Of 2,471 rescued Indians, who were lured to various southeast Asian countries with fake job offers and made to engage in cybercrime and other fraudulent activities in scam compounds, 273 are from Tamil Nadu, 247 from Uttar Pradesh, 224 from Maharashtra, 196 from Kerala, and 151 from Jammu and Kashmir, according to the data compiled by the Centre from 2022 to May 2025.
As many as 22,145 Indians travelled on visitor visas to Thailand, Cambodia, Myanmar and Vietnam from January 1, 2022, to January 31, 2025, have not returned, The Indian Express has learnt.
According to the data compiled by the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C), a unit under the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), over 20,000 Indians are expected to be working in the scam compounds situated in Southeast Asia from where they are targeting Indians and citizens of other countries.
The country-wise data of repatriated Indians shows that 1,089 were returned from Lao PDR, 800 from Cambodia and 582 from Myanmar from January 2022 to May 2025.
“Out of 1,089 repatriated Indians from Lao PDR, 145 are from Tamil Nadu, 129 from Maharashtra, 96 from J&K, 79 from UP, and 69 from Kerala. Among 800 Indians repatriated from Cambodia, 116 are from Kerala, 103 from UP, 95 from Tamil Nadu, 71 each from Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal,” a senior government official said, citing the data.
Out of 582 repatriated Indians from Myanmar, the official said 65 are from UP, 61 from Maharashtra, 57 from Gujarat, 48 from Punjab and 34 from Karnataka. “An analysis of cyber frauds this year revealed that they are targeting the Indian economy, and the country faces a loss of around Rs 1,000 crore every month to such crimes,” the official said.
Data of unreturned passengers shows that 22,145 Indians, who went on visitor visas to Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Lao PDR and Vietnam from January 1, 2022 to January 31 this year, have not returned till March 1.
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“Out of the 22,145 Indians, 15,828 are in Thailand, 3,566 are in Vietnam, 2,121 are in Cambodia, 387 in Myanmar, and 243 are in Lao PDR. Of them, the highest number of people (3,358) have travelled from Punjab, 2,581 from UP, 2,441 are from Tamil Nadu, 1,978 from Kerala, 1,857 from Maharashtra, 1,477 from Haryana, 1,058 from Delhi, 973 from Gujarat, 876 from Karnataka and 740 are from Rajasthan,” another government official said.
The Indian Express first reported that more than 5,000 Indians were suspected to be trapped in Cambodia after being allegedly held against their will and forced to carry out cyber fraud.
“Out of the 22,145 unreturned passengers, 7,811 are in the age group of 20-29, 6,682 in the 30-39, 3,204 in the 40-49 category, and 1,631 in the 50-59 bracket,” the official added.
Following the directions of the MHA, multiple central agencies and state police have registered 178 FIRs and arrested 224 people on charges of job fraud, cheating and others.
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A probe has revealed that there are three types of major cybercrime frauds operating from Southeast Asia: stock trading/investment scams, digital arrest, and task-based and investment-based scams.
