February 08, 2023, Colombo: In a human trafficking scheme, nearly 100 young Sri Lankan graduates, mostly men, have been lured into working in the Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in Laos, known as the home of Southeast Asia’s transnational organized crime networks.
Operating from self-contained condominium compounds with access to Chinese-origin hacking software and improved translation software, the scammers, who are themselves, victims, target American citizens above the age of 37 by creating fake profiles on largely used US dating apps such as Hinge, Boo, Tinder, and POF.com.
“Our daily target was to obtain five telephone numbers. When we failed to meet the daily targets, we were forced to work for 20 hours a day, while we were even meted out physical punishment, such as 100 squats, 100 push-ups and even electric shocks,” Jay*, a Sri Lankan, marketer by profession, who is currently working in the said network, revealed in an interview with the Daily Mirror.
After spending days and sometimes weeks, winning their ‘trust and love,’ leading to increased intimacy and heightened emotions, the scammers would convince victims to pour money into a crypto coin called Tether, other bogus investment platforms or gambling sites.
