Online fraud is becoming a gateway to human trafficking in Cameroon

Criminal networks exploit job seekers’ aspirations, turning promises of employment abroad into schemes involving detention, extortion and forced recruitment.

Published on 20 October 2026 in ISS Today

By

Aicha Pemboura
Researcher, Central Africa Observatory on Organised Crime and Violence, ISS

The discovery in September of 15 underage girls in a barricaded compound in Yaoundé’s Essos neighbourhood, followed days later by 20 people (including two children) in a basement in Ngousso, has reignited concerns about human trafficking in Cameroon. The two mixed-use neighbourhoods in the capital’s northeast are home to working- and middle-class residents.

These are not isolated incidents. Reports from 2025 reveal that criminal networks have been exploiting desperate citizens in Yaoundé and the central Adamawa Region by luring them with false job promises.

In May this year, an operation in Dibombari in the Littoral Region led to the rescue of 17 youths recruited through fake job offers posted on digital platforms. The victims had paid an average of 550 000 CFA francs (US$942) in the hope of travelling to Malaysia, only to be held captive while awaiting departure. Four suspects were arrested.

A few weeks later, the National Gendarmerie announced the dismantling of a vast network in Yaoundé operating under the guise of multi-level marketing on behalf of the businesses QNET, IGNITE and UNIMEC. QNET has denied any involvement, and the positions of the other two companies are not yet clear.

In Cameroon, large-scale fraudulent migration schemes via digital platforms are relatively new

An investigation launched on 16 May resulted in 13 arrests and the identification of around 6 000 victims of fraud and human trafficking nationwide, according to National Gendarmerie data given to the Institute for Security Studies (ISS). The criminal networks involve recruiters, intermediaries, logistics and accommodation providers, coordinators and masterminds – some operating from outside the country.

The large scale of these illicit operations confirms the shift towards digitalisation, with networks no longer relying on in-person contact or local recruiters. Social media, digital platforms and fake job or training offers make it possible to quickly reach individuals seeking employment or opportunities abroad.

Human trafficking facilitated by cybercrime is expanding globally. In Africa, cyber-recruiters have for years been exploiting the continent’s growing connectivity. But in Cameroon, large-scale recruitment and fraudulent migration schemes via platforms like WhatsApp and Facebook are relatively new and increasing. In response, the Ministry of Public Service and Administrative Reform has issued official warnings about the threat.

In the recently dismantled Yaoundé network, the primary targets were vulnerable youth, job seekers, students and those seeking to migrate, drawn by the prospect of lucrative employment or skills development abroad.

Once recruited, they paid expensive fees and were then held in compounds – some for months – until authorities discovered the sites. Captors exerted constant psychological pressure on their victims, forcing them to extort money from their loved ones and recruit new targets online in order to secure their release.

Victims are held in compounds, forced to extort money from their families, and to recruit others online

Some victims from southern Cameroon were transferred via Garoua in the North Region to Nigeria. Deprived of their travel documents, they were confined and forced to raise money from their families.

The distinction between recruitment scams and the forced detention of victims is crucial. The Palermo Protocol against transnational organised crime defines human trafficking as recruitment or harbouring combined with deception, fraud, abuse of vulnerability or coercion, for the purpose of exploitation. In Cameroon, the initial scam does not involve human trafficking. It is the confiscation of documents, confinement, threats and coercion used to recruit others that mark the shift to trafficking.

The National Gendarmerie data also reveals a transnational dimension. The network’s ringleaders are allegedly based in Malaysia, with offshoots in West and Central Africa. Two people sought in connection with the investigation have been located in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Central African Republic.

Cameroon also serves as a destination for foreign victims, including Chadians recruited by networks operating in Yaoundé. In March 2025, police rescued 13 people held in a house in Yaoundé – seven from Madagascar, six from the DRC.

The distinction between recruitment scams and the forced detention of victims is crucial

The common factor across all these cases is the exploitation of economic and social vulnerability by criminal networks. In the QNET-IGNITE-UNIMEC case, the existence of multiple accommodation sites across different regions shows how criminal networks employ a web of clandestine houses or dormitories to isolate victims, confiscate their phones and keep them under constant surveillance.

Recent interventions show that security forces are able to identify and dismantle some of the networks. However, the vast distances between recruitment and trafficking sites and the transnational nature of the criminal networks call for enhanced cooperation within Cameroon and between the countries involved. This should include intelligence sharing and the designation of dedicated contact points to centralise alerts, prevent administrative obstacles and enable immediate intervention.

Cameroonian authorities also need to undertake rigorous monitoring and documentation of collective housing facilities, premises rented to groups, and informal shelters to identify suspicious gatherings before they become detention sites.

The government should redouble efforts to establish formal protocols between digital platforms such as Facebook and WhatsApp and the National Gendarmerie, enabling the rapid removal of fake job offers and the tracing of the accounts that disseminate them.

These measures may seem obvious, but coordinating such efforts is rarely easy. Cameroon’s ability to curb the expansion of this hybrid criminal phenomenon will depend on whether authorities have the political and budgetary will to act.

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