frauds in southeastern countries

It is reported that more than 8,600 Taiwanese come to Cambodia between January and July this year, and only about 5,000 of them come back to Taiwan. There is a big possibility that some of the remaining Taiwanese were trapped in some frauds.

A single mother named Pipi was saved from Cambodia and safely came back to Taiwan with the help of the governor of Sihanoukville. She was doing a job in some indecent industry in Taiwan before she was seduced into coming to Cambodia for a $25,000/month paid job. She was cheated by a victim there, because only under two circumstances that the scammers will let a victim go: one is you successfully bring another victims; or you pay around $40,000 to redeem yourself. Once a victim arrived, his or her passport and all the devices that can reach out to the outside world will be confiscated immediately. Victim Pipi said that she was sold for 4 times in 7 days at the price of around $25,000~$28,000. The reason why she can send SOS message is because she had to use network and mobile phones to do the work that the scammers assigned to her. Pipi also recalled that when she disobeyed them, they will electrify her or try to rape her.

It was highlighted that Pipi first reached out to a Taiwanese Youtuber who are paying immense attention to these fraud cases, this is tantamount to saying self-media is more useful than you can imagine, YouTube and Youtuber can save. Wondering whether YouTube stock price will go up as more frauds in southeastern countries revealed. Rather than which social media saved their lives, we’d better focus on why they became victims. We can learn lessons from every case so that we wouldn’t be victims ourselves.

My two cents on the reasons why they became victims:

1, greed

According to the data released by the local government, a regular salary man in Taiwan may got around NTD$42,000 ($1394.63) a month, now when they are told there is a chance in some southeastern country for you to earn more than $25,000/month, almost 18 times more than your current monthly income.

2, localization

You either call another victims or you will be tortured. A victim should post messages online or call potential victims using their own languages, a Taiwanese can speak and write in Taiwanese Chinese, a Hongkonger can speak and write in Cantonese. So the whole thing sounds plausible, just like your friends are inviting you to their parties.

3, economy collapsing

Nobody wants to leave their comfort zone for a more risky environment, especially in the covid crisis. Economy was collapsing because of covid and covid-related measures, with high unemployment rate and high inflation, people lost their comfort zone.

Another Taiwanese couple said they were handcuffed and not allowed to drink or eat. Since they were handcuffed for so long a time and they struggled fiercely, blood and pus erupted from their wrists. They were threatened to be cut off their organs for sale.

Except Taiwanese, Hongkongers are also among the victims (No offense, mainlanders seems to be immune to these frauds, because they are so experienced in cheating that they know all the tricks). One of the victims from Hong Kong post messages for help claiming he was trapped in a place located on the borders of Myanma and Thailand which was not controlled by neither of the governments. The prerequisite for getting help from either of the governments is crossing the border. This is just saying the chance, they may save you after you are in their territory, but it is not definite. The victim elaborated that he witnessed someone who was shot to death while trying to cross the border.