This is an extract from Scam: Inside Southeast Asia’s Cybercrime Compounds, now available from Verso Books.
“I don’t trust you. You are one of them, right? You all just want to sell me like some animal.” This was the first message a young Taiwanese woman named Alice (a pseudonym) sent to us when we reached out to her after she was rescued from a scam compound in Sihanoukville, Cambodia.
Like the dozens of other survivors we met in the following months, her harrowing experience had left her unable to trust anyone. In the ensuing two weeks, as we continued to exchange messages, Alice was always on edge.
Penniless and paperless, she was staying in a safe house in Phnom Penh together with other survivors who mostly came from mainland China, waiting to find a way to return home to the small child she had left behind.
It took some time, but eventually someone offered to pay for her journey back to Taiwan. Just a few days before her flight, she agreed to meet with one of us in a public place. It was then that she shared her whole story:
I feel lucky because I was rescued very quickly, basically in a week. If I had been enslaved for a year or two, I might not be able to believe in humanity anymore. I know some of the victims have been brainwashed, or some have been tortured to the point that they are numb or have developed some mental illness. And at the same time, people outside, including my own family, think that I was trafficked because I am greedy and wanted to get rich overnight. So, I need to tell my…
Auteur: Mark Bo
