US EditionShe ‘wants to die there.’ The women forced to scam and the families left behind
Women from Asia, Africa, and Europe are trafficked into scam compounds where they face forced labor, sexual abuse, and must use AI tools to conduct billion-dollar scams.
- In a months-long investigation, CNN found women from Asia, Africa and Europe trafficked into Southeast Asian scam compounds in Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar, forced to run scams and sometimes sex work.
- Amid scarce jobs at home, promised pay up to $6,000 a month lured Filipino workers, while recruiters on Facebook sold workers for 60,000 pesos, exploiting families left behind.
- Inside the compounds, women said they had to memorize scripts and transform into characters while operators stockpiled computer monitors and unused SIM cards, using Telegram channels and scam playbook photo packages.
- The government’s anti-organized crime agency raided a nearly 10-hectare compound last year, issuing an arrest warrant for Huang Zhiyang while the Philippine Embassy helped rescue Casie in April and families petitioned for loved ones' return.
- Dismantling the compounds has proven difficult, officials say, as alleged local officials and armed groups in Myanmar complicate enforcement, while POGOs fuel a billion-dollar scam industry.
11 Articles
11 Articles
She ‘wants to die there.’ The women forced to scam and the families left behind
CNN By Teele Rebane, Hanako Montgomery. Video by Dan Hodge, Exxon Ruebe and Ladan Anoushfar, CNN Manila, Philippines (CNN) — All the names of women have been changed at their request to protect their identity. An hour north of the city, where urban sprawl gives way to hills, a boy in a Batman shirt waits by the front of his family’s small convenience store. Eagerly, he accompanies us past the candy, snacks and lottery tickets, to the simple livi…
She ‘wants to die there.’ The women forced to scam and the families left behind
By Teele Rebane, Hanako Montgomery. Video by Dan Hodge, Exxon Ruebe and Ladan Anoushfar, CNN Manila, Philippines (CNN) — All the names of women have been changed at their request to protect their identity. An hour north of the city, where urban sprawl gives way to hills, a boy in a Batman shirt waits by the front of his family’s small convenience store. Eagerly, he accompanies us past the candy, snacks and lottery tickets, to the simple living s…
She ‘wants to die there.’ The women forced to scam and the families left behind
By Teele Rebane, Hanako Montgomery. Video by Dan Hodge, Exxon Ruebe and Ladan Anoushfar, CNN Manila, Philippines (CNN) — All the names of women have been changed at their request to protect their identity. An hour north of the city, where urban sprawl gives way to hills, a boy in a Batman shirt waits by the front of his family’s small convenience store. Eagerly, he accompanies us past the candy, snacks and lottery tickets, to the simple living s…
She ‘wants to die there.’ The women forced to scam and the families left behind | News Channel 3-12
By Teele Rebane, Hanako Montgomery. Video by Dan Hodge, Exxon Ruebe and Ladan Anoushfar, CNN Manila, Philippines (CNN) — All the names of women have been changed at their request to protect their identity. An hour north of the city, where urban sprawl gives way to hills, a boy in a Batman shirt waits by the front of his family’s small convenience store. Eagerly, he accompanies us past the candy, snacks and lottery tickets, to the simple living s…
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