Compiled by C. ARUNO, IYLIA MARSYA ISKANDAR and R. ARAVINTHAN
A MALAYSIAN man who was forced to work for a scam call centre in Thailand revealed that he was only released by his captors after family members paid a ransom of RM50,000, Sin Chew Daily reported.
The man in his 20s, who wanted to be known only as Ah Hong, warned young Malaysians not to fall for online job offers that sound too good to be true.
He recounted how he was fooled by an advertisement for an e-commerce job promising a salary of between 30,000 and 40,000 baht (RM3,784-RM5,046).
The former shopkeeper applied for the job and made arrangements to travel to Bangkok by land.
“In the beginning, I did not suspect anything was amiss when I reached Bangkok.
“However, I started to feel something was wrong as I was brought to Mae Sot (a district near the Thai-Myanmar border), even though I was told that I would be working in Bangkok,” he told reporters during a press conference in Kulim, Kedah, on Monday.
Ah Hong soon found out that he was to carry out online scams for a call centre that targeted people living in the United States and Europe.
Everyone working there was given a target and those who failed to achieve it would be punished.
“Punishment included being forced to run in the hot sun for two hours, beaten by sticks or asked to carry heavy bricks for long hours.
“If we made a mistake, we were tasered,”…
