Though Taiwan has helped over 1,500 citizens get out of scam centers run by Southeast Asia-based criminals in the past three years, new tactics are making the problem of scam farms tough to tackle.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00The bruises and cuts on Hsieh Yu-pung's arms are still visible.
00:04He's safe now with Taiwanese immigration officers on either side.
00:09But things could well have turned out differently
00:11if the right people hadn't intervened on his behalf.
00:14Hsieh is one of what the UN estimates are hundreds of thousands
00:18of victims of Southeast Asia-based human traffickers.
00:22These criminal groups post fake ads promising high-paying jobs
00:26in countries like Thailand.
00:28Those who respond are kidnapped on arrival
00:31and trafficked to large detention centres,
00:33many forced to work scamming others back home.
00:36Conditions are said to be brutal.
00:52Hsieh had been offered a job as a dance instructor in Thailand.
00:56But instead, he was taken across the border to Myanmar
00:59where he disappeared for three weeks.
01:02He and his father both say it was only the involvement
01:05of NGO negotiators that secured his release.
01:08In such cases, ransoms aren't unheard of too.
01:13Scams like the one that trapped Hsieh have sprung up
01:15in a range of Southeast Asian countries in recent years,
01:18sometimes as an attempt by criminals to recoup their losses
01:21on failed gambling ventures in the region.
01:24Many of the criminals and their victims are Chinese.
01:28High-profile cases include Chinese actor Wang Xing
01:31who's released a video of himself
01:33in a Chinese-language video.
01:35The video shows a Chinese-language video
01:37of a Chinese-language Chinese actor
01:39Other cases include Chinese actor Wang Xing
01:42whose release from captivity last week
01:44made international headlines.
01:46But Taiwanese victims also make up a significant portion
01:49of those lured away with the promise of good jobs or easy money.
01:53The Foreign Ministry says it's helped rescue
01:55over 1,500 Taiwanese people from scam centers
01:58in the past three years alone.
02:01And anti-scam NGOs say the actual number of victims
02:04who've made it back to Taiwan may be even higher.
02:09We think there has been a gap.
02:11This is mainly because some of the victims
02:14may be ashamed to call the police
02:17or say they don't trust the rescue effort.
02:23NGOs say it can be hard to get support
02:26from the governments of the countries involved,
02:28especially one of the more favored countries these days,
02:31Myanmar, which is in the midst of a civil war.
02:34The Thai government will say,
02:37The Burmese government will say,
02:42Despite occasional crackdowns,
02:44the situation is murky and evolving.
02:47Some analysts see scammers broadening the range of victims
02:50and embracing new tools like deepfakes to con victims.
02:54Police at Taiwan's airports hold signs
02:56warning jobseekers headed to Southeast Asia to beware.
02:59But scammers are well-entrenched in the region,
03:01with the UN estimating they rake in
03:03billions of U.S. dollars a year.
03:05The risk to Taiwanese people isn't going away.
03:08Chris Ma and John Van Triest for Taiwan Plus.