Hundreds of thousands trafficked to work as online scammers in SE Asia, says UN

Myanmar is home to like 20 different civil wars. Some of these conflicts ended in ceasefires. The areas that got good ceasefire deals (Wa, Mongla, some "border guard forces" who the military lets do whatever they want in return for allegiance) generally have a high degree autonomy from the Burmese government. So these areas are essentially run by warlords who are accountable to no one because the Burmese government cannot enter these areas. China backs some rebel groups and occasionally puts pressure on them to stop various crimes but they quickly adapt (when China cut internet to Mongla they just started using satellite). These areas are home to the largest meth labs in the world, illegal logging, illegal mining, etc. So they are perfect for criminals as they just have to pay "taxes" to whoever is in power. I read a good book on this: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/62141000-stalemate

Some scams are in Cambodia and Laos. The survival of these mostly has to do with corrupt law enforcement. All of the scam victims are either Chinese or in the West so they have even less reason to care.

> For instance, the scammers would need some kind of credibility in the job market before the team-building exercise. Do they just start up new legtimate businesses with new people just for this purpose?

I think it goes something like this: You make $200 a month as a dishwasher in Cambodia. A friend of friend messages you and tells you that you can make $800 a month. Because you are hopeful and want to improve your life you do not thoroughly vet them.

> And what happens when none of the employees return from the original country?

If they are from the region there's usually no record because they are picked up by an "agent" and go through a series of illegal border crossings.

There are people who actually knowingly apply for these jobs too: https://vodenglish.news/underground-group-chat-teems-with-hu...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1Q_P__aqAk

To be honest, it doesn't all add up for me as simply described: offices where multiple people suddenly vanish seem unlikely to escape notice back home, unless they're excellent at picking people without any support network to report them missing. But maybe there's more to it than the simple description. And there is an enormous supply of migrant workers in cities without friends or families to come looking until it's to late, so I suppose it could happen. Or maybe it's garbled in the transmission and the jobs are all actually out of the country, but they don't spring the trap instantly when you walk in

But at least it seems not to be simply little scammers tricked by bigger, eviller ones, but rather they really have people who were genuinely looking for at least fairly honest work being ensnared.

Laotian police have been quoted as saying that they have full authority to come into the autonomous region to investigate a crime, given irrefutable evidence of a crime — but that they can't come in without such evidence; and that it's very hard for them to get such evidence.

I'm guessing that by "crime", here, they probably mean "a felony" (or whatever the Laotian equivalent is) — which is likely the blocker for them, and probably the basis for the very thin line that these criminal gangs are treading.

I believe that "an escapee who can show that their organs had been harvested" would be irrefutable evidence, enough for a police raid; while "an escapee who told a story about being held captive for years" would not.

(And re: the other part, of some of the things happening there being "legal" — a large part of how these companies work is by indentured servitude, in the literal sense: they get people coming there to sign contracts for provision of services and equipment, that create a debt owed by the worker to the service/equipment-provider; and then they don't let them leave until they work it off. These contracts seem to have a lot of power for the gangs; they don't bother to chase escapees who haven't signed them, while considering people who have signed them to be "theirs to keep." Presumably, they've tested these contracts with local law-in-practice, and found that they actually work as a shield for what they're doing.)

See for instance CNN reporting that Kim Jong Un had his uncle torn apart by a pack of dogs. Generally once organ harvesting starts coming in to play, one should put on a very skeptical hat, while there is evidence that this has happened among some prisoners in China, I think one should remain skeptical on first-read of such claims.

If you would be invited to say Philippines, Indonesia (which covers Bali too), Myanmar, Laos etc. that should raise an eyebrow.

There is only 2 airports where this sort of things happen. If your teambuilding event scheduled to be in some god forbidden area of Colombia for example, and if this doesn't bring any suspicion to you - well...

They’ve had decades of child and adult abuse and they continue to operate pretty much in the open in the USA and hardly anyone has even heard of them.

https://apnews.com/article/nc-state-wire-north-carolina-ap-t...

The idea that something like what the GP is describing could not happen halfway across the world because it would be so well covered is probably highly mistaken.

I was expecting that in that incoherent and ignorant flow eventually will be some nationality blamed, and I wasnt disappointed.

It is appalling that no social platform is taking this seriously.

When cost of living is a few hundred dollars a month at best, looting 10k from a single mark is going to last quite the time.

Everywhere in the world it's accepted that prisoners lose the rights to freedom of movement and association; that's what being a prisoner means. In that sense trafficking victims are absolutely more deserving of those rights than convicted criminals.

""" Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction. """

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirteenth_Amendment_to_the_Un...

If those issues were cleared up, then giving prisoners the opportunity to learn how to earn money legitimately would be good for rehabilitation. So prison labor is not intrinsically mistreatment.

[0] https://www.baltimoresun.com/opinion/editorial/bs-ed-1209-13...

I don't think that's an entirely accurate assessment. There's a significant userbase in Europe as well, on the same order of magnitude as North America.

There is also the collateral, the profiles/photos they steal are of real people, which may or may not end up in real life ramifications for them. It used to be entirely generic Asians (Orient, not SE, as they're more attractive to the west apparently) - but these days they've upped the game and use region specific photos (ie; in my case, Slavic origin)