Someone is unwilling to leave... A 19-year-old Chinese teenager fleeing Southeast Asia's electronic fraud park: Someone's limbs have been broken. Go to Cambodia | Cambodia | Park
"At the moment I returned to my home country, my heart suddenly relaxed..." Zhu Hang lowered his head and said with a choked voice, "I was worried there every day. Even if I go back to my home country and go to jail, I can feel at ease."
Zhu Hang, who is 19 years old this year, said he was "tricked" into entering a fraud center overseas. In March of this year, he entered the "Jinbei Three Industrial Parks" in Southeast Asia, introduced by his accomplices who were running scores together. He claimed to not be able to type and had never issued a "bill" before. After staying in the park for over a month, his parents helped him pay a $2000 ransom before breaking free from the control of the fraud gang and returning to China.
In the currently popular movie "All for One", the low-level salesperson of a telecommunications fraud gang is locked in a dog cage and inserted into his finger with a toothpick, allowing the audience to glimpse the brutality of overseas fraud gangs. Zhu Hang has never experienced it. In his account, those two months were agonizing and without freedom, but the supervisor was relatively friendly and only watched videos of someone's leg being broken on the phone of an old employee in the same dormitory.
After leaving the park, at the local hotel, Zhu Hang met his dying peers who had escaped from other parks, and thus felt the true cruelty of Xigang.
join in a game
On March 11th this year, Zhu Hang boarded a plane from Pudong Airport to Thailand, with the final destination being a place in Southeast Asia.
The starting point of this journey is full of adventures with unknown meanings. "Acai", who had only known Zhu Hang for a few months and worked together to score points for an overseas fraud gang, suddenly introduced him to a more profitable job. "He said there is a project abroad with a monthly salary of $5000, and I really want to make money. I definitely want to seize this opportunity."
Zhu Hang said he didn't ask in detail what to do when going to a certain place in Southeast Asia. "I know through short videos that there are many telecommunications scams in Southeast Asia. But I think scams always involve typing. I told him that I don't know how to type, and he also said I don't need to type, so I don't think it's scams." He told the reporter that he didn't know the job before departure.
Zhu Hang needs this job. He was born in a central western province and dropped out before finishing junior high school. Over the years, he has worked as a helper in the hotel kitchen, a security guard, a cashier in a supermarket, and even distributed flyers... Each job was not long and he did not save any money. At the end of 2022, Zhu Hang met Acai online, and the two of them worked together on the "score running" business for overseas fraud gangs. They also developed multiple offline activities and "made some money".
On the eve of departure, "Acai" pulled Zhu Hang into a group of more than ten people working abroad. Afterwards, Acai posted a travel itinerary for everyone to print in the group, and then disbanded the group.
After arriving in Thailand by plane, Zhu Hang followed the instructions of "Acai" and transferred to a certain place in Southeast Asia. Acai told Zhu Hang that the reason for the transit in Thailand is to avoid customs inspection. After getting off the plane, "Acai" instructed Zhu Hang to take a taxi through WeChat and arrived at a certain location in Southeast Asia on March 12th.
There are multiple large casinos gathered there, and underground there are also many illegal online gambling companies that have set up their bases in the local "park". In recent years, some telecommunications fraud gangs have also moved their old nests into industrial parks. These parks are like self-sufficient small societies, surrounded by high walls, power grids, and thugs, becoming breeding grounds for crime.
Every once in a while, young people who have escaped from the media share their experiences. Some of them have been abducted and even trafficked, and have been beaten and imprisoned in the park, forcing them to engage in fraud. Some people, either actively or half hearted, immerse themselves in it and fall into the abyss of obtaining illegal wealth through fraud.
The "Snake Head" waiting in the local area received Zhu Hang and brought him into the "Jinbei Three Park". A "HR supervisor" directly confiscated his phone and passport and took him into the dormitory.
Iron mesh
Zhu Hang realized that his personal freedom had been deprived, and for over a month, his life revolved around two terrifyingly large buildings.
The two tall buildings, along with their towering walls and deep underground passages, form the "Jinbei Three Parks". The buildings are all 19 floors high, with one building serving as the office area and the other as the dormitory area. "The terrain of both buildings is relatively high, and the windows of the corridors below the 5th floor are all sealed." According to Zhu Hang's observation, except for the security guards and chefs who are locals, all other people in the park are Chinese.
The building is like an airtight iron mesh, and Zhu Hang almost lives under surveillance without blind spots. In the dormitory building, the room of the regional supervisor is located at the top of the hallway, and the door is always open. Everyone entering and exiting the dormitory must report.
