In early October, nearly one hundred and thirty Indians were rescued from tech companies in Cambodia, Laos, and Myanmar. The workers were lured into these countries on the belief that they were being offered high up, and prosperous jobs in the information technology sector. They were, most of the time, illegally brought into the countries. Once they had arrived, they had only come to find that they were only being used to help in a transnational scamming group. The group is involved in various cyber-crimes, including: forged cryptocurrencies, cyber-fraud, and digital scamming (phishing). The one hundred and thirty are only a small portion of those taken, as four hundred and one people have been reported missing, and are presumed to be involved in the situation. The workers that have managed to be rescued have reported near-slavelike conditions that they were being held in. Many of the captors are also presumed to be human traffickers.
I feel the best supported reason for the workers being taken specifically from India involves the fact that they have an enormous and vast population density, as well as severely mishandled/mistreated working conditions. Many of the people that went were leaving because they thought that they were being offered better jobs, and I think that this is something to note when looking at the fault in the situation. Obviously, the companies/individuals responsible for kidnapping the victims are at fault, but this should also be used as an opportunity to look at India’s work force, and lack of pay/benefits/care/career opportunities.
Because the crime was committed internationally, I would be very interested to see where the blame, and jurisdiction follows. It is still not exactly known who originated the scamming conglomerate; however, there have been agents found in Dubai, Bangkok, and Indian cities. Scamming, and cyber crimes that are similar to scamming are abundant in South/Central Asia, unfortunately, and they have been and will continue to be abundant throughout the entirety that the internet exists, unfortunately. It is our only hope that people, like those taken unwillingly and unknowingly, will be redeemed by their governments, and the agents/companies will be taken down and found responsible for their actions. We hope that those that fall victim to these crimes also get redemption, or have better protection in the future, as without precautions or knowledge on these types of scams will only allow them to continue to thrive.