Nowadays, in addition to working every day, Yang Weibin also handwritten his experience in Cambodia escape into a big-character poster and placed it on the streets of Taipei for publicity. Searching for "Yang Weibin" on the Internet, you can see that he frequently appears in front of media cameras, revealing the truth about "gold-seeking" overseas. (Data photo/photo)
The day before the Mid-Autumn Festival, Taiwan Taipei District Court judged that 4 people, including Li Zhenhao, who had served as the preview of the movie "Jiuto ", were core figures of the fraud group, lured 85 Taiwanese to Cambodia, making a profit of 14.7 million New Taiwan dollars (equivalent to about 3.29 million yuan).
More than a year ago, overseas work made many Taiwanese youth "get rich overnight". Now, under the sugar-coated shell of "more money, less work, and quick money", many Taiwanese youth working overseas were trapped: Taiwanese media once rumored that about 4,000 Taiwanese people were "missed" in Cambodia. The Taiwan police department denied the relevant statement, but Taiwan's "Executive Yuan" spokesman Luo Bingcheng said that the Taiwan authorities have assisted 40 people to return to Taiwan, and 333 people are waiting for rescue.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said that he would do his best to safeguard the safety and legitimate rights and interests of overseas Chinese citizens, including Hong Kong and Taiwan compatriots. At present, the Chinese embassies and consulates in relevant countries are maintaining close communication with the host governments and actively searching for and rescuing relevant personnel.
deception: "All jobs with high salaries and good environments"
Just after the New Year of the Tiger, 34-year-old Yang Weibin was eager to browse new jobs on the human resources website "104 Human Resources Bank".
"Overseas game marketing customer service starts at US$1,800, and you can get about NT$56,000 (equivalent to RMB 13,000)." Yang Weibin is an masseur in Hsinchu, Taiwan. He works stably on the island but "can't make much money." My father suffered a sudden stroke, and the huge treatment cost was pressing on Yang Weibin's shoulder. In his account book, , he could earn NT$70,000-80,000 per month before the epidemic; his income level dropped sharply after the epidemic, and his monthly income was only about NT$10,000 per month.
In Yang Weibin's eyes, Cambodia is a "place to get rich overnight."
Six years ago, Cambodia's gambling industry began to flourish. He was brought by a "benefactor" and managed the online electronic amusement park to a prosperous level. Half a year later, he suffered a fracture in a car accident and had to return to Taiwan to recuperate. The high-paying recruitment on the Internet on
made him want to go to Cambodia to "make a fortune".
After two rounds of interviews, Yang Weibin received a "job invitation letter" sent by "JETDIG" technology company.
invitation letter is extremely formal, with the seal of "Human Resources Department" stamped on each page, informing Yang Weibin to be hired as "marketing customer service" and the salary for the formalization is "US$1,800 + performance bonus" (equivalent to RMB 12,400).
In addition, the other party patiently answered every question raised by Yang Weibin and sent a "real environmental photo" to completely dispel Yang Weibin's concerns.
Also attracted by the high salary with him was 22-year-old Taiwanese girl Zhang Jiani.
On the Internet, Zhang Jiani has a Taiwanese "intimate brother" who has been talking to for a long time. One day she introduced her to some high-paying jobs in Cambodia.
Among them, there are telephone customer service personnel with a starting salary of NT$100,000 per month (equivalent to RMB 23,000), and can be rewarded with additional rewards for performance; there are also game salesmen who have to work for more than 10 hours a day but have a monthly income of NT$200,000 (equivalent to RMB 45,000)...
Zhang Jiani told the Southern Weekend reporter that the online gambling industry in the gray area has developed well in Cambodia in recent years, and she knows that many people have earned high salaries. But she was a little "cowardly" and didn't dare to take too much risk. So I chose a telephone customer service job with lower risks.
Like Yang Weibin and Zhang Jiani, Cai Feiming was also "introduced by people" and went to Myanmar to "make some money".
31-year-old Cai Feiming was once the owner of a barber shop in Yunlin County, Taiwan. The store’s business is pretty good, with a turnover of NT$714,000 (equivalent to about RMB 160,000) a year. Due to the epidemic, business has no choice but to close. Cai Feiming had nothing to do and stayed at home for five months.
