” is often an incomplete description when applied to someone whose freedom has been taken away. The more precise wording, when coercion is supported by the evidence, is “person trafficked into forced criminality” or “person forced to carry out scams.” That distinction does not erase the financial harm inflicted on the person targeted online; it makes the different roles and harms visible.
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Two groups can be harmed by the same operation
Romance-investment fraud links the financial and emotional injury of online targets with the trafficking and abuse of people forced to conduct the fraud. Targets may lose money after trusting a person and a platform that were part of a deception. Recruits may be lured by false employment promises, deprived of their freedom, and compelled to carry out that deception. One harm does not cancel out the other.
OHCHR’s February 2026 report summary emphasizes that harm to trafficked people may persist after release. Leaving a compound is not necessarily the end of the consequences of confinement, violence, or exploitation. OHCHR calls for a response centered on human rights, dignity, safety, and well-being, including respect for the non-punishment principle for people trafficked into cyber-scam operations.
What the reported figures do—and do not—show
The estimates described below come from different dates and describe different things. They should not be combined into a single current headcount. The figures below are estimates or analyses attributed to the institutions that reported them, not a census of all people or operations.
| Source and date | Reported figure | What it describes |
|---|---|---|
| OHCHR briefing, 28 August 2023 | At least 120,000 people in Myanmar | Estimated to have been held in situations of forced online scamming. |
| OHCHR briefing, 28 August 2023 | At least 100,000 people in Cambodia | Estimated to have been forced into online scams. |
| INTERPOL analysis, March 2025 | 66 countries | Countries from which victims had been trafficked into online scam centres, based on INTERPOL’s analysis of notices issued over the preceding five years. |
| INTERPOL analysis, March 2025 | 74% | Share of trafficking victims in that analysis who were brought to centres in Southeast Asia. |
OHCHR cautioned in 2023 that the scale was difficult to estimate because the activity is clandestine and official responses have gaps. Its figures are estimates of people potentially held or forced into scamming in that period, not confirmed individual counts or 2026 totals. INTERPOL’s figures describe the notices it analyzed; they are not a census of every trafficking case or scam centre.
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INTERPOL also reported increasing observations of scam-centre activity in the Middle East, West Africa, and Central America. That indicates the phenomenon is not confined to one region, but it does not establish that every location has the same scale or operating model as Southeast Asian hubs.
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Where artificial intelligence fits
INTERPOL has reported AI use in fake job advertising and in generating photographs or profiles for romance scams and sextortion. Its 2024 financial-fraud announcement also described AI, large language models, and cryptocurrency as technologies that can support more sophisticated fraud campaigns. These are reported uses and trends, not evidence that every compound uses AI or that any particular romance scam relies on synthetic images.
Technology can help produce convincing-looking material or support a fraud campaign, but it does not change the central test for a purported investment: whether the service and the funds are independently verifiable and whether the person transferring money retains real control. A polished profile, fluent messages, or a displayed account balance cannot establish that an offer is genuine.
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Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What an effective response needs to account for
Because the scheme can involve online fraud, trafficking, cross-border recruitment, and abuse, no single response addresses every harm. INTERPOL recommends coordinated international action, stronger information exchange among affected law-enforcement agencies, partnerships with NGOs that support victims, and cooperation with technology companies whose platforms are exploited. These are institutional recommendations; they do not prove that every jurisdiction implements them effectively.
Responses also need to distinguish people who organize or willingly facilitate fraud from people compelled to carry it out. OHCHR’s call to respect the non-punishment principle is especially relevant when a person’s apparent criminal conduct may have been the result of trafficking and coercion. An approach that overlooks that possibility risks treating an exploited person only as an offender, while an approach focused solely on coerced workers can overlook the separate losses and trauma of online targets.
INTERPOL’s 30 June 2025 statement captured the cross-border dimension: “The reach of online scam centres spans the globe and represents a dynamic and persistent global challenge.” Its response recommendations reflect that reach: the people recruited, the people targeted, the platforms used, and the locations where operations are found may span several countries. The evidence about any one case still needs to be assessed on its own terms.
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INTERPOL also calls for stronger cross-border information exchange and partnerships with both victim-support NGOs and technology companies whose platforms are exploited. As Cyril Gout, INTERPOL’s Acting Executive Director of Police Services, put it: “Tackling this rapidly globalizing threat requires a coordinated international response. We must increase the exchange of information between law enforcement in the growing number of countries affected and strengthen partnerships with NGOs that help victims and technology companies whose platforms are being exploited.” These recommendations address different parts of the problem: law enforcement can share information across borders, NGOs can support victims, and technology companies can help address misuse of their services.
Why the terminology matters
INTERPOL’s cited 2024 announcement uses “romance baiting” in place of “pig butchering,” a term it says it replaced in December 2024 to foreground human impact. The terminology is more than a label: it can keep attention on the emotional manipulation at the heart of the fraud without reducing people trafficked into forced criminality to a slur. Use language that reflects the evidence in an individual case, especially when it is not known whether a person participated willingly or under coercion.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do romance and investment scams work?
A person builds an online relationship, introduces an apparently lucrative investment, and steers the target to a fake brokerage or cryptocurrency platform. The account may display apparent balances or returns, but the target discovers the deception when they cannot withdraw the money. The sequence is a common pattern, not a universal script.
How are people recruited into scam compounds?
Recruitment can begin with deceptive job advertisements promising well-paid work. INTERPOL describes people being lured by false jobs and then detained and forced to conduct online social-engineering scams. UNODC notes that recruits may include young, educated, multilingual workers. The work and conditions can differ from what the job offer promised.
Are people in scam centres trafficking victims or criminals?
There is no single answer for every person or operation. Some people are trafficked and forced to carry out scams; others may participate willingly or facilitate the fraud. The evidence about recruitment, coercion, and freedom to leave matters. A person’s apparent role in sending deceptive messages alone does not show whether they acted freely.
What happens to people forced to work in online scam centres?
Reported harms include confinement, debt bondage, beatings, sexual exploitation, torture, and rape. OHCHR’s February 2026 report summary warns that harm may persist after release and calls for responses centered on rights, dignity, safety, and well-being, including respect for the non-punishment principle for people trafficked into cyber-scam operations.
Are all scam compounds in Southeast Asia, and are their numbers known?
No. INTERPOL reported increasing observations in the Middle East, West Africa, and Central America, while its March 2025 analysis said 74% of trafficking victims in the notices it reviewed were brought to Southeast Asian centres. The figure is not a census. OHCHR’s 2023 estimates for Myanmar and Cambodia were difficult to establish because the activity is clandestine and official responses have gaps.
The Bottom Line
Romance baiting uses a manufactured relationship to make a fake investment feel trustworthy, but scam-centre cases also raise a separate question: whether the people conducting fraud are willing participants or trafficking victims forced to do it. The evidence supports both harms at once—financial and emotional losses for targets, and coercion and abuse for some workers—so accurate reporting and effective responses must distinguish the roles without minimizing either group’s victimization.
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