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Digital deception: online job scams amid cybercrime vulnerability in Cameroon and Chad

Fraudulent job offers on WhatsApp and Facebook exploit desperate youth in Cameroon and Chad, sometimes ending in trafficking abroad.

Cybercriminals are exploiting Cameroon and Chad's rapid digital expansion to defraud young jobseekers through fake employment offers spread via WhatsApp and Facebook. In Cameroon, scammers run sophisticated schemes, including fake government programmes and migration offers, while in Chad, lower connectivity drives fraudsters toward SMS phishing and voice calls targeting economically vulnerable communities. Victims lose savings to advance-fee fraud, and in the most severe cases are trafficked abroad for forced labour or sexual exploitation. Outdated laws, under-resourced police and unaccountable social media platforms leave criminals largely unchecked, deepening the links between cybercrime, conflict-driven displacement and irregular migration in the region today.

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The ISS is grateful for support from the members of the ISS Partnership Forum: the Hanns Seidel Foundation, the European Union, the Open Society Foundations and the governments of Denmark, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden.
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