On the chat software, he saw others posting news about hiring a barber with a high salary, and the working environment was very good.But the location is in Myanmar. "I didn't know anything at that time, and no one had been to the surrounding area. I heard that they had agreed, so I followed him," said Cai Feiming.
On an anonymous social platform, a Southern Weekend reporter contacted a recruitment "personnel" in the recruitment group on the grounds that he wanted to apply for the job. He asked the reporter to show his face and take a photo with his ID card, which proved that he "really wanted to go out." And informed, "This kind of thing requires each other to be honest."
Many respondents told Southern Weekend reporters that most of the people they contacted were speaking Taiwanese accent.
was sold: "It's completely different from what I expected."
On March 13, 2022, Yang Weibin flew to Cambodia alone with a handbag and suitcase. It was already late at night when he arrived at the capital Phnom Penh Airport. He enthusiastically posted a message on his Moments and accompanied 4 pictures at the airport.
He followed the locals who came to pick up the plane and got into a white sedan. More than twenty minutes later, the car stopped in front of a row of green iron fences. "Technology Company" has arrived.
Get off the car. The two-story iron gate made Yang Weibin a little confused. This is very different from the working environment of the five-star hotel sent to him by the contact person.
A Taiwanese man who claimed to be responsible for "logistics" took away Yang Weibin's "passport" on the grounds of "photocopying and use", and was immediately taken to the second floor for two days of quarantine. On the third day, when Yang Weibin was notified to go to the fourth floor to start "official work", he realized that he had been fooled.
In fact, from the moment Yang Weibin signed the "position invitation letter", he was sold.
Southern Weekend reporters entered a "Cambodia Online Human Trafficking Group" with 30,000 members. In this anonymous social software, there are hundreds of transaction information from different accounts and hundreds of clearly marked prices posted in the group to attract buyers.
clearly indicates the age, skills, and passport status of the person being deceived. Because Taiwanese people can speak Chinese and type quickly, they often start at a "price" of 20,000 to 30,000 US dollars.
Who is the person who recruits "business"?
On August 19, 2022, Huang Mingzhao, the police chief of the "Ministry of the Interior" of Taiwan, pointed out at a press conference that 42 Taiwanese gangs have participated in cross-border human trafficking activities of "Taiwanese deceive Taiwanese people". These members not only operate in Taiwan, but their power also extends to fraud parks across Southeast Asia.
"These people will have many customer groups, such as bait set up. After people who are interested in seeing the trap take the hook, they will close the net." Ye Taizhi, deputy captain of the Investigation Second Team of the Interpol Section of the "Criminal Police Bureau" in Taiwan, said in an interview with the media that many of them were friends who deceived their friends, fellow villagers, and even Taiwanese indigenous youths deceived their tribe members.
If the transaction is successful, the seller can withdraw thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars in commissions from each order.
The "Taiwanese one-stop" service form makes it almost impossible for the victim to escape as long as they take the bait. This includes handling all matters before Taiwanese people leave the country, work interviews, contract signing, persuading parents, co-organizing passports, airport transfers, etc.
Many respondents revealed to Southern Weekend reporters that the "Snake Head" organization in Taiwan that is responsible for seducing and transshipping the deceived people is mostly personnel from the background of the Bamboo Alliance Gang and the Tiandao Alliance.
The former Taiwanese gang boss Zhang Anle , nicknamed "White Wolf", was one of the founding members of the Bamboo Alliance Gang in the past. He publicly stated that not only the Bamboo Alliance Gang itself has intervened in the human trafficking crimes involved in Taiwan, but all gangs and factions have reached out to intervene. In this business chain, the operation of human trafficking is closely embedded with the current business logic of some gangsters.
He said that the Bamboo Alliance Gang has grown into a big tree now, and many people are here to enjoy the shade. The motivation for participation is varied, and the social ecology changes. The key to survival of each gang is to make money. Only after making money can they be able to "recruit soldiers, expand the organization, buy weapons, and buy arms."
From the "local black gold politics" in the 1990s to the "developing cross-border business", Taiwan gangs are undergoing a transformation.
In recent decades, the organizational form of Taiwanese gangs has gradually transformed from a "tang" to a "enterprise" that is responsible for its own profits and losses, thus putting itself on a legal cloak.
The Taiwanese underworld can connect with illegal organizations in Cambodia and other countries to find "buyers" of human trafficking, which is related to the long-standing "family sectarian" nature.
