Digital recruitment scams: A nightmare for thousands of Bangladeshi migrants

In recent years, the migration dreams of thousands of Bangladeshi workers have turned into digital nightmares. Social platforms that promise safer pathways to overseas employment have instead become primary vectors for recruitment scams, sophisticated fraud, online exploitation, and digital deception.

In 2024, for example, hundreds of aspiring migrants from Munshiganj and Comilla paid around Tk4–6 lakh each after receiving job offers shared via Facebook groups that promised "free visas" to Saudi Arabia. 

The advertisements carried official-looking logos and forged signatures of recruiting firms. Upon arrival, many discovered that their visas were tourist permits—not work authorisations—leaving them stranded and jobless. Deceived by polished digital pages, they became undocumented overnight.

From 2022 to 2024, more than 400,000 Bangladeshis fell victim to what became one of the largest recruitment frauds in the country's history. Aspiring migrants paid up to RM20,000 to so-called agents who promised factory jobs under Malaysia's official labour quota. 

These "agents," operating through verified-looking websites and WhatsApp groups, used forged demand letters and fake company names. Most victims later discovered that no such jobs existed; consequently, many ended up sleeping on the streets or in detention centres.

In 2025, a similar recruitment fraud unfolded when 180 Bangladeshi workers were repatriated from Kyrgyzstan. Their journey began with enticing digital advertisements circulating through Facebook pages, WhatsApp groups, and YouTube channels that promised high-salary positions in Central Asia. 

The employers named in the ads were entirely unaware that their identities were being used. Once migrants arrived in Kyrgyzstan, they realised no jobs were waiting, no contracts, and no sponsors to receive them.

These cases highlight a shared thread: migrants' digital vulnerability—the inability to authenticate online information and verify recruitment legitimacy—now sits at the heart of Bangladesh's migration crisis.

While smartphone penetration has increased dramatically in Bangladesh, actual digital literacy remains extremely limited. According to recent surveys, approximately 65% of aspiring migrants have not completed secondary education, and many have only basic reading and writing skills in Bengali.

As a result, most aspiring migrants rarely engage with formal websites, cannot distinguish between legitimate and fraudulent online platforms, and lack the skills to verify the authenticity of digital documents. Many cannot recognise phishing attempts and do not understand that social media profiles can be easily fabricated. Likewise, many are unaware that photographs and testimonials can be stolen or doctored.

Additionally, official government resources, embassy websites, and legitimate international recruitment platforms are predominantly in English. For this reason, the language barrier forces most aspiring migrants to rely on Bengali-language intermediaries and informal networks.

The informalisation of migration: Networks of deception

The migration process itself, from beginning to end, is embedded within informal networks. At every stage—especially in contract negotiation, recruitment, document processing, and training—migrants rely on a chain of brokers and sub-agents. These intermediaries often operate in digital spaces that blur the line between formal and informal, legitimate and fraudulent.

While Bangladesh has a legal framework governing overseas employment—including licensed recruiting agencies registered with the Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET)—the majority of Bangladeshi workers never interact with these formal channels. Only an estimated 15–20% of migrant workers use officially licensed recruitment agencies for overseas placement.

Conversely, the remaining 80–85% rely entirely on informal networks of relatives, village brokers, sub-agents, and social connections.

These networks have now merged with digital platforms, creating hybrid systems where recruitment begins with a Facebook post, continues through WhatsApp negotiations, involves mobile banking transactions, and culminates in physical meetings at tea stalls or temporary offices.

This hybrid system combines the worst of both worlds: the lack of accountability inherent in informal networks with the anonymity and scalability of digital platforms. As a result, these informal networks, operating outside official regulatory frameworks, systematically expose prospective migrants to misinformation, deception, and exploitation.

This convergence of digital deception and informal brokerage transforms the entire migration process into a crucible of vulnerability. Forged contracts are signed without understanding; financial debts accumulate through hidden charges; and many migrants become trapped before they even board a plane.

In this phase, believing a message can be as consequential as signing a document. The journey of exploitation often begins with a phone chat, a Facebook post, or a WhatsApp group.

It is within these digital corridors that misinformation, half-truths, and deliberate deceit take root. Fake job portals replicate the branding of legitimate companies; forged offer letters circulate through WhatsApp groups; and medical or training centres issue fraudulent certificates for a fee.

Behind these digital schemes lies a dense web of actors—village dalals, licensed recruiters who collude with sub-agents, transnational syndicates operating fake job websites, complicit medical centres, loan sharks, hundi operators, and sometimes even corrupt officials. Each actor plays a role in maintaining the illusion of legitimacy.

Such deceptions and exploitations reach their devastating peak when a combination of low digital literacy and predatory online networks transforms aspirations into catastrophic financial and personal loss.

Taken together, these dynamics indicate that digital vulnerability is more than an individual challenge—it is now a structural root cause of migration risk in Bangladesh. As the previous cases demonstrate, the cycle is poised to continue without mechanisms that strengthen verification, promote digital literacy, and ensure recruiter accountability.

What Bangladesh urgently needs is an accessible verification mechanism that allows any potential migrant to verify the legitimacy of a job offer—whether through a hotline, mobile app, or village-level training.

In addition, digital literacy must be integrated into existing training courses for migrants; after all, in the wake of frequent digital deception both in countries of origin and destination, basic digital skills are no longer optional.

BMET must urgently embed digital literacy curricula into its pre-departure orientation courses. These can include specific lessons on digital etiquette and the responsible use of social media and messaging platforms commonly used by migrants for recruitment and communication.

It is also necessary to organise practical demonstrations of how to check the legitimacy of web pages, online recruitment agencies, and official migration portals. In this regard, BMET can partner with academia and independent fact-checking organisations for up-to-date modules.

All aspiring migrants—regardless of background—should receive basic fact-checking skills and digital document verification training.

Addressing this complex issue requires more than a single-actor intervention. Ultimately, effective resilience against online exploitation throughout the migration journey depends on collaboration among government, recruiting agencies, rights organisations, and civil society.

It is alarming that our migrants are participating in a global digital labour market with minimal informational armour.

Unless we ensure that education evolves to protect the digitally vulnerable, more dreams of a better future will be rewritten as stories of loss, debt, and deception.

Sketch: TBS

Zulker Naeen is a research coordinator at FactWatch and an adjunct faculty member in the Department of Media Studies and Journalism at the University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh (ULAB).

Md Riaz Uddin Khan is an adjunct faculty member in the Department of Media Studies and Journalism at the University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh (ULAB).

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and views of The Business Standard.