Sight Magazine – Cyber crime: Asian tech workers held captive in scam factories

Chennai, India/Bangkok, Thailand
Thomson Reuters Foundation

Indian engineer Stephen Wesley was puzzled when he was asked to take a typing test during an interview for a graphic design job in Thailand – but put it out of his mind when he got the role.

Hours after landing in Bangkok to start work in July, Wesley and seven other new recruits were instead ferried over the border into Myanmar where their phones and passports were taken, and they were put to work on online cryptocurrency scams.

“I spent up to 18 hours a day researching, typing messages, chatting with people on social media platforms, gaining their trust and encouraging them to invest in cryptocurrency,” said Wesley, 29, in a telephone interview.

 ILLUSTRATION: Reuters/Kacper Pempel

Thousands of people, many with tech skills, have been lured by social media advertisements promising well-paid jobs in Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar, only to find themselves forced to defraud strangers worldwide via the internet.

Wesley spent 45 days held captive at a compound in Myanmar’s south-eastern border town of Myawaddy, and given a list of about 3,500 names that he had to contact via Facebook, Instagram or dating apps.

 “The gangs targeted skilled, tech-savvy workers who had lost jobs during the pandemic and were desperate, and fell for these bogus recruitment ads.”

– Phil Robertson, deputy director for…