Cambodia’s Chinese scam gangs are forcing desperate young Asians into crime – and the pandemic only made things worse
- Debt-saddled youngsters from across Asia are being trafficked by criminal gangs to work in scam call centres defrauding their compatriots
- Most victims are from Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam, but Indonesians, Malaysians and even Kenyans are also being duped by the scam call-centre gangs
But once the prospective employee leaves for their new job, they tumble through a trapdoor of trafficking, debt-bound to ruthless Chinese gangs who force them to scam their compatriots, or face beatings and the risk of being sold to another criminal crew.
It has cost untold numbers of people their life savings after they were swindled by elaborate scams offering love, high yield foreign-exchange deals and ponzi-scheme investments, or conned into believing they were paying off fake police and customs officers.
Experts fear tens of thousands of young men and women could be held captive by the scamming gangs, being used to make innumerable calls every day – many against their will.
Hong Kong authorities say they’ve received 41 appeals for help from people tricked by Asia’s scam rings. Some remain trapped in Cambodia and Myanmar, but 23 have been confirmed as safe.
Ah Dee was one such victim. The 30-year-old told of how he’d answered a Facebook advert offering a HK$50,000 (US$6,370) salary for an advertising job in Thailand. He travelled to the kingdom’s northern Mae Sot district, only to be bundled into a car and trafficked over the border to Myanmar where he was told to pay a US$10,000 ransom or work the bill off doing phone scams.