It was reported in the very first paragraph of the article and in countless other articles the past few years: these people are kidnapped and kept as slaves. Nobody decided "yep, I want to get kidnapped during my relaxing trip to Thailand and be transported to the Laos/Myanmar border to be beaten half to death and take on call center work with the risk of being murdered should I refuse."
Because that is what is happening. People who get kidnapped and refuse to work are being murdered. This isn't call center work. Some people may be doing this voluntarily around the world, but this article is specifically about people who are being held as literal slaves with zero chance of walking out alive on their own free will. And it's worsened by the fact the governments of Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar (or what's left of their government), and Thailand are all complicit in this. It brings in big bucks, and there are reports of police even bringing people back to the compounds if they somehow escape.
I have to disagree on one point: Thailand is not complicit in this. They turn off parts of their grid and deploy their military at cost of life and limb to combat this.
Correct, Thailand has taking meaningful steps. Unfortunately Musk's Starlink has proven a great alternative to supply these slavery centers with internet, despite it being widely known exactly where the centers are and trivial to block. But then it's hard to eexpect a company to care about human trafficking when it's run by "What day/night will be the wildest party on your human trafficking island, Jeff?".
It's really a spectrum. Some were kidnapped. Some knew part of the what they were getting into (they're there to scam people) but were lured by the promise of high salary, but later found out it wasn't what was promised and lost freedom. Some knew exactly what they were getting into, are voluntarily there, and even have personal freedom. Not every scam syndicate in the general area treat every scammer the same. It's often hard to tell who is in what category.
Just because you talked to one (or many) who chose the job freely, doesn't mean the ones in SE Asia are the same...
The captive ones do the scamming via text anyway, and they'd get beaten or worse if they don't do as wanted. "Just send some coded message", your incompassionate mind might say.. sadly not everyone is as wise as you, and it's hard to be so when they can cut your head and throw you into a river in a lawless part of the world.
in these countries simcards and cell phones are not so strictly linked to personal identity documents, so even if the chats are decrypted it is not very helpful
What about location? Wasn’t there a thing about whatsapp encryption leaking gps location or something?
Really sad to see humans being able to be this nasty to each other. Technology being the enabler and enforcer, and also the means around detection.
These scams are really a good excuse to force whatsapp to do something about their technology. Afterall they patented it (probably) so their own it and they should do their best to ensure it’s not abused.
myanmar has had an ongoing civil war for decades so location is moot. there is no central authority that has the ability to deal with these things. the scam centres can get a lot of freedom just by supplying tinned food and petrol to whichever group they are closest to.
there are 100+ formal languages in Myanmar, at least 100 unique ethnic groups, and over 150 armed combat groups. and the ethnic diversity is very abrupt, people living 30km away from each other can be so different they can't communicate with each other at all. foreign governments have almost zero influence on the ground
Aeon[1] just published a piece on the topic. It discusses the victim versus villain aspect.
Having read that, it seems that the only remedy would be a Chinese government intervention (as it seems to be Chinese criminal gangs that run these facilities). That intervention might be triggered by the international image lose for the government in being associated with these scams.
So, what do you expect from that hypotheically kinder person? Should they let themselves be scammed by me, once I am kidnapped, enslaved and forced into labour?
It was reported in the very first paragraph of the article and in countless other articles the past few years: these people are kidnapped and kept as slaves. Nobody decided "yep, I want to get kidnapped during my relaxing trip to Thailand and be transported to the Laos/Myanmar border to be beaten half to death and take on call center work with the risk of being murdered should I refuse."
Because that is what is happening. People who get kidnapped and refuse to work are being murdered. This isn't call center work. Some people may be doing this voluntarily around the world, but this article is specifically about people who are being held as literal slaves with zero chance of walking out alive on their own free will. And it's worsened by the fact the governments of Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar (or what's left of their government), and Thailand are all complicit in this. It brings in big bucks, and there are reports of police even bringing people back to the compounds if they somehow escape.
I have to disagree on one point: Thailand is not complicit in this. They turn off parts of their grid and deploy their military at cost of life and limb to combat this.
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/thailand-cut-power-myan...
Correct, Thailand has taking meaningful steps. Unfortunately Musk's Starlink has proven a great alternative to supply these slavery centers with internet, despite it being widely known exactly where the centers are and trivial to block. But then it's hard to eexpect a company to care about human trafficking when it's run by "What day/night will be the wildest party on your human trafficking island, Jeff?".
It's really a spectrum. Some were kidnapped. Some knew part of the what they were getting into (they're there to scam people) but were lured by the promise of high salary, but later found out it wasn't what was promised and lost freedom. Some knew exactly what they were getting into, are voluntarily there, and even have personal freedom. Not every scam syndicate in the general area treat every scammer the same. It's often hard to tell who is in what category.
Just because you talked to one (or many) who chose the job freely, doesn't mean the ones in SE Asia are the same...
The captive ones do the scamming via text anyway, and they'd get beaten or worse if they don't do as wanted. "Just send some coded message", your incompassionate mind might say.. sadly not everyone is as wise as you, and it's hard to be so when they can cut your head and throw you into a river in a lawless part of the world.
https://www.thestandard.com.hk/world-news/article/314372/Bel...
Why aren’t the bosses identified via whatsapp?
I thought that’s why various western countries require chat applications to allow decryption of private messages.
These scam factories seem to be the perfect use case for all these anti-privacy regulations. Pity these operations are so profitable.
in these countries simcards and cell phones are not so strictly linked to personal identity documents, so even if the chats are decrypted it is not very helpful
What about location? Wasn’t there a thing about whatsapp encryption leaking gps location or something?
Really sad to see humans being able to be this nasty to each other. Technology being the enabler and enforcer, and also the means around detection.
These scams are really a good excuse to force whatsapp to do something about their technology. Afterall they patented it (probably) so their own it and they should do their best to ensure it’s not abused.
myanmar has had an ongoing civil war for decades so location is moot. there is no central authority that has the ability to deal with these things. the scam centres can get a lot of freedom just by supplying tinned food and petrol to whichever group they are closest to.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/4/4/hundreds-of-enslaved... one thing that is still happening is fishing fleets buy myanmar people and keep them as slaves on trawlers or in remote island prison camps
there are 100+ formal languages in Myanmar, at least 100 unique ethnic groups, and over 150 armed combat groups. and the ethnic diversity is very abrupt, people living 30km away from each other can be so different they can't communicate with each other at all. foreign governments have almost zero influence on the ground
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_armed_organisat...
because the languages are so complex and dialect driven, they are often impossible to translate and monitor too.
Aeon[1] just published a piece on the topic. It discusses the victim versus villain aspect.
Having read that, it seems that the only remedy would be a Chinese government intervention (as it seems to be Chinese criminal gangs that run these facilities). That intervention might be triggered by the international image lose for the government in being associated with these scams.
[1]: https://aeon.co/essays/inside-the-criminal-world-of-southeas...
Well, let's just hope that if you get kidnapped, enslaved and forced into labour, someone will be kinder to you then you were to them.
So, what do you expect from that hypotheically kinder person? Should they let themselves be scammed by me, once I am kidnapped, enslaved and forced into labour?