– South East Asia is rife with scamming compounds
– Many of the scammers have been human trafficked
– Fraudsters can take months to con their victims
– Scammers are beaten if they don’t make enough money.
Earlier this year, 82-year-old Dennis Jones befriended a woman named ‘Jessie’ on
Facebook.
After talking for several months online, Jessie convinced the American to invest in crypto,
which culminated in him sending all of his life-savings to a fake overseas company- leaving
him in ruins.
In March, Dennis took his own life, leaving behind his family to piece together what had
happened by reading through lengthy Facebook messages between the 82-year-old and
the scammer.
He was just one of the victims of huge crime operations run from South East Asia,
predominantly organised by gangs, using forced labour to scam unsuspecting victims by
making fake profiles on social media.
Last year, it was estimated almost four billion was stolen in so-called ‘pig-butchering scams’- a 53% increase from the previous year. A pig-butchering scam is a type of long-term money making scheme in which the victim gradually makes investments in the form of cryptocurrency to fraudulent businesses.
Dating app members are often targeted, allowing the scammer to build up trust and rapport
with the victim and eventually convincing them to start investing.
‘Pig-butchering’ refers to the moment the victim’s assets are stolen, likening the phase of
gaining the victims’ trust to the fattening of pigs before slaughtering them.
Erin West, a country prosecutor living in California, was part of one of the first teams to start
investigating pig-butchering in 2022.
She told CNN “I’ve been a prosecutor for over 25 years, I’ve done all kinds of different types
of crimes and I’ve never seen the absolute decimation of people that I’ve seen as a result of
pig butchering.”
Originating in China, the scam rapidly gained popularity over the coronavirus epidemic, when the lack of tourism in South East Asia led to some finding new ways to generate
revenue.
Pig-butchering operations are often run from Chinese-owned hotels or resorts in South East
Asia that struggled with plummeting tourism during the pandemic. Stories of mistreatment in these scam centres are rife.
Judah Tana, a director of Global Advance Projects- an organisation helping scam victims
escape compounds in Myanmar, told ABC News that “some scam compounds in Myanmar
were using advanced AI face-swapping tech.
The project helped a computer engineer- who was tasked with developing AI for the crime
syndicates- to escape from security guards after she was allowed on a rare outside visit to
a coffee shop in northern Myanmar.
Mr Tana added: “She said their technology was more advanced than anything she had seen
in the world, anything she had ever studied.
“We’ve got victims victimising victims and the only winners are the gangsters that run these schemes.”
The woman also told Mr Tana that in order to motivate her to work, managers of the
compound brought people in the room and physically assaulted them in front of her to instill
fear and compliance.
“It’s a very, very, very twisted thing. But it’s not an isolated case,” he added.
In 2023, a CNN investigation found that the scammers themselves were victims of human
trafficking, with people being lured to South East Asian countries with the promise of a
high-paid office job.
Instead, they are taken to Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos and other countries against their will
to work in pig-butchering sweatshops in remote office block compounds.
People inside have said they are subject to abuse and torture, and workers who don’t earn
enough money are often given punishments including being beaten with sticks and forced to
do repetitive and dangerous exercises as punishment.
Erin West also told CNN: “We’ve got victims victimising victims and the only winners are the
gangsters that run these schemes.”
Huione Guarantee, a website being used for money-laundering by scam gangs in
Cambodia, also has disturbing listings such as electric-shock GPS tracking shackles and
electric batons, which are used to control victims in the human-trafficking operations that
are widespread across South East Asia.
Sean Gallagher, a senior threat researcher at Sophos, told Wired that in Cambodia that
workers in pig-butchering are often lured from surrounding areas and countries, and are
mostly held against their will.
“These facilities follow the same playbook as far as taking people’s passports and then
using electrical shocks, cattle prods, and other physical punishment for not following the
rules,” he said.
A UN report found that around 120,000 people in Myanmar and another 100,000 in
Cambodia are being forced to work in the pig-butchering industry.
However, governments are now making vague attempts to crack down on the powerful
industry. Lao officials have now issued an ultimatum tol fraud operators, giving them until
August 25 to move out of the Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone in the northwest of
the country.
According to a report by Radio Free Asia, top government officials met to discuss the issue
of the GTSEZ becoming a notorious area attracting criminal gangs who operate using a
forced labour model.
The GTSEZ is situated in the ‘golden triangle’ border area of Laos, Myanmar and Thailand.
In late 2022, the South China Morning Post reported that the GTSEZ contained “a number
of prison-like call centres for online scams.”
Authorities have been raiding scam locations in Sihanoukville, a Cambodian coastal city,
and one police inspection found thousands of phones, computers and several electrical
shock devices and handcuffs.
Videos of the compound show barred windows and barbed wire fences.
Jake Sims, Cambodia country director for International Justice Mission, an organisation
focused on rescuing those imprisoned in pig-butchering sweatshops, has praised the work
of officials to end the “scam-slavery phenomenon.”
However, he argued that: “More action is needed to hold perpetrators accountable and to
care for victims, as the task will become more difficult as criminal groups shift operations to
more remote regions.”
Some Cambodian workers have already been shipped by the busload to remote areas
along the country’s border with Thailand, with others being taken further afield to Myanmar,
which is often seen as the last destination for trafficking victims.
The country’s political instability following a military coup there has created an environment
allowing crime syndicates to thrive, with many organised groups relocating there in
anticipation of government crackdowns.
Naly Pilorge, an outreach director for Licadho, a Cambodian human rights organisation, told
Propublica that although attempts have been made to raid various compounds, there was
still work that needed to be done.
“It obviously raises concerns that these enslaved individuals are simply being moved
around the country rather than being freed,” she said.
“There’s only one thing the world needs to know about the scam industry that’s taken root in
my country- that it must stop altogether.”