493 Cases of Sextortion Against Children Linked to Notorious Scam Compounds

“There are limits to what we can see with this data, but what we have so far is correct,” explains Heintz. “If anything, I think it undergoes the extent of the problem.”

The data that researchers have obtained is only an instantaneous of certain alleged sex -seater activities linked to scam centers. For example, mobile data in the advertising industry is incomplete, NCMEC data does not contain any possible cases of possible sextrusions and technological companies signaling data to NCMEC are probably biased towards American companies.

In its report, the IJM indicates that several reports of scam centers are linked to a wider sextrusions against adults. The report does not exclude that children are deliberately targeted with sextrusions crimes, but notes that children can also be caught in targeted programs on adults if they use parents or other caregivers. Now that this research has shown a link, researchers emphasize that additional research is necessary to strengthen the understanding of the authorities of the link between children’s sextory and the compounds of the scam and determine if the children are specifically targeted. NCMEC did not immediately respond to the request for wired comments.

Often led by organized Chinese groups of crime, scam compounds have exploded through Southeast Asia since about 2019. Criminals have treated thousands of people of more than 70 countries in compounds, where they are generally retained captive, have their passports removed and are forced to swindle people online. If they refuse, they can be beaten and brutalized. Initially targeting Chinese speakers, the scam centers have deployed so -called “pork butcher” scams, as well as various other forms of investment and Roman scams. With vast flows of illicit liquidity, criminals have increasingly opened components of scam in the Middle East, West Africa, Latin America and Eastern Europe; They have targeted scams against people around the world and changed the ways of defrauding people.

“The scam centers and cyber-compatible fraud networks in Southeast Asia have quickly diversified their activity sectors and their targeting range, increasingly integrating sex and malware, deepfakes and pornography in their operations”, explains John Wojcik, threat researcher by focusing on the Société de la Société Infoblox. A October 2024 report on the growth of the compounds of the scam of the United Nations Bureau on drugs and crime, which was partially written by Wojcik, which worked at the organization at the time, stressed the increase in cases of sextrusions against adults and the use of AI.

Wojcik claims that IJM research is in accordance with the reports of law enforcement organizations in Southeast Asia according to which there was a “constant increase” of cases of financial sextrusions against children.

Hieu Minh NGO, a reformed criminal pirate and now cybercrime investigator to the Vietnamese organization against non -profit scam Chongluadao, says that he has seen sex and sextrusions targeting young people and adults in Vietnam in recent years, and these “operations go back to compounds from the scam” Vietnam-Cambodia. “The tactics are consistent: the bad actors present attractive individuals on social networks, strengthen confidence with the victims, then contract them to share sensitive images or videos,” explains the NGO. The use of Deepfakes AI also increases, he adds. “This trend shows clear ties between regional scam compounds and organized sextrition targeting vulnerable children and populations.”