For information only – not an official document
UNIS/SGSM/1607
27 July 2026
On this World Day Against Trafficking in Persons, we shine a light on the fastest-growing form of human trafficking: forced online scamming.
Across the globe, people are being lured by false promises of decent work – only to find themselves trapped by criminal networks and coerced into carrying out scams on others.
Scamming operations defraud millions of people, generating vast illicit profits for transnational organized crime. Powerful new technologies, including artificial intelligence, are helping the fraudsters spread at an alarming speed.
This mounting threat demands a united global response – one that brings together intelligence services, law enforcement and financial regulators to trace networks and starve perpetrators of their funds.
In 2024, Member States adopted the United Nations Convention against Cybercrime, a landmark agreement to strengthen cross-border collaboration. I call on governments everywhere to ratify the Convention, confront the corruption that enables criminals, and ensure technology companies rein in the abuses on their platforms. At the same time, we must support the survivors of scam centres to recover and rebuild their lives.
Human trafficking in all its forms is a gross violation of human rights. By working together we can end the exploitation, once and for all.
* *** *
The thirteenth session of the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (UNTOC) will be held from 19 to 23 October 2026 at the Vienna International Centre, Austria.
The Fifteenth United Nations Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice concluded today with more than 60 countries agreeing time-bound actions to strengthen criminal justice responses, expand access to justice and improve international cooperation to tackle global crime threats.
The Fifteenth United Nations Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice opened today with the adoption of the Abu Dhabi Declaration, a forward-looking global framework to strengthen international criminal justice cooperation against fast-evolving crime challenges and exploitation of digital technologies.
"It's time to choose dialogue over division, diplomacy over confrontation, and disarmament over destruction. States that possess nuclear weapons must honour their disarmament obligations and commit to the total elimination of nuclear weapons." — António Guterres
