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A video of a man being repeatedly kicked in the head has been viewed tens of thousands of times in Chinese social media posts that claim he was the victim of a job scam in Myanmar. The posts circulated online after officials in Hong Kong and Taiwan separately revealed new details of people lured to Southeast Asia in so-called “boiler room” scams. The video, however, has been shared in a false context. Parts of the footage have circulated in reports since at least December 2020 about a Thai company punishing a worker for alleged embezzlement. A senior Thai police officer who led the investigation told AFP that the victim was a Thai national.
Warning: violent footage
The video — which shows a man kicking another man in the head in front of a room of people — was posted on Twitter here on September 9, 2022.
It has been viewed more than 172,000 times.
The tweet’s simplified-Chinese caption translates to English as: “Chinese young man got scammed to go to Northern Myanmar!
“The scammer is Chinese, the thug is Chinese, the one who got fooled is Chinese, and those watching [at the back] are also Chinese!”
Online “boiler room” rackets have long had a presence across Southeast Asia but in recent months more details have emerged of people being trafficked and forced to work, AFP reported.
Victims have reported travelling to Myanmar, Cambodia, Thailand and Laos on false…
