Hooked by hope examines the use of social media platforms by transnational criminal networks to recruit individuals for forced labour in cyber scam operations, with a particular emphasis on the Myanmar-Thailand border region. The study reveals the deceptive recruitment patterns employed across platforms like TikTok, Facebook and WhatsApp, based on comprehensive interviews with investigative journalists and survivors, surveys, and digital content analysis.
By Bo Bo
MYANMAR DIGITAL RESEARCH 26
Abstract
Hooked by hope investigates the digital recruitment and human trafficking mechanisms that sustain Myanmar’s booming scam industry. The study traces how social media and messaging platforms such as Facebook, TikTok, Telegram, and Viber are exploited to lure vulnerable job seekers—particularly from Myanmar, Thailand, and other parts of Asia and Africa—into forced labour in cyber scam compounds.
Using survivor testimonies, digital ethnography, and discourse analysis, the research uncovers the psychological manipulation and deceptive advertising tactics used to attract victims with false promises of high-paying IT jobs. Once recruited, workers are subjected to coercion, violence, and inhumane working conditions, often under the surveillance of armed groups and private brokers.
The paper highlights the intersection between digital precarity, displacement, and authoritarian control, arguing that online fraud and human trafficking in Myanmar reflect deeper failures of governance and digital accountability. It calls for multi-stakeholder collaboration between governments, civil society, and technology platforms to prevent digital recruitment abuses and support victims’ reintegration.
Keywords: human trafficking, digital recruitment, cyber scam, social media, forced labour, migration, Myanmar, digital governance
This Myanmar Digital Research paper was produced for the Knowledge for Democracy Myanmar (K4DM) initiative, with the aid of a grant from the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), and with support from The SecDev Foundation. Views expressed herein do not necessarily represent those of either organization.
Over the next two years, over twenty papers in the Myanmar Digital Research series will have researchers within and in the Myanmar diaspora exploring how the digital world is shaping their social, political and economic crisis, bringing new insights into issues facing Myanmar citizens. See below for others available now.