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RUBY:

From Schwartz Media, I’m Ruby Jones. This is 7am.

Most Australians have been targeted by a scam attempt - from spammy text messages to intricate love fraud with billions stolen.

But behind these attacks is a highly organised and secretive industry fuelled by human trafficking.

It’s believed hundreds of thousands of people are being held against their will in so-called scam factories across South East Asia - in Myanmar, Cambodia and the Philippines. Many are run by Chinese-linked gangs operating in border regions where laws are weaker.

Ben Yeo has seen first-hand how these compounds operate. In early 2024 he was kidnapped, trapped in a Cambodian based scam factory.

Today, Ben Yeo on how he escaped the scam compounds and why so many others struggle to get out.

It’s Tuesday, March 11.

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RUBY:

Well first of all, thank you again for coming on the show and for talking to me. I really appreciate it.

BEN:

You’re welcome. You’re welcome. Sorry I’m a bit nervous this morning.

RUBY:

No that’s ok, it's very understandable. So to begin with, had you ever heard about scam compounds before?

BEN:

I've heard of these compounds but I didn't know that it was so widespread. I didn't know there was like a hundred, few hundred thousand people working in the industry there. So, not until I actually got into one myself.

RUBY:

Yeah, and I suppose you would never have thought something like this would happen to you.

BEN:

Oh of course, never.

RUBY:

Ben’s ordeal started in early 2024 shortly after he got married. Ben’s Malaysian and his new wife is Filippino and they were looking for a change in scenery in a third country. Until that point, Ben was a freelance business consultant who had worked across South East Asia. But after that work began to dry up during Covid, he was open to something new.

BEN:

So what happened was, me and my wife, we decided to, you know, go to Cambodia to start our life over there. And so my wife, she was a croupier, she's a casino dealer. She does blackjack and poker. And she got a friend who introduced her to this job posting on a human resource agency. One of the ads was croupier and the other says business development. So we responded to the ad. They did a first interview, second interview. They were quite convincing, they asked all the right questions which a normal HR would ask, you know, and they talked about our salary and stuff like that.

RUBY:

Ben also looked into the company who owned the casino and saw they had all the right government approvals and licenses. There was nothing to suggest the job wasn’t real.

BEN:

I felt hopeful at that point, you know, I thought we were going to a country which I know, I’m familiar with, I speak the language. So, you know, I was kind of confident before leaving for Cambodia. We gave up the house, you know, I sold my car. We thought that we would be there for a couple of years, you know.

RUBY:

Okay, and so then what happened next?

BEN:

So, we got on a plane, we flew down to Cambodia, they told us there would be a pick up at the airport and when they picked us up and drove to this place called Bavet, which is about 3-4 hours drive away. It's just right at the Vietnam border. So, another reason why we felt that the job was real was because Bavet is a special economic zone for casinos. But when we got to Bavet, they brought us to a compound which is behind the casinos. The arches to the compound was about two storeys high, barb wired. It was heavily guarded just like a prison, you know. So, they told us before going in, they told us it was just like the staff quarters, you know, and so we believed them. And we walked in just like that. And when the door closed on us, they brought us to our quarters and from there, they told us that the job that you applied for, it was just a lie. You are now in a scam camp. And if we want to go home and we want to leave, we have to pay them to the tune of 10,000 US dollars.

RUBY:

That must have been a very frightening moment for you and for your wife to realise that you couldn't leave the compound.

BEN:

Yes, it was quite shocking and we couldn't sleep for about three days, I think. We tried to take all of it in, you know, watch how other people behave.

RUBY:

Were other people also tricked like you?

BEN:

I think half of them at least were scammed into the compound but most of them was from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal. Some of them applied as a nurse, some of them applied as teachers, I think engineers, IT workers. Most of them didn't have a choice, most of them are stuck there, you know.

RUBY:

They were stuck inside a self-contained city. It even had its own grocery store. The compound had around 200 bungalows which each housed around 50 people. And it’s from these compounds that workers are forced to run cyber scams on gruelling shifts with tough targets. Each compound specialised in a different scam. For example, there are entire compounds dedicated to scamming Australians using love fraud. But Ben says he and his wife found themselves in a compound targeting people in India with a credit card scam and that some local police were in on the scam.

BEN:

So they would call the Indian people, do a spam call, and inform the victim that he has outstanding balance with his credit card. So from credit card department, they will pass to the police and the police will frighten them saying that, you know, their bank account has been linked to drugs or murders and things like that. And that's how they, you know, pry on the weak.

RUBY:

At first, because of his language skills, Ben was asked to teach the other workers English. But he says after two weeks it was his turn to pick up the phone and start scamming. But Ben refused to cooperate. And that’s when the guards turned violent.

BEN:

They isolated us, me and my wife. They finally brought me into a room, it's a specially made prison. So they cuffed me to the floor, they handcuffed me to the floor so I couldn't stand. Of course, they didn't give me water and food. It was really challenging at that time because I'm worried for my wife. You know, I was handcuffed. There were so many guards.

RUBY:

And what were they saying to you about what they wanted you to do to make that end?

BEN:

They wanted me to pay 20,000 US dollars for them to release me and my wife.

