A rising star’s nightmare: Lured, trapped, and forced to scam

In January, Wang Xing, a 22-year-old rising Chinese actor, vanished without a trace.

What was supposed to be a promising career move — a casting call in Thailand — became a living nightmare.

For days, no one knew where he was.

Then came the shocking truth: Wang had been trafficked. Instead of stepping onto a film set, he found himself in the clutches of a ruthless syndicate along the Thai-Myanmar border, a region infamous for online scam operations.

Thai police confirmed their worst fears — Wang Xing was a victim of human trafficking.

Lured with the promise of stardom, he was stripped of his freedom and forced into scam training.

His captors trained him to defraud his own countrymen, operating from one of the many scam compounds controlled by criminal networks.

The actor-turned-victim found himself trapped in a machine designed to steal millions from unsuspecting victims — until he was rescued.

Wang’s ordeal was just the tip of the iceberg.

Thousands like Wang were lured by false promises — jobs in Thailand that required only English and typing skills.

Cyber scam empire

His case ignited outrage, pushing authorities to intensify their crackdown on transnational criminal groups running these vast scam networks.

Myanmar’s military junta, under increasing pressure from neighbours China and Thailand, launched raids on scam centers across Shan State and the notorious Shwe Kokko region, a stronghold of the Kayin State Border Guard Force — a junta-allied militia long suspected of protecting these illegal operations.

Over the past three weeks, Myanmar’s military claims to have rescued more than 1,030 foreign nationals from these cyber scam centers.

Vast criminal network

Of those, only 61 have been repatriated, while the rest remain in limbo, awaiting verification of their identities.

The victims are mostly from China, India, and East Africa, highlighting the vast reach of these criminal networks.

While authorities vow to intensify their crackdown, thousands remain trapped in these scam operations, where they are forced to work under the threat of violence, starvation, and torture.

Wang Xing was lucky to escape, but many others are still imprisoned, caught in a web of deception and brutality.

For the victims, freedom comes at a cost. BBC reported how "Mike", an Ethiopian man, is one of 450 people crammed inside a single building — among thousands recently freed from one of the scam compounds.

Instead of rescue, they are stranded. Bureaucratic delays mean repatriation efforts are excruciatingly slow.

Thousands of victims remain stuck in makeshift shelters, dependent on armed militia groups who barely have the resources to sustain them. One militia, overwhelmed, has stopped releasing captives altogether.

"I swear to God, I need help," Mike told BBC.

He spent a year imprisoned in a scam centre, forced to con unsuspecting victims online under the brutal watch of his bosses.

When he failed to meet quotas, they beat him. Others suffered far worse. Now, even in so-called "freedom", the nightmare continues: two meager meals a day, only two toilets for hundreds, sickness spreading through the camp.

False promises

He is plagued by panic attacks, his body and mind broken.

Like the young Chinese actor Wang, Mike was lured by false promises, but instead became cogs in a vast, ruthless fraud industry that preyed on the desperate.

Ariyan, a young Bangladeshi man, managed to escape last October. Now, he has returned to Thailand, risking everything to try and save 17 of his friends still trapped in Myanmar.

If they didn’t bring in $5,000 a week, they got electric shocks. Or they're locked up in a dark room for days. But if they scammed enough, they are rewarded.

AI driven scam operations

Using AI, the syndicates transformed his voice and image into that of an attractive woman, tricking men into investing in fake opportunities. One man was about to sell his wife’s jewellery — Ariyan longed to warn him but couldn’t.

Every move was monitored.

Delayed rescue

The mass release of scam workers began after Thailand, under pressure from China, cut power, telecommunications, and banking access to the compounds.

But while the crackdown disrupted the criminal networks, it also left thousands of victims in limbo.

The problem?

Many come from countries unwilling or unable to repatriate them. Ethiopia, for instance, has no embassy in Bangkok. Some African nations will only take their citizens back if someone else foots the bill. Most of the freed workers have no money, no passports — stripped of everything by their captors.

Meanwhile, Thailand fears an unmanageable humanitarian crisis. It has cut power to the suspected Myanmar scam hubs. And it is moving cautiously, screening people to distinguish genuine trafficking victims from potential criminals. Yet delays are proving deadly.

Recently, Thailand agreed to bring over 94 Indonesians — their government had pushed for their release and arranged flights home. But that still leaves over 7,000 people trapped in Myanmar, uncertain if rescue will ever come, according to the BBC.

For Mike, time is running out.

He fears that if they are not allowed to cross into Thailand soon, they might sent back to the scam bosses. And if that happens, he fears for his life.

On Wednesday night, his panic attacks became so severe that he had to be taken to the hospital. "I just want to go home," he pleaded. "That is all I am asking."