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Taiwan Victim of Southeast Asian Scam Center Released
TaiwanPlus News
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1/15/2025
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.
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00:00
The bruises and cuts on Hsieh Yu-pung's arms are still visible.
00:04
He's safe now with Taiwanese immigration officers on either side.
00:09
But things could well have turned out differently
00:11
if the right people hadn't intervened on his behalf.
00:14
Hsieh is one of what the UN estimates are hundreds of thousands
00:18
of victims of Southeast Asia-based human traffickers.
00:22
These criminal groups post fake ads promising high-paying jobs
00:26
in countries like Thailand.
00:28
Those who respond are kidnapped on arrival
00:31
and trafficked to large detention centres,
00:33
many forced to work scamming others back home.
00:36
Conditions are said to be brutal.
00:52
Hsieh had been offered a job as a dance instructor in Thailand.
00:56
But instead, he was taken across the border to Myanmar
00:59
where he disappeared for three weeks.
01:02
He and his father both say it was only the involvement
01:05
of NGO negotiators that secured his release.
01:08
In such cases, ransoms aren't unheard of too.
01:13
Scams like the one that trapped Hsieh have sprung up
01:15
in a range of Southeast Asian countries in recent years,
01:18
sometimes as an attempt by criminals to recoup their losses
01:21
on failed gambling ventures in the region.
01:24
Many of the criminals and their victims are Chinese.
01:28
High-profile cases include Chinese actor Wang Xing
01:31
who's released a video of himself
01:33
in a Chinese-language video.
01:35
The video shows a Chinese-language video
01:37
of a Chinese-language Chinese actor
01:39
Other cases include Chinese actor Wang Xing
01:42
whose release from captivity last week
01:44
made international headlines.
01:46
But Taiwanese victims also make up a significant portion
01:49
of those lured away with the promise of good jobs or easy money.
01:53
The Foreign Ministry says it's helped rescue
01:55
over 1,500 Taiwanese people from scam centers
01:58
in the past three years alone.
02:01
And anti-scam NGOs say the actual number of victims
02:04
who've made it back to Taiwan may be even higher.
02:09
We think there has been a gap.
02:11
This is mainly because some of the victims
02:14
may be ashamed to call the police
02:17
or say they don't trust the rescue effort.
02:23
NGOs say it can be hard to get support
02:26
from the governments of the countries involved,
02:28
especially one of the more favored countries these days,
02:31
Myanmar, which is in the midst of a civil war.
02:34
The Thai government will say,
02:37
The Burmese government will say,
02:42
Despite occasional crackdowns,
02:44
the situation is murky and evolving.
02:47
Some analysts see scammers broadening the range of victims
02:50
and embracing new tools like deepfakes to con victims.
02:54
Police at Taiwan's airports hold signs
02:56
warning jobseekers headed to Southeast Asia to beware.
02:59
But scammers are well-entrenched in the region,
03:01
with the UN estimating they rake in
03:03
billions of U.S. dollars a year.
03:05
The risk to Taiwanese people isn't going away.
03:08
Chris Ma and John Van Triest for Taiwan Plus.
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