A Five-Tier framework for understanding cyber-slavery and Institutional misclassification: evidence from 29,466 cases in Southeast Asia

Abstract

Cyber-slavery converges human trafficking and transnational cybercrime by coercing trafficked individuals into cyber-enabled fraud through confinement, violence, surveillance, and control. This study uses a hybrid qualitative and administrative data design. It combines a systematic narrative review with preanonymized law-enforcement metadata on 29,466 Indian nationals identified as probable cyber-slavery cases in Southeast Asia between 2022 and 2024. From these sources, we develop a five-tier victimization framework that conceptualizes cyber-slavery as a layered sociotechnical process with probabilistic transitions a exploitation and its aftermath. Tiers 1-3 capture recruitment, coercion, and sustained exploitation. Tiers 4-5 capture postexploitation harms, including reintegration barriers, criminalization, and persistent incriminating digital traces. Cases show substantial male predominance (21,182 males; 8,283 females) and concentration among those aged 20-39. The wider cybercrime ecosystem included 633,000 Indian SIM cards and 376,000 mule accounts. Thailand emerged as a major transit hub, accounting for 20,450 cases. Prolonged exposure to coercive cybercrime environments may also facilitate transitions from forced participation to voluntary criminal involvement, complicating victim-offender distinctions and legal accountability. The study calls for trafficking-aware cybercrime investigations and reforms that recognize forced criminality within digitally mediated transnational crime ecosystems.