All l I could do was pray, you know. In the darkest hours, I think that's where, you know, I found God.

RUBY:

Coming up after the break, how Ben and his wife escaped.

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RUBY:

Ben, you were held in isolation for 10 days because you refused to do any scams. You were essentially held to ransom. How did you actually manage to get out?

BEN:

We managed to hide a phone so that we’d be able to give my parents the location of the place and, you know, what to tell the embassy and where we are at. So I believe the communication through the phone, between my parents and my wife, that's how we managed to get the police to come.

RUBY:

But the police coming to the compound was just the beginning. The whole ordeal of trying to get home would take months. Before the compound guards released him to the police, they forced him to record a video saying he had been well treated, that he hadn’t been kidnapped. Once he’d done that, he was able to go with them. But again, at the police station, he was made to sign a statement, again saying he hadn’t been trafficked. Ben says a representative from the company was there in the room as they demanded he sign.

BEN:

I was pretty afraid on that day itself.

RUBY:

What did you do?

BEN:

Well, we had no choice but to sign it. And it was from there I tried to get some legal support but it was really expensive and we really lost everything going there. So it was quite tough. There were so many things going through our minds. Are we going to be safe, even in police custody?

RUBY:

Ben was right to be afraid. Later that day, a car came to pick him and his wife up to take them to the bigger provincial police station and hopefully one step closer to home. But on the way there, the police car broke down - or it seemed to. Ben realised something was up and he started recording.

BEN:

They fake a car breakdown. They took a car that wasn't working and the car broke down halfway.

Archival tape – Phone recording.

BEN:

I found that that police station was already compromised and I was just a few minutes away to being sold back to the company.

Archival tape – Phone recording:

“Now go to police.”

RUBY:

Ben was able to use his phone to call for outside help to intervene and put pressure on the police. From there, he and his wife Moira spent nearly three months living in housing supported by an NGO in Cambodia. He was constantly questioned by the government and made, he says, to feel like a criminal rather than a victim.

BEN:

The line of questioning of the police, you know, wasn't who were these people? How did they kidnap you? They were basically asking like, okay, so when you were there, did you do any transactions? Did you ask money from anyone? There was no mention of the perpetrators and, you know, how they look like and things like that.

RUBY:

Okay, so no interest in pursuing the people who trafficked you and kidnapped you and kept you in the compound against your will.

BEN:

Correct.

RUBY:

Ben and his wife made it out of Cambodia, but the experience left him destitute. With no home to go back to, Ben was at first living in a church. And he lived in fear.

BEN:

Sometimes I worry for my life. You know, we get threats sometimes.

RUBY:

What sort of threats do you get?

BEN:

I get very funny calls on my phone sometimes. I have a feeling that someone from the compound is trying to reach out to me. Maybe it's just my PTSD, you know, yeah. But… but yes, I'm afraid sometimes that, you know, they will come after me. They have all the financial resource to do that, you know.

RUBY:

It’s rare to hear from people, you don’t often hear from people like you who’ve been in these compounds. Why do you think that is?

BEN:

I think the first problem would be, it’s really hard to stand up for yourself as a victim over here, because there is so many stigma that goes around, you know, survivors. Even my government and my own police when I got back, you know, they thought that I was a scammer and I just needed help to get out. So I think there’s not many much support That’s why not many people would actually be brave enough to come and talk about it.

RUBY:

But it’s the testimonies of survivors that has forced governments to act. In the last few weeks, 7000 people were rescued from scam factories in Myanmar by Thai authorities . A week later 215 more people were freed by Thai and Cambodian police from a town along their shared border.

RUBY:

What would you want the people in Australia who are getting these scam calls, what would you want them to know and to understand about the reality of what's actually going on and the people who are placing these calls?

BEN:

For the Australian people, scam camps are real. The people who are calling most likely they are victims as well and they were forced to do their jobs, right? But for the average Australian citizen, I would suggest to you if there was any call pretending to be a bank or a post office, you know, basically anything that requires registration, please go to the branch itself before committing financially to any of the scams. And don’t fall for anyone online unless you’ve known them for years.

RUBY:

Thank you for sharing your story and I'm glad that you managed to escape. Good luck with everything.

BEN:

Thank you, thank you so very much.

RUBY:

For more of Ben’s story, plus others, have a listen to Scam Factories - a three part investigation from The Conversation Weekly. Search for The Conversation Weekly wherever you get your podcasts.

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RUBY:

Also in the news today…

People who have lost income as a direct result of ex-tropical cyclone Alfred may be eligible for up to 13 weeks of income support, the Prime Minister has announced.

Starting today at 2pm, workers and sole-traders from 31 local government areas impacted across Queensland and New South Wales will be able to apply using the MyGov or Services Australia websites.
Income support will be available at the job seeker level.

And,

Former central banker Mark Carney will be sworn in as Prime Minister of Canada within days, after winning a party contest to succeed Justin Trudeau.

Trudeau announced in January that he would be stepping down after his approval rating plummeted. He’s been Prime Minister for more than nine years.

59-year-old Carney has never held political office, but argues his banking background makes him well placed to lead Canada through its current trade war with the US.

I’m Ruby Jones, this is 7am. Thanks for listening.

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