Vietnamese teenager Nguyễn Thiên Kai moved to Cambodia after she was promised a high salary for teaching people how to play online games.
But once she crossed the border, she was sent into a basement and instructed to scam people.
The 19-year-old realised she had been tricked.
“I had hidden my phone and managed to text my family to let them know what happened. But then the boss saw my phone and took it,” she said.
“He read the texts to my family telling them to call the police, and he beat me and sold me to another organisation.
“It was terrifying. It was hell on Earth.”
Ms Nguyễn is one of thousands of people across Asia who have been trafficked to Cambodia and forced to carry out online scams in a shadowy industry estimated to be worth millions.
Many victims were confined in casinos or dystopian compounds surrounded by thick coils of barbed wire, some of which have been linked to members of the Cambodian elite, according to extensive investigations carried out by local media outlet VOD as well as international news organisations such as Al Jazeera and ProPublica.
Not all scammers are victims of human trafficking in this murky scheme, but the reports found the vast web of criminality has netted unsuspecting workers from Taiwan, Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand and conflict-riddled…