"Taiwan's underworld and family businesses are often two-sided and interpersonal." Xiamen University Taiwan Research Institute Distinguished Professor Liu Guoshen analyzed to Southern Weekend reporters that as the family industry of Taiwanese businessmen moved to Southeast Asian countries, it provided conditions for the development and growth of the underworld. "It is natural that they also brought their political and business collusion routine in Taiwan."
Zhang Anle described the current gangsters, which is more like the aggregation of gangs from various countries. "My brothers may be Organization A today, and they will switch to Organization B tomorrow. Loyalty will no longer be valued, and making money will be preferred."
Once the deceived falls into the hands of snake head, they will arrange for them to fly to fraud parks such as Cambodia, Myanmar, and the United Arab Emirates as soon as possible.
When a Taiwanese fraud company sends people out of the country, the local "intermediary" will take over.
In the early morning of March 25, 2022, Zhang Jiani arrived at Phnom Penh Airport and saw several "pickup users" who spoke Cambodian , holding signs with her name written on it. That morning, she was taken to Sihanoukville, Cambodia by three men.
"I contacted the 'big brother' I came in the car and found that he had blocked it. In addition, my passport was confiscated on the spot. I knew I might have been cheated." Zhang Jiani recalled to the Southern Weekend reporter. After
landed in Cambodia, the pickups Yang Weibin and Zhang Jiani met were all people who spoke Cambodia. The tasks of these intermediaries were relatively simple. After confirming that they were correct, they took the person into the car and drove directly to the fraud park to deliver the goods to the buyer and charge the seller for "running errands".
Something different is that Cai Feiming does not have a passport and needs to go to Myanmar through the "water route". That is, do not go to the designated port or go through border inspection, but smuggled over by boat.
He followed the "introducer" to travel through various means of transportation, and under the leadership of the "Snake Head" that had been contacted in advance, he smuggled to Xiaomengla, Myanmar. Cai Feiming told Southern Weekend reporters that after getting on the boat, he was blindfolded and didn't know what the route was.
"This may be a complete business line." Cai Feiming said that when he arrived in Myanmar, someone else was waiting for the handover.
buyer: "Make money through the deceived"
In the building wrapped in iron bars, there are more than 20 people who have been deceived like Yang Weibin, including Taiwanese, mainlanders, Malaysian people, etc. They almost never leave their homes, eat, drink, defecate, urinate, and sleep in the same building. The three meals a day are mostly similar, all boiled white noodles with clear water and served with a few green vegetables.
"Yang Weibins" have about the same 24 hours: they must complete their work and achieve their performance.
"The so-called work is money laundering." Yang Weibin restored his "work process" to Southern Weekend reporters: the fraud company asked them to lead the interested person on the international version of QQ to another chat software, and then introduce it from the chat software to the company's internal app, and bind its bank card, ID card, password and other information to the company's internal system, and a "money laundering business" is completed.
Since Cambodia implemented the Foreign Exchange Law in 1997, the country has lifted foreign exchange controls and relaxed restrictions on foreign exchange business, including buying and selling foreign exchange and various international settlement transfers. This provides a hotbed for the booming development of the Cambodia money laundering black market.
"Originally, each person had to achieve more than two million US dollars (equivalent to RMB 20 million) per month, but later it was found that no one could meet the requirements." Yang Weibin said, "The final requirement was to complete at least US$580,000 (equivalent to RMB 4 million)."
And Zhang Jiani's "work" was to use "beautiful color" to cheat. There is a supervisor in the company with a Taiwanese accent who arranges all the work contents of people under house arrest. Because she is a girl, Zhang Jiani wants to use her dating software to lure the fool's money with her emotions. Zhang Jiani got a manual that wrote in Chinese how to face different groups and inspire investment in virtual currency .
"You must first make the other party fall in love with you. After gaining trust, try every means to make the other party recharge money in a set link." Zhang Jiani told the Southern Weekend reporter that because she only knows Chinese, most of the people she selected are middle-aged and elderly people from Taiwan and mainland China. "Every month, you must achieve performance, otherwise you will be deducted and beaten."
However, even if Zhang Jiani completes the task, she does not receive the so-called salary.
In her company, there is an unwritten rule. Those with outstanding abilities will be "reused". On the contrary, those who fail to complete the task and have average abilities will not only be physically injured, but will also be abandoned by the company and resold it to another company, with an amount ranging from 20,000 to 50,000 US dollars.
reselling population is another way for these groups to make money.
