00:00To some, they were scammers. To their bosses, they were no more than slaves.
00:07These 84 Indonesians are finally back in their home country after being forced to work for
00:11months as online scammers in Myanmar.
00:15One of them is Susie, not her real name. She spent six months in Myawaddy in a so-called
00:20scam park, a compound in which multiple fraud companies operate.
00:25Her ordeal began when she came across a job listing on Facebook advertising a customer
00:29service position at a logistics company supposedly in Thailand.
00:34A recruiter promised Susie that if the job wasn't as advertised, she would be brought
00:38back home. At the time, Susie felt reassured.
00:42But everything changed once she arrived at the compound, not in Thailand, but in Myanmar.
00:50When we got out of the car, there was a river below with a small boat waiting for us. We
00:54were escorted by soldiers. That's when I started thinking, what is this? Am I being
00:59sold? Am I going to be killed? Are they going to sell my organs? Those thoughts kept running
01:04through my mind.
01:07Inside this scam park, recruits were forced to run fraudulent investment schemes. They
01:12pretended to be attractive, successful individuals on social media, luring people into investing
01:17in a fake online business through a sham e-commerce website, like this.
01:23If scammers failed to generate US$10,000 per month, they were punished, beaten with
01:28metal objects or electrocuted. With guards everywhere and their passports confiscated
01:33by the company, escape seemed impossible.
01:40I was assigned to scam Indonesians. But I kept thinking, if I actually managed to trick
01:46someone, would I even be safe when I returned home? The truth always comes out. I decided
01:52I'd rather endure the punishments while looking for a way to escape Miawaddy.
02:02The scam park in Miawaddy is primarily run by Chinese gangs, using electricity and utilities
02:07from Thailand. Since February 5th, Thai authorities have cut off power, internet and fuel to the
02:14area, forcing some scam companies to cease operations and release the recruits, like
02:19the group of Indonesians who recently returned home.
02:22However, many of the hundreds of online scam operations in Miawaddy continue to thrive.
02:29According to Myanmar authorities, approximately 525 Indonesian citizens remain trapped in
02:35the scam park. Indonesian officials believe the actual number is much higher, as many
02:39victims remain undocumented.
02:44Our efforts must go beyond just rescuing and repatriating our citizens. The real challenge
02:51is enforcing the law and taking effective measures to prevent these crimes, including
02:57restricting the operations of these online scam syndicates.
03:05With Myanmar locked in an ongoing civil war, law enforcement is sporadic and ineffective.
03:11The scam syndicates continue to find ways to keep their operations running. Until stricter
03:16laws are in place and Myanmar authorities can enforce them, it is likely that more people
03:21will fall into the same trap.
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