Man says he’s trapped in a scam compound with ‘thousands’

In the six months since Nguyen* was trafficked over the Thai border into a Myanmar scam compound, he had sent countless messages as part of his forced labor. Finally, one night with his captors out of sight, he hastily composed an email — this one not to a potential victim but to a reporter.

“We are not good, we need help, please help us get rid of this bad place,” Nguyen wrote in broken English to RFA Burmese, which has reported on a number of criminal compounds in eastern Myanmar that use trafficked workers to defraud victims across Asia out of money. 

In a later interview with RFA Vietnamese, Nguyen said he is one of thousands of captives who are being held at a large compound in Kayin state called KK Park, a Chinese development project that has become a notorious center for scam operations. In October, authorities rescued 200 people including at least 61 Vietnamese nationals from KK Park, but Nguyen was not among the lucky few.  Among the thousands who remain, workers who cause trouble have been beaten, starved and electrocuted, he said.

Details of Nguyen’s experience and his real name are being withheld in order to protect him from retribution, as he’s still trapped at the compound. But he shared his location, photos of the facility and the names of seven scam victims, two of whom corroborated that they had lost money in separate interviews.

A criminal haven

Although it’s impossible to verify every element of the story, RFA has previously reported on a number of illegal scam operations that have sprung up in the largely ungoverned stretch on the Myanmar side of its border with Thailand. 

Across Southeast Asia, according to U.N. reports, hundreds of thousands of people have been trafficked into scam centers, where they are routinely beaten and detained. An estimated 120,000 people are being held in Myanmar alone, where the problem has proven particularly intractable. 

The 2021 coup by the military junta that toppled a popularly elected government sparked widespread unrest in Myanmar. The chaos has given criminal organizations room to set up shop, just as regional COVID-19 restrictions pushed many criminal rings to shift their operations from in-person gaming to cyber-based scams.

Thousands of victims in Shan state in northern Myanmar have been rescued in recent months in a campaign supported by the Chinese government. 

But in the states that don’t border China, the illicit operations have continued to operate with near-impunity. And regional governments often appear either unable or unwilling to rescue their citizens trapped inside. 

Victims are frequently forced to try to help themselves by making urgent pleas for help to family members, embassy offices and news organizations through the cell phones or computers they have access to in order to run the scams.

‘Pig butchering’

Nguyen sent a satellite image with a pin indicating the facility where he was being held as well as a series of photos showing a network of dorm-like living quarters, with laundry drying on outside railings. 

He said the criminal operation was run as a company also called KK Park. He said it is owned by a Chinese national, managed by a Vietnamese woman, and supported by a branch of the Karen National Union, a Karin ethnic group that has fought a long-running insurgency campaign against the Myanmar military. 

A KNU spokesman did not return a call for comment. Other reports suggest KK Park falls under the jurisdiction of the junta and the Karen Border Guard Force. 

Nguyen said he and other captives carry out a so-called pig butchering scam in which they are forced to pretend to represent Honda Vietnam. They message potential victims and convince them to send money for spare parts and other auto products for resale in exchange for a high commission. 

RFA reached out to Honda Vietnam to ask if its executives had heard of the scam but did not receive a response by press time. 

After successfully receiving commission for smaller parts, the victims are encouraged to send money for increasingly expensive equipment, only to be told their accounts are being shut down. A woman contacted by RFA Vietnamese through Facebook account said she was cheated out of more than U.S. $28,000.  

A fake job offer

Like many trafficked scammers, Nguyen said he had thought he was taking a decently paid job in Thailand. The promised salary was more than twice what he had been making in his previous job, which he had lost months before accepting the offer for work. 

But after arriving in Thailand, Nguyen was instead shuttled over the border to Myanmar. His passport was confiscated and he was forced to sign a one-year contract with targets set by the company. 

Each captive must cheat people out of at least $280,000 a month. Workers who don’t reach that level are denied meals and physically assaulted, he said.

Nguyen said he contacted the Vietnamese Embassy in Myanmar but was told they couldn’t help because the area wasn’t controlled by the Myanmar military. RFA reached out to the embassy and officials in Vietnam but did not receive a response.

Nguyen said his captors told him they would release him if he could pay nearly $9,500, a sum he said neither he nor his family have any hope of raising. 

“I would like to give a warning so no more Vietnamese are cheated and taken here like me,” Nguyen told RFA. “I hope that China, Thailand and Myanmar cooperate to demolish rings like KK Park so that I and other Vietnamese can go home safely.” (RFA)