Trafficking, Torture, and the Globalization of Forced Fraud
Dark Economy | The story of Small Q, a young Ugandan man who escaped human trafficking and a Myanmar scam compound, illustrates how organized crime reinvented modern slavery and turned online scams into a massive revenue stream.
Lured to Southeast Asia with the promise of a well-paying data entry job in Thailand, Small Q found himself trapped in a Myanmar scam compound. Instead of Thailand, Small Q had been transported across the border to the Tai Chang scam compound, a 500-acre facility that the U.S. Department of Justice has linked to a local militia group and Chinese organized crime.
There, he was forced to work 18 hours at a time, posing as a young woman to build online relationships with American and Canadian men. He was given 400 phone numbers every day and a quota of engaging with at least 60 of them. Or else.
“The physical and physiological torture makes your mind go dark. You imagine things that don’t exist.” — Small Q, trafficking survivor
The Growth of the Fraud Industry
In 2019, fraud losses reported to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission sat at around $1.9 billion. By 2021, that number had reached $5.8 billion. And the 2024 FTC data cited annual fraud losses in the U.S. at $12.5 billion. The FBI’s latest Internet Crime Report estimates scams cost Americans $21 billion in 2025.
The growth since 2019 works out to a 205% increase in fraud losses in two years, a 557% increase over five years, and a 1,005% increase by 2025.
When COVID hit, huge casino complexes in Southeast Asia had to find a new business model. They transformed into scam compounds, trafficking Chinese speakers to scam Chinese victims. When they turned to target English-speaking targets, they started recruiting and trafficking workers from other countries, including those in Africa.
“To get people to investment in cryptocurrency, you have to invest a lot of human hours into getting those people to fall in love with you,” Operation Shamrock Founder Erin West told Dark Economy. “And the best way to do that is with a human labor force that isn’t costing you any money.”
Now, similar scam compounds are emerging in Africa, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Peru, and even the Isle of Man in the U.K.
Full article: Trafficking, torture, and the globalization of forced fraud
Trigger Warning: The article contains description of physical violence.
Small Q isn’t a stranger to Operation Shamrock. In fact, Erin West met him in Entebbe, Uganda, in late 2025. Listen to their conversation on the Stolen podcast: “Trafficking Survivor Exposes Pig Butchering Scam Compounds.”
