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Desperate situation unfolding at the Myanmar-Thai border where around 400 foreigners - from China, India, Ethiopia & elsewhere are stranded on the Myanmar side of the river They were freed from a “scam compound” where they had been forced to work defrauding people online on behalf of criminal gangs... show more
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![This is a story that everyone is speaking about in China right now. A Chinese actor - Wang Xing 👇 - was lured to Thailand by a fake movie production company that told him they wanted him to star in a movie. When he arrived in the airport in Bangkok he was greeted by a chauffeur, arranged by the so-called production team, who later drove him to Myawaddy – a city in Myanmar known for being a hub of scam operations. He was of course being abducted by one of these numerous gangs that operate in largely lawless Myanmar. They have huge scam operations going on there, typically trying to scam Chinese nationals in various ways and often operated by various Chinese mafias. Which is why you're seeing the Chinese government being so involved in trying to ensure Myanmar gets its act together (they for instance notoriously managed to bring down the "Ming family" mafia gang who owned the notorious Crouching Tiger Villa scam centre in Kokang, near the Chinese border in Myanmar's Shan State: These scam operations are often staffed by people like Wang Xing who were abducted into it and are forced to work for free (i.e. slavery) until they scam enough money for the gangs. Sometimes, if they're rich enough, they are also held for ransom. Luckily in Wang Xing's case, on the way there he managed to keep sending his location to his girlfriend in China, until his phone was taken away from him at the Myanmar border. His girlfriend then created so much buzz about it in social media, shared by some of China's biggest celebrities (like singer Lay Zhang and actor Qin Lan), that it alerted the Chinese and Thai authorities. We don't know exactly how his rescue occurred, just that within less than 48 hours he'd been freed (apparently by the Thai army, although it's unclear). The case shows how sophisticated these mafias have become in their targeting methods. They're specifically crafting schemes to trap entertainment industry professionals. And Wang Xing's case is far from isolated: the China Federation of Radio and Television Association revealed in a statement on Tuesday that "many actors" have fallen victim to these fake overseas film shoot promises, suffering "serious damage to their personal and financial security." According to Wang Xing there were approximately 50 other Chinese nationals being held at the same facility as him. At this stage I don't believe we know if they were rescued alongside with him (I'm reading conflicting reports on this). All in all, victims are likely in the thousands: a group of Chinese families have started a petition urging the government to help find their missing relatives - the number of cases has already climbed to more than 600, and continues to rise. Some estimates - for instance by the UN - mention that as many as 120,000 people may "have been potentially trafficked into scam compounds [in Myanmar]" ( The case is also extremely embarrassing for Thailand which increasingly relies on Chinese tourism, which is probably why the Thai authorities were so quick to act. Thai officials, eager to contain potential damage ahead of Chinese New Year, have emphasized that no Thai nationals were involved in Wang's trafficking. But even as they dealt with his case, they were already investigating the disappearance of another Chinese model in the same border region. Wang's case has brought unprecedented attention to these scam operations, but it also raises several uncomfortable questions: will the thousands of others victims be saved too, and how many more will be trafficked before these criminal networks are shut down?](https://image.24vids.com/tw-1877528442683666642/ext_tw_video_thumb/1877514388158193664/pu/img/w9Q_GP-oIKSu-eS0.jpg)
