Forced to Commit Scam, Sold to Another Cybercrime Syndicate
Everyone wants to make a decent living. However, the ventures of some people, especially breadwinners, may be vulnerable to being exploited by human trafficking syndicates to end up in forced labor.
By
LARASWATI ARIADNE ANWAR
·5 minutes read
DOKUMENTASI BAHARKAM POLRI
The hearing of the Minister of Foreign Affairs Retno LP Marsudi, Head of the National Police Security Maintenance Agency Commissioner General Arief Sulistyanto, and the Indonesian Ambassador to Cambodia Sudirman Haseng with Indonesian citizens who are victims of the crime of human trafficking (TPPO) in Cambodia in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Tuesday ( 2/8/2022).
For Hengki, who hails from the Riau Islands, a Facebook job ad for a customer service operator at an e-commerce company in Cambodia looked interesting. The salary offer was US$1,000, or Rp 14.8 million per month. The ad did not require an academic certificate or work experience in the information and communication technology sector to apply for the job.
As his family’s breadwinner who also had elderly parents to support, Hengki found that the offer was too good to ignore. “I never went to university. But since I was used to tinkering with cellphones, laptops, I thought I could apply for this job in Cambodia. There was no qualification requirement," he recalled.
Together with a friend, Hengki applied for the job. Their applications were accepted. Administrative matters, including their visas, were handled by the company from Cambodia. They left for Singapore on a ferry, and then flew to Phnom Penh.
"I had never worked in an office. So I thought, with [the company] footing the expenses, that's how a company [operated] in bringing in [overseas hires]. After all, when I chatted with the admin, they sent photos and said my work contract would be made later in Cambodia,” Hengki said.
Upon landing in Phnom Penh, an immigration officer immediately escorted them out of the airport without going through the immigration counter. They were immediately driven for four hours to a town that they later learned was Sihanoukville.
Sihanoukville overlooks the Gulf of Thailand, which borders the South China Sea. The seaside town’s tourism is popular, its white sand beaches lined with hotels and casinos. Henki said several office buildings were under construction.
Hengki and his friend were taken to a compound surrounded by a high fence. Inside, there were several multistoried buildings. They were escorted into one of the buildings and up to the top floor. They learned from the person who had picked them up in Phnom Penh that the building was not the office of an e-commerce company or online gambling company, but the operational base of an online fraud syndicate. This was where they were to work.
What they were tasked with was to create fake accounts using the identities of attractive women. The target was men who indulged in flirting with female acquaintances on social media platforms. They would be seduced into participating in various schemes, a form of entrapment to syphon their dollars.
LARASWATI ARIADNE ANWAR
A hotel and casino on the banks of the Mekong River in the city of Phnom Penh, Cambodia on Friday (5/8/2022). The gambling business is legal in this country.
To persuade their targeted victims, customer service operators like Hengki posted photos and videos of beautiful women they found on social media. According to Hengki, there were hundreds of male “customers” who had fallen victim to the scheme. The duped victims, some married, invited the fictitious women to be their mistresses.
For more than three months, Hengki worked and lived in the building and was not allowed to go out. There was only one exit that led to the ground floor, which was guarded by security officers armed with batons and Tasers. The salary he received was far below the promised sum. If they became sick and unable to work, they had to pay a fine of $200 per day. They were also fined if they failed to meet the target.
Hengki's travel companion, Surya, had his pay cut. He fell ill and failed to turn up to work. His monthly salary was cut by $200. With his mind on his family back home that needed financial support, Surya forced himself to work the next day for fear of further wage cuts.
Hengki wanted to leave the company, but he would have to pay $3,000 in damages, which was difficult for him to fulfill. Frequent cases occurred of workers who wanted to leave who were “sold” before they had collected enough money to pay the damages. They were sold even before they had received their salary.
“’Sold’ means being transferred to another company without getting their salary from the old company. The old boss sells a worker for $3,000. In the new company, if a worker wanted to leave, they had to pay a bigger fine than at the old [company]. It could be up to $5,000 or more," said Hengki.
He said they begrudged the work. "While we felt we had been cheated, our job was to deceive people. I found someone spreading curses on social media everyday for being tricked," he said, remorsefully.
One day, as the job grew increasingly unbearable, Hengki and Surya surreptitiously reported their situation to an Indonesian representative in Phnom Penh. They found someone they could trust to send their message and contact an official at the Indonesian Embassy. A month later, they were rescued.
They met their “savior” after the photos and videos they had uploaded to social media about their experience went viral. With the help of the Indonesian Embassy, they have now returned home.
While meeting the pair at the Indonesian Embassy, Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi said it would take time and coordination with the local authorities to uncover international cybercrime syndicates.
"You have to go through a procedure. Of course, after meeting Cambodian Interior Minister Sar Kheng and National Police Chief Neth Savoeun, law enforcement must be carried out there and in Indonesia," she said.
