Man Captured in ‘Scam Compound’ and Forced into Promoting Cryptocurrencies to Westerners

According to reports, a guy from Malaysia who answered a Facebook employment post became a victim of a human trafficking gang that forced him to participate in cryptocurrency schemes.

According to CBC, the individual, identified solely as John to safeguard his privacy, responded to a Facebook group post that advertised a customer service position with a supposed Cambodian casino.

After John lost his job due to the COVID-19 outbreak, his employer offered to pay for his plane ticket from his base in Thailand to the Cambodian beach city of Sihanoukville.

However, upon his arrival, the individual posing as his employer took his passport and had him kept hostage on the fourth floor of a facility for four months among other convicts.

The multilingual John claims he was compelled to prey on English speakers in Western countries, particularly Canadians, as part of a crypto fraud called pig-butchering. Scammers use this tactic to connect with potential victims in an effort to earn their confidence and then trick them into investing in cryptocurrency.

John approached complete strangers online, struck up discussions, and eventually convinced them to invest in questionable cryptocurrency. His daily goal was to find 15 new victims to prey on.

Whether it was eating, working, sleeping, or taking a shower, we were constantly up on the fourth level. Your life might be over the moment you step foot in the fake complex.

According to him, when they disobeyed the traffickers, they were either beaten or electric-shocked. The second con artist bought John for $11,000 after he tried to flee using a phone app to contact others for assistance.

John attempted to use his false X social media account to request assistance once again at his new job. To combat human trafficking and contemporary slavery, he contacted the non-governmental organization International Justice Mission (IJM). Jake Sims, the Cambodian director of IJM, collaborated with the authorities to get him to safety.

According to Sims, traffickers would love to take advantage of John. The stereotypical profile features a person who is fluent in more than one language, has a bachelor’s degree, and is very tech and social media savvy.

They are in a state of extreme desperation because they are unemployed and are looking for jobs that involve a lot of risk.

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