Mumbai: 1,500 Indians, UAE nationals forced into cyber fraud racket

The Chinese mafia, besides running shady mobile lending apps, is luring Indians into slavery in Myanmar on the pretext of lucrative jobs and forcing them to commit cyber fraud. The Bandra police came to learn of this nefarious scheme while looking into the abduction of a few Mumbai-based men who had been offered IT jobs in Thailand but were taken to Myanmar against their will.

The abducted youngsters told the police over the phone that overall 1,500 Indian and UAE nationals are being held captive in the Southeast Asian country and they have to dupe netizens to survive. The total number of people from across the world ensnared along with them could be around 3,500 by their reckoning.

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Map of the area where the captives are being held

In order to secure their release, the captives have to earn over $15,000 (over Rs11 lakh) in six months after which their passport will be returned to them and they will be allowed to return home. Their captors claim the amount is for their airfare, accommodation and other expenses. The captives are forced to work over 15 hours a day and are subjected to electric shocks when they fail to meet targets.

Some of the Indians who are stuck there told mid-day that since they are new arrivals, they haven't faced such abuse but they would soon if the authorities don't rescue them. So far, they have witnessed others being punished for not fulfilling tasks. Making rounds of their captor's sprawling premises is a common punishment for those who fail to achieve their goals, they said. The Mumbai-based captives believe that they are in Marvel Khat in Myanmar's southern Kayin State, which shares a border with Thailand.

The youths had been offered $1,200 a month but they realized their mistake only after landing. One of them told mid-day, "They seized our passports and visas in Thailand and put us in a car which took us across the border into Myanmar illegally. After nine hours, we reached our destination. We were kept in small rooms like detention centres and were taken to call centres on the same premises. During the entire journey, armed guards accompanied us."

Captives who are being made to commit cyber fraud in Myanmar

"We were told that it was a customer service job but it turned out to be cyber fraud. They are making us lure people. They made us create profiles of women and update them daily to make them look genuine and trap gullible people. After befriending them, we convinced them to invest in cryptocurrency and duped them," the captive said. In case the cyber fraud victims attempt to make audio or video calls to their newfound ‘friends', actual women are kept close at hand to keep up the ruse. "They continue to dupe victims until the latter either run out of money or realize that they had been cheated and stopped investing further," he added.

The captives were initially told that they had to earn about $2,000 in six months otherwise they won't be released and their passports wouldn't be returned as their travel had been free. The police said that the agents of the scamsters, who are spread across the globe, had arranged for their visas and airfare. The relative of one captive said, "They have faced atrocities at the hands of their abductors for not completing their targets. Beatings with baseball bats are common as well as electric shocks."

A captive said, "They make us work for 16 to 17 hours on an average and don't hesitate to beat us for small mistakes. We aren't allowed to talk to anyone in the office and are surrounded by armed guards while going to and returning from the office. The food here is so horrible that we are eating bread with cola."

After learning about the the racket, the Mumbai police nabbed a Liberian national, Emmanuel Greene, 32, who was about to flee India, at Lucknow airport on September 9. He had recruited a few people from Mumbai and sent them to Thailand, said the police. His interrogation revealed several names, including that of a few Chinese nationals who have been pulling the strings from Thailand and Myanmar, while two other persons, including an Indian, are operating from Dubai, said the police.

The Mumbai police are in contact with the ministry of external affairs, which had recently rescued some 30 Indians held captive in Myawaddy, an area that is not fully under the control of the Myanmar government.

$1,200
Amount Mumbai-based youths were offered