I wrote this about scams for a forum I am on. It's relevant to many of my friends. Do not trust anything on telegram or signal or FB Market Place or Whatsapp.
Scams are evolving rapidly now with the rise of industrialised cyber scam slave outfits run by organised crime. The days of sole Nigerian scammer are gone. You may not realise you are in communication with these people at the start. They often come in via innocent sounding conversation or questions. Do not send money to anyone you personally cannot speak to and know and I'd go as far as to say do not communicate with people you do not know or have no referral to via apps. If contacted I'd be very cautious and avoid further contact with scammers and possibly considering going as far as to change phone numbers. These guys are running professional grade outfits with thousands of slaves who have professional IT backgrounds. They will probably bring in psychologists (as slaves) to design even more effective scams.
I don't think our LEO are even close to dealing with this. Imagine your old mum or dad being hit with scam texts and messages every day. Even streetsmart people are now being hoodwinked daily.
Remember this, when you are approached or in contact with a scammer you're now talking or dealing with a team of slaves under the control of heavily resourced organised crime gangs. It is dangerous and frankly frightening.
From the SCMP
By a long strip of beach at the southern tip of Sihanoukville sits the former village of Otres, now rapidly being swallowed up by a development zone of sprawling casino complexes and walled-off compounds complete with their own flats, offices, supermarkets and other facilities. Inside the compounds, armed security patrol as abductees are forced to work 12 hours a day, six days a week staffing illegal betting operations, carrying out cryptocurrency fraud and preying on people with “pig-butchering” scams, according to victim testimony cited in an October 10 report from the Asian Racing Federation and Hong Kong-based NGO the Mekong Club. As many as 10,000 people are thought to be held captive in Sihanoukville at any one time, the report said – most of them Chinese nationals, alongside some victims from elsewhere in Asia and Africa. “Pig butchering” scams, or sha zhu pan in Chinese, involve the perpetrator building a relationship, often romantic, with a victim over many months before convincing them to invest money into a fake venture – akin to fattening up, then slaughtering, a pig.
Illegal betting and cyber fraud are big business for the scam syndicates, which rake in an estimated US$40 billion to US$100 billion per year from their operations in Cambodia, the Philippines, Laos and Myanmar, according to the report, with as many as 250,000 people thought to be working in the underground industry – often against their will – across those four nations alone.
From Mothership:
PERSPECTIVE: In June 2021, a Singaporean scam victim founded the Global Anti-Scam Organisation (GASO) to help support people around the world who have been affected by cybercrimes.
Part of this work includes rescuing people who have been lured to countries such as Cambodia and Myanmar by false job advertisements and trapped in secretive compounds where they are made to work as scammers.
Mothership spoke to two Singaporeans who volunteer with GASO in its anti-human trafficking department.
They shared how victims are lured over and dragooned into becoming scammers, how the criminal syndicates behind the advertisements and compounds operate, the various challenges faced in carrying out rescue operations, and what Singaporeans need to be aware of.
On Jun. 19, Lianhe Zaobao shared a video detailing the experience of a 26-year-old Malaysian who decided to accept a job offer in Cambodia, only to end up getting forced to work as a scammer for a criminal syndicate.
His ordeal offered a glimpse into the syndicates operating out of the Cambodian city of Sihanoukville and the nature of the scam operations that he was made to run while trapped in one of many such compounds in various Southeast Asian cities.
A person who refuses to engage in scams could face torture
The Malaysian was made to work as an online investment scammer by looking for potential victims on Chinese social media platforms WeChat and QQ.
He attempted to escape the compound several times but failed due to the compound's isolation and armed security.
The compounds are effectively self-contained neighbourhoods with minimarts, living quarters, clinics, restaurants, massage parlours and salons.
Another volunteer, Carol (not her real name), who joined the department in July 2021, said those who refused to be scammers were tortured by the syndicate.
This includes being beaten, starved, locked in a room, having your phone confiscated or being sold off to another syndicate.
Carol also provided photos and videos shared with her by people trapped within compounds in Cambodia.
Carol said these images showed bunk-like living conditions and offices where they must work more than 12 hours to bring in "sales" as a scammer.
In some instances, such as within Sihanoukville, it is "virtually impossible" to save a victim from a compound because of the influence that the syndicate has with the authorities, Lucy further said.
Nikkei Asia noted that syndicates in Cambodia are able to purchase the protection of some local authority figures.
The Japanese media outlet further highlighted that in one case, local police officers accompanied the bosses of a syndicate to recapture trafficked workers who had escaped.
Aljazeera also reported that several scam compounds, particularly those located in Sihanoukville, have links to some of the biggest Chinese investors in Cambodia.
Mods have said I can add links:
https://mothership.sg/.../scam-slavery- ... -rescuers/
https://archive.ph/.../forget-macaus-junket-launderers...
https://www.globalantiscam.org/
