Hundreds of thousands trafficked to work as online scammers in SE Asia, says UN

[Darker45]

I haven't been to China but as far as I've encountered through various stories and experiences, it appears that China's economy may be huge but many of the ordinary people are living a life of poverty. So China's economic standard can't be a basis.

As a matter of fact, even in my poor country where work is scarce and standard of living low, there are Chinese immigrants who work odd jobs.

Anyway, many of these scams are crypto-related. There must be a number of such operations here. I'm afraid the operators aren't locals. Most of them are Chinese. Even their employees, many are not locals. Many of them are Chinese strictly housed in guarded apartments. They can't easily be stopped because they have protectors from law enforcement agencies. In poor countries like mine, illegal business operations just have to be generous in giving bribes for the government to leave them alone.

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[NotATether]

Anyway, many of these scams are crypto-related. There must be a number of such operations here. I'm afraid the operators aren't locals. Most of them are Chinese. Even their employees, many are not locals. Many of them are Chinese strictly housed in guarded apartments. They can't easily be stopped because they have protectors from law enforcement agencies. In poor countries like mine, illegal business operations just have to be generous in giving bribes for the government to leave them alone.

That is quite strange. Especially considering how Chinese laws and the Great Firewall basically shut off access to the western world. That would mean the chinese people are living outside the country, right? Like in Hong Kong, or even inside the local country itself.

Regarding bribes, yeah that's very common for mafia. Most of those bribes are done using stolen money too on top of that. Maybe that's why scam reports usually end up nowhere.

[dansus021]

I heard the news that most of them are tempted by high salaries in other countries, so for example usually in my home country Indonesia people would like to go to other countries because the salary is higher there like Korea or Australia and then they get a passport after that go to desire country but the passport got hold by the employer and boom you can back to your home country.

That is sad but there is also other news about human trafficking not for sexual workers or drug workers but they get paid for their kidney what a crazy right - https://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/indonesian-police-crack-traffickers-122-people-sell-kidneys-101628226

[Darker45]

Anyway, many of these scams are crypto-related. There must be a number of such operations here. I'm afraid the operators aren't locals. Most of them are Chinese. Even their employees, many are not locals. Many of them are Chinese strictly housed in guarded apartments. They can't easily be stopped because they have protectors from law enforcement agencies. In poor countries like mine, illegal business operations just have to be generous in giving bribes for the government to leave them alone.

That is quite strange. Especially considering how Chinese laws and the Great Firewall basically shut off access to the western world. That would mean the chinese people are living outside the country, right? Like in Hong Kong, or even inside the local country itself.

Regarding bribes, yeah that's very common for mafia. Most of those bribes are done using stolen money too on top of that. Maybe that's why scam reports usually end up nowhere.

What's actually strange? The Chinese mafia is everywhere in the world. They're all over Southeast Asia and beyond. They're bringing with them Chinese people and other citizens from all over Asia and even Africa. It's very easy for them to do that. They have the money and, therefore, the powerful connections.

They have all kinds of business fronts as well. They have duly registered companies. They're working in the open and in urban centers and not underground. They're in special economic zones.

As to the trafficked persons, money makes the the world go round. The airport, the immigration, and other government agencies and offices aren't running out of bad apples that are always ready to be in cahoots with these syndicates for a certain amount.

The likes of Coinbase, Kraken, Crypto.com, and others are being used by these scammers to lure gullible people to invest.

1. https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1202767
2. https://www.rappler.com/newsbreak/explainers/how-ofws-trafficked-crypto-scam-operations/

[xSkylarx]

I've also seen a couple of news stories this year about getting busted by scammers here in our country, and guess what? They operate like a call center or BPO that has a building called Safe House and has more than 40 employees. You have a point; it's kind of like we are getting angry with this kind of scammer, but again, they are forced to do it, but again, there are still people who really do it because they want to and they can get easy money. I do hope that the authorities will find more and hunt down those kinds of scammers so that they could be free and also we would be free from getting scammed.

[AnonBitCoiner]

According to this new and damning report, the average scammer that you see on the likes of Telegram and other social media aren't professional con-men but are merely forced to work for them in order to gain a living (think like child trafficking and sex trafficking).

good and bad people found everywhere. 80% users who are dealing with scamming may have chosen this path in order to find food for home but what will we say about these 20% and very possible that these scammers are playing with millions. Actually the world become so lazy, trying to earn without any physical hard work. These laziness force us to work for these big scammers and we didn't think about either the work we doing is legal or not.

