Scammed, enslaved, arrested: The triple tragedy of Thailand’s cyber scam victims

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From a small road straddling the Moei River, a cluster of buildings could be clearly seen on the Myanmar side of the natural border. Gesturing at the distant structures as she took a reporter for a drive along the river, NGO worker Mechelle Moore explained that the complex is an online scam compound run by influential Chinese business people, one of many that populate the lawless borderlands.  

Moore, who works for a charity combating human trafficking called Global Alms Incorporated, said the Chinese-funded scam compounds are often situated close to private ferry crossings servicing the banks of the Moei River, which number about 52 piers by her count. Much of the cross-border traffic goes unnoticed by local border authorities. 

It is from these facilities that an enslaved workforce of multiple nationalities is conducting a worldwide scam operation. According to the USIP, victims come from more than 60 countries around the world, while the United Nations rights body estimates that up to 120,000 people are being forced to carry out online scams from Myanmar alone, with another 100,000 operating out of Cambodia. 

Moore, whose organisation runs helplines and emergency response teams for victims of human trafficking and forced criminality, said the same economic desperation that sends unsuspecting victims in Thailand to the scam compounds is playing out elsewhere on a global level. 

“People in Asia and Africa are determined to work and earn money in better places because their countries do not have enough jobs,” Moore explained as the car zoomed down the road. “After COVID-19, when the world reopened for travel, they tried to look for jobs, and they had already tried to verify that such jobs actually exist.”

She added that her organisation recently secured the freedom of a certain foreigner, who was lured to Thailand by what looked like a legitimate job notice for an international school based in Tak province. 

The person even went through three separate online interview sessions with the people masquerading as human resources officers for the school before agreeing to take the job and flying to Thailand – it turned out to be a scam operation. 

“The people we help often don’t return to a good life. Many of them suffer from psychological impacts. Some face legal cases, while others lose their families. Some return with nothing left in their lives,” Moore said. 

The International Organization for Migration has identified victims of forced criminality from at least 37 nationalities, mostly from the African continent, said Saskia Kok, the IOM Head of Protection Unit in Bangkok. Kok said the victims tend to be 20 to 35 years old, fluent in English or Chinese, and relatively educated. 

More than 1,000 foreigners have been rescued from the scam compounds in Southeast Asia since 2022, Kok said, but many former victims still run into troubles with regional law enforcement authorities, who charge them for immigration violations, fraud, and even human trafficking.

While Kok said he had no exact number of such cases, anecdotes from victims in countries like Cambodia and Malaysia suggest that the problem seems to be widespread. Her assessment is shared by Bridget Welsh, a researcher from University of Nottingham Malaysia. 

“Many Malaysian victims are categorised as criminals in Malaysia due to the way they are perceived and identified based on their involvement in these cybercrime centres,” Welsh said. “This issue is not limited to Thailand, but also affects other countries in the region.”