In the transaction group mentioned above, Southern Weekend reporters often see how much money they need to "pay". This is a slander, which refers to how much money a new buyer needs to spend to purchase, and also represents the "redemption fee" of the deceived person. The compensation price usually ranges from thousands to tens of thousands of dollars.
Taiwanese young man Chen Yanting chose to "sell" himself again.
"He was deceived into the same place like me." Yang Weibin told Southern Weekend reporters that Chen Yanting found another "company" in Cambodia online, who paid him a ransom of $2,000, and he entered the new company as a security guard.
Taiwan’s economy has not developed under the epidemic. The younger generation lacks development opportunities on the island, so they are naturally more willing to go overseas to "make gold". (People's Vision/Photo)
Overseas Sales Business Chain: "Any way of transfer can be accepted"
There are several ways in front of Yang Weibin: either pay the ransom and leave, or take the opportunity to escape.
Most fraud companies allow the victims to pay the prescribed ransom amount to save themselves. But Yang Weibin has no money.
On weekdays, Yang Weibin pretends to cooperate to complete the work, observes the terrain around the rest interval, observes the life habits of the monitor, and then waits quietly for the opportunity.
How to deal with the guards guarding 24 hours a day beside the iron gate is the most difficult problem in the escape plan.
"I will get up from time to time late at night and observe how the guards are on duty." Soon, Yang Weibin made a new discovery, "There is a blind spot for the monitor, and the terrain there is quite suitable for escape."
Before this, Yang Weibin had never heard of successful escape. He told Southern Weekend reporters that someone had failed to escape before and was caught by the monitor and he was no longer seen.
After nearly two months of observation, Yang Weibin found that from 6:00 to 7:30 every morning, the guard would lie on the sofa and sleep. So I tried every means to contact a partner who could use the external connector and asked him to find a car the next morning and wait at the designated location.
stayed up all night and waited until dawn. At about six in the morning, Yang Weibin went down the elevator to the first floor. But man's calculations are not as good as God's calculations. That day, the guard was lying on the sofa and was not asleep, looking at the floor-to-ceiling window. Hearing the sound, the guard turned his head and looked at him. At this time, Yang Weibin was frightened and said that his heartbeat was almost stopped. He pretended to be calm and walked towards the kitchen.
calmed down for a while, and he walked from the kitchen to the back of the outdoor flower bed, but wanted to walk to the surveillance blind spot as planned, and he had to pass a road visible to the floor-to-ceiling window. "I was very nervous at that time, but fortunately God helped me, and the guard turned over and went to bed."
touched the connection point between the iron gate and the adjacent houses along the blind spot of the surveillance. Yang Weibin tried hard to grasp the gap between each fence, and stepped on the cement wall and "turned out" from the fence.
In less than five minutes, Yang Weibin successfully jumped outside the iron gate and rushed towards the pickup car without looking back.
This is the 58th day he was under house arrest. He is one of the few people who escaped himself in recent high-paying lure cases.
If you don’t risk your life to escape, you can only pay the ransom, just like Cai Feiming and Zhang Jiani, spend money to save yourself.
After asking for instructions on the "boss", the supervisor offered a price of $38,000, and Zhang Jiani could do nothing. After soft and hard work with the supervisor, the ransom was finally reduced to $25,000.
"The fraud company told me that if I don't want to do it, I will transfer 11,000 US dollars (equivalent to RMB 80,000) to the account and the person can leave." Cai Feiming said that the ransom price is not high in the fraud park, but he really can't take it out.
Fortunately, he did not suffer personal injury in Myanmar, and he can also use his mobile phone to contact his family under the supervision of a supervisor. Cai Feiming borrowed it from all his relatives and friends to collect the ransom.
"What you can't imagine is that any method of transfer can be accepted by fraud companies." Cai Feiming told Southern Weekend reporters that whether it is swiping cards, bank card transfers, or Alipay and WeChat, "as long as you can give money, you can choose any of them."
After paying the ransom, the fraud company also sent Cai Feiming, who did not have a passport, to the Myanmar border port. Cai Feiming was a cheated person who illegally entered and was detained for ten days, and then returned successfully.