Lots of these people are being forced to work for a handful of overlords who ultimately reap all of the benefits of the stolen money while the trafficked scam worker gets just a tiny cut of it, less than minimum wage and keeping most of them in poverty.

This is absolutely right because ordinary man without knowledge of creating phising sites cannot do it with ease. These scammers are mastermind and use these needy people for their purpose. Most of ponzi scheme like MTFE working on this strategy and they attract many people by giving refereal reward which force them to bring more investors and they start referring without any research about project. Many times in my country people got scammed by these online and offline companies but still people doing it.

Only after the economies of all those countries improve like China will people's average wages go up and make this kind of work gradually become infesable and peter out into the darkness.

Improving of country economics will not helpful as most if the time the head of these scamming team proved a very well rich person. If a man is given one valley of gold, he will try for another. The only solution to this problem is for us to be content what we have, While earning money, we should think that others do not suffer. This issue is looking moral more than financial.

[Kakmakr]

Well, I had a whole other picture in mind... when it came to these scammers. I saw a group of lazy organized people that came together to scam people.... and sharing the bounty of their spoils.

I watched some Youtube videos of scammers in India and they looked very happy as if they were enjoying what they were doing. So, next time I get one of those calls, I will not swear so much..... noooooot. 

[kryptqnick]

I really had no idea about this. If people are forced to scam others because they're trafficked to do this stuff, they are victims in this situation, and that should count for something. It's good that the UN Human Rights Office drew attention to this matter, but it's also unfortunate that that's pretty much all they're going to do about it because the UN has been generally useless in fighting injustice for a while. I think UN could be strong and decisive, but it just isn't even trying to do that.
I have no hate toward individual scammers, I just don't think about them much. But now I'll think about how they might be doing it against their will.      

[stompix]

Bro!!!  

Only after the economies of all those countries improve like China will people's average wages go up and make this kind of work gradually become infesable and peter out into the darkness.

as well as mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, South Asia, and even further afield from Africa and Latin America.

If you think an average wage that is still lower than all of Europe's minimum would put a dent in scamming businesses that thrive in millions you're living in a fantasy, There will be always victims, migrant workers from Bulgaria and Romania are sometimes abused in western Europe and we talk about economies with a nearly median of 1000 euros a month, girls from all over eastern Europe are trafficked and you think 200 a month would stop it?

What would stop it is people not falling for this shit!
The war on drugs can be won without one shot if people would simply stop taking drugs!

Anyway, many of these scams are crypto-related. There must be a number of such operations here. I'm afraid the operators aren't locals. Most of them are Chinese. Even their employees, many are not locals. Many of them are Chinese strictly housed in guarded apartments. They can't easily be stopped because they have protectors from law enforcement agencies. In poor countries like mine, illegal business operations just have to be generous in giving bribes for the government to leave them alone.

Every time I read about a Chinese scam happening in India I always see there is a small line that despite all the rest of the hate and fury against the mastermind paints the reality behind it. So just like here:
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/india/how-scamsters-in-india-are-sending-thousands-of-crores-back-to-china/articleshow/99839197.cms
First the denial:

The Chinese scammers use forged documents of Indians to start new companies or make them dummy directors in their firms, thus escaping the regulatory mechanism.

The the admission:

the Chinese scammers often work in tandem with Indian accomplices which act as a front for the Chinese-owned firms.

Common, you can't just blame China for this when India hosts like one thousand scammer call centers.
As for the Philipines itself, it's not even about being local, they are exporting it:
https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2023/02/14/2244868/chinese-crypto-scams-targeting-filipinos-work-them-official

[Dunamisx]

According to this new and damning report, the average scammer that you see on the likes of Telegram and other social media aren't professional con-men but are merely forced to work for them in order to gain a living (think like child trafficking and sex trafficking).

Most of those that engage in scam would have been truncated by the economy challenges which led to their decision on taking the wrong path to earn a living scamming others, there's no excuse for any form of abuse or break in law and order, with this i expect the government together with all financial regulatory bodies to identify the fact that cryptocurrency is not the highest and only means by which people get scammed through the digital networks, social media itself had contributed alot in this, while what others had passed through led them into this mess, i don't expect an average man who can afford a living and ready to work to also engage in any form of scam.