Horrifying memories of workers sold into scams in the Golden Triangle

He sold his brother into a scam ring.

Vy Van Nhap (42 years old), residing in Chau Binh commune, Quy Chau district and Vy Van L. (33 years old) are brothers. Due to difficult life, L. packed his bags and went to Ho Chi Minh City to find work.

One day in mid-September 2023, L. unexpectedly received a phone call from his brother discussing going to Laos to “work on computers”. With the promise of a stable salary of 18 to 20 million VND per month, the younger brother agreed to go. L. also invited his roommate to go abroad to do “easy work with high salary”.

The reason why Nhap "bravely" made such a commitment to the workers was because this man was contacted by Pham Thi Tuyet Chinh (37 years old, residing in Giao Thuy town, Giao Thuy district, Nam Dinh) who invited him to find people to go to Laos to work at a fraudulent company.

Previously, Chinh was discussed by the Chinese boss about finding people to work for a fraudulent company, with a salary of 15 million VND/person. Having known each other before, Chinh contacted Nhap to discuss finding workers to send abroad. After the negotiation process, Chinh agreed to pay Nhap 10 million VND/person.

After agreeing on the price, Nhap approached many "preys", including his younger brother. This man also invited Mr. Luong Van H. (born in 1997, residing in Chau Binh commune) to go to Laos to do "easy work with high salary", and at the same time told this person to invite more friends to work. Trusting him, Mr. H. invited two more people from Chau Thang commune, Quy Chau district to go to Nhap's house to learn more about the job and salary.

When they met, Nhap clearly stated that the job in Laos was “easy, just typing on a computer, salary 20 million VND/month”. This man also affirmed that “if you don’t know the job, you will be trained, have a comfortable place to eat and stay, and won’t be exploited. If they don’t pay, Nhap will pay you”. With Nhap’s commitments, the 3 young men agreed to go abroad.

According to the appointment, on the evening of September 18, 2023, Nhap took 3 people to take a bus to Hanoi. This group of people rented a motel to wait for Nhap's younger brother and a friend from Ho Chi Minh City to take a bus to Hanoi. At the same time, the subjects had their personal information taken by a person claiming to be an employee of the Chinese boss to complete exit procedures and documents.

On September 23, 2023, Chinh and Nhap led 5 people to catch a car arranged by the Chinese boss to go to Laos through the Lao Bao border gate (Quang Tri). After that, the workers were taken to the Golden Triangle area, working for a company located in Myanmar. Only then did the workers realize that they had been tricked, the computer work they were promised was actually a cyber scam.

The Escape Journey

According to the workers, when they were brought into the building in Myanmar, they were constantly monitored. The workers were forced by their Chinese boss to commit online fraud. Every day, their boss set a target for how much money they had scammed. If they did not meet the target, they had to work from 7am to 3am the next day. The constant threats and pressure to commit illegal acts left them in a state of anxiety and panic.

The concern grew even greater when the scam gang was raided by the local police. There were times when the workers had to follow the boss’s orders and run into the mountains to hide. In addition, the lack of salary from the boss made the workers frustrated and tried to escape.

One day in January 2024, taking advantage of the guards' carelessness, the workers fled the scam den en masse. However, due to unfamiliarity with the terrain and language barriers, when they escaped to the Lao border area, they were tricked by bad guys into working for different companies. From then on, these workers lost contact with each other and had to find ways to save themselves.

Their escape was very difficult and arduous. To return home, after escaping from the special economic zone, some people had to use foam rafts to swim for many days along the Mekong River. During the process of swimming downstream, they had to beg for food, sleep temporarily at people's huts along the river and were lucky to receive help from Vietnamese people doing business in Laos to return home.

Authorities determined that from January 26, 2024 to August 2024, 4 victims were sold to fraudulent companies abroad and returned to Vietnam one after another. Currently, one person has not returned to the country, and no one knows where he is or what he is doing.

After returning home, the victims filed a complaint against the subjects to the police. Based on the victims' complaints, the authorities arrested Vy Van Nhap and Pham Thi Tuyet Chinh for human trafficking.

Price

With the above actions, the two defendants Vy Van Nhap and Pham Thi Tuyet Chinh were tried by the People's Court of Nghe An province for the crime of Human Trafficking. At the new trial, at first, defendant Chinh stated that he only told Nhap to find someone to send abroad to do computer work, not knowing that it was a scam. This defendant stated that he only listened to his boss's words, and that he did not know what specific work he would do there..

However, after some hesitation, defendant Chinh admitted to the act of sending people abroad to commit fraud as charged in the indictment. The female defendant stated that she was once a victim, trafficked to China. During the process of getting married and living there, the defendant got to know the "boss". Therefore, when the boss asked her to find Vietnamese people to send to Laos to work as a fraudulent company, the defendant agreed.

The accomplice in the case, defendant Nhap, stated that he knew that the computer work abroad was a scam but still tried to sell the workers, including his younger brother. In this case, after taking the five victims abroad, Nhap was paid 50 million VND by Chinh. Chinh stated that he had just received 25 million VND from his Chinese boss, and the defendant had not received the remaining 50 million VND because the workers had run away, so the boss did not pay.

At the trial, the defendants apologized to the victims and asked the court to consider reducing their sentences. After the trial, the panel sentenced Pham Thi Tuyet Chinh to 9 years and 6 months in prison and defendant Vy Van Nhap to 9 years in prison for human trafficking.

The trial ended with a verdict for the defendant, but the victims also learned a lesson for themselves. That is to be wary of invitations to go abroad to do “easy work, high salary” or “just work on the computer”. Because, that is one of the tricks that bad guys set up to scam workers.