Thousands of Bangladeshi workers have fallen victim to technology-facilitated human trafficking after being recruited through fraudulent job advertisements on platforms including Facebook, WhatsApp, and the messaging app imo, with promises of high-paying data-entry or hospitality work in Phnom Penh (Cambodia's capital). Upon arrival, victims report having their passports confiscated and being sold between criminal compound operators for between USD 1,500 and USD 4,000, where they are forced to run online fraud schemes including romance scams and cryptocurrency fraud targeting people abroad. The scale of the crisis is significant: of the 17,031 Bangladeshis who travelled to Cambodia for work between June 2023 and July 2026, an estimated 98 percent did not receive the jobs they were promised, and Bangladesh has repatriated 583 trafficked citizens from Cambodia since June 2026 alone — a corridor experts describe as fraudulent by design, compounded by the absence of a Bangladeshi consular presence in Cambodia to assist victims in distress.