On the other side, when the local police were handling the passport loss procedures, Yang Weibin met Taiwanese anti-fraud internet celebrity blogger Huang Xujie and local rescue team member Di De, who received cash funding and finally returned to Taiwan successfully.
Huang Xujie revealed in the short film that at the end of July 2022, he received help from his family members of a Taiwanese young man trapped in Cambodia and decided to go to Cambodia to rescue people, "and also let the audience know the real situation."
"Rescue requires multiple forces, but I am the only person who is willing to show up." In Huang Xujie's video homepage, he can see the video about Taiwanese youth being cheated. In addition, he also specializes in shooting series of videos of decoding fraud, with more than one million clicks.
When the Southern Weekend reporter contacted Dide's rescue team and hoped to connect with him, he alertly stated that revealing his identity is equivalent to putting himself in the threat of "life and death". "The reason is very clear. We have touched the interests of some people."
sorted out the entire business chain and found that every node that constitutes human trafficking can make a profit: the buyer fraud group contributed, and "placed an order" at prices ranging from thousands to tens of thousands of dollars per person. The Taiwanese gangster snake is responsible for finding people, and the local intermediaries are responsible for picking up and delivering "goods" to their doorsteps. The two jointly divide the buyer's "order" fees.
As for the fraud group that buys people, it creates profits by reselling people or earning ransoms.
Big-character poster on the street: "Don't be deceived again"
Now, Cai Feiming, who is lucky enough to return from Myanmar, is still working as a barber. But on various social media platforms, he wanted to stop people who want to leave Taiwan and make a lot of money overseas in a very stern tone. "Don't go, you won't come back if you go!" "Cherish your life!"
He hopes to join more survivors returning to Taiwan and the deceiveds to keep warm, and to persuade more young people who are ignorant of the world on the Internet.
"Taiwanese people look for opportunities abroad are a combination of internal push and external pull." Chen Xiancai, director of the Political Research Institute of Taiwan Research Institute of Xiamen University, analyzed to Southern Weekend reporters, "On the one hand, Taiwan's economy has not developed under the epidemic, and the younger generation lacks development opportunities on the island, so they are naturally more willing to go overseas to 'fought gold'. On the other hand, other neighboring regions have more attractive income."
Zhang Jiani has hardly ever appeared in the media. She went to the mall to sell clothes during the day, went to the bar to work at night, and slowly paid back the debts owed by her family and relatives and friends when she collected ransoms.
Yang Weibin, who has returned home, not only works every day, but also handwritten his Cambodian escape experience into a big-character poster and put it on the streets of Taipei to promote it. He frequently appears in front of media cameras, accepts interviews from major institutions at home and abroad, exposes the truth about "gold hunting" and warns young people not to be deceived again.
But the dangerous chain is still extending.
The news of Taiwanese youth being lured continues to ferment. Some people in Hong Kong, 716 kilometers away from them, are also "selling piglets".
On August 18, 2022, Hong Kong Security Bureau Deputy Director Zhuo Xiaoye held a press conference to show that in response to some Hong Kong people who were deceived to Southeast Asian countries and engaged in illegal activities while being confined, the Hong Kong government set up a special project team to follow up with the Chinese embassy and consulate and the police. So far, 12 people have returned to Hong Kong.
"Because of Taiwanese and Mainland Chinese, Malaysians are becoming more and more vigilant, and it is not easy to cheat now." Yang Weibin revealed to Southern Weekend reporters that he has received information about rescue from Hong Kong people in private. "The target of fraud companies has shifted to people from Hong Kong, and even some European countries." The
rescue is also being carried out. For example, the Chinese Embassy in Cambodia is working together with Cambodia's law enforcement agencies to allow more young people who are deeply trapped in the quagmire to return home successfully.
For Taiwanese police who have been receiving help messages from Cambodia, stopping people at Taoyuan Airport in Taiwan is one of their ways to prevent people from being deceived.
In addition, on some flights to Southeast Asia, the aviation police will patrol back and forth with warning signs such as "There are many traps to work abroad, and the detention and beating cannot be returned."
(Southern Weekend intern Huang Wanqi also contributed to this article. To protect the privacy of the respondents, Di De, Zhang Jiani, Cai Feiming and Chen Yanting in the article are all pseudonyms)
Southern Weekend reporter Wang Yanlin Southern Weekend special author Yang Chengyu Southern Weekend intern Zeng Yue
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