The investigative TV series Frontline that broadcasts on PBS has released a new documentary on the way that internet scams have exploded in recent years. It is now estimated to have swindled billions of dollars from people all over the world. The major scamming operations are huge with the people behind them creating small cities in the remote jungles of Cambodia and Myanmar where they build massive compounds that house ten of thousands of workers in barracks-like conditions to carry out the frauds.
These workers from all over Asia have been tricked into thinking that they were being hired to work in legitimate jobs, usually in the hospitality industry, but and upon arriving find their passports taken and made to work under horrendous conditions. They are given highly detailed fake profiles and scripts to follow when they contact a target victim, so that they can be induced into parting with their money. The workers often do not speak English but they work off scripts in their own language which are then translated into English. They are severely punished with beatings if they do not perform to expectations. The governments of Cambodia and Myanmar seem to turn a blind eye to these abuses unless there is a global outcry upon which they raid some facilities, release the prisoners, and destroy the compound. But the criminals then simply move to a different location and build new small cities within a short time, usually a couple of months.