On March 13th, Zhu Hang officially started working. Hua Zai, the regional supervisor, asked him to sign a "labor contract" with various management regulations listed one by one: he cannot leave the park unless there are achievements; Only after reporting to the supervisor can one take their salary out for consumption; Do not use mobile phones when going to work; The money in the company's account cannot be moved; A reward of $50000 for completing one year of work, and so on. "He said he has been here for 4 years and has made a lot of money. He even painted me a big cake and said that as long as he keeps working hard, he can earn a lot of money."
The work area is also full of eyeliner. The team leader and the regional supervisor always walk around and inspect. The work area is a large space without partitions, densely packed with over 100 computers and filled with the sound of cracking keyboards. Young people in front of computers have to work 12 hours a day, with their eyes fixed on the screen and their hands desperately typing and doing business.
At first, Zhu Hang was assigned to the "European and American Fraud Team" on the 17th floor. The scam tactic of this group is to impersonate acquaintances and borrow money from them. Before starting work, a dedicated mentor taught Zhu Hang how to gain the trust of others during conversations. There are pre edited English scripts in the work computer, just copy and paste them in order.
In order to adapt to the lifestyle of the victims, Zhu Hang goes to work at 10 pm every night, takes a break from 6 am to 8 am, and then works until 12 noon, working 12 hours a day. "After work, I'm so tired that I don't want to say a word.".
"Dog Push"
"After doing it for a week, because my English was really not good, Hua Zai transferred me to the lottery fraud team on the 18th floor." Zhu Hang said, he couldn't type. On the second day of switching to the lottery team, the team leader felt that he was slow to react and "kicked" him to the "pig killing plate" team on the 19th floor, becoming a "dog push" for deceiving Chinese overseas Chinese in Singapore, Malaysia, and the United States.
"Goutui" is a term used to refer to the lower level salespeople of a fraud group. In the movie "All for One", "Pig Slaying Plate" is the "masterpiece" of "Dog Pushers". As "dogs" who earn money for their bosses, they take meager salary commissions, search for victims online, use various false conversation techniques and crocodile tears like care to develop victims into "fat pigs" waiting to be slaughtered.
The contact information of the victim was provided by the supervisor, and Zhu Hang provided a "companion chat" with a clear purpose. One of the characters he plays is a Singaporean girl, around 35 years old, who is a female entrepreneur who runs a mother and baby shop. She has lived in the United States for a few years and during conversations, she mentions that she makes small investments in her daily life with good returns, deceiving her into investing. He also disguised himself as a widowed, childless, and wealthy middle-aged man, asking for help from wealthy women. After establishing a trust relationship between the two sides, he lured the other into investing in virtual software.
In the movie, there is also a "dog promotion hall" filled with computers, full of money and sweat. During an interview, actor Wang Chuanjun mentioned his first impression of walking into the "Dog Push Hall" filming venue: "As soon as you enter that place, it feels like everything is right, as if you can smell the smell of the scene. You can feel the smell of sweat, smoke, and metal rust in that scene."
Zhu Hang has "seen" the scent of money and said, "A great dog push can scam you 1 million dollars in a day." In the "Dog Push" work group on the 19th floor, there are daily reports of "performance" and monthly summaries of "performance". Someone scammed over 3 million dollars in a month and received a commission of 400000 dollars. "He posted photos in the group, what a bundle of cash! He sent 300000 yuan back to China to his family, and the rest was kept for his own expenses."
Internal competition also exists in fraudulent groups. Zhu Hang said he had never placed an order, so he was repeatedly looked down upon by his supervisor and team leader. He can't sleep, can't eat, has a dizzy mind, and thinks about how to get out every day. In less than a month in the park, he can only sleep for two or three hours every day, and has lost more than ten pounds.
In Zhu Hang's account, he did not suffer violence due to poor performance. But as soon as he entered the park, he heard people in the same dormitory say that some people were beaten up for not working hard and not obeying, and he also saw photos and videos on their phones. "In a small room, there was a person wearing handcuffs who was electrocuted with an electric stick. Several strong men punched and kicked him, breaking both legs," he said, as the fear of being beaten lingered around him.
flee
"People have two hearts, one is greed and the other is unwillingness." This describes a person who has been "deceived" into a fraud group. Zhu Hang is also greedy, but he said he is not unwilling. "I don't think I can do this, and I am not used to living in a certain place in Southeast Asia. I just want to return to my home country as soon as possible."
Zhu Hang plans to leave the "park". However, in just over a month, he hasn't walked out of the park at all. Whether or not he can leave, and how to leave, he has no idea in his mind.
He asked his older brother who had a good relationship with the dormitory, and he was advised not to think about it. Instead, he should work hard and earn more money before leaving. "Everyone has different ideas," Zhu Hang said. Some people in the park have been working for four or five years with good performance and high commissions. "Although they have the freedom to enter and exit the park, they have never considered leaving."
After some contemplation, Zhu Hang decided to directly look for "Hua Zai" and tentatively say that he wanted to go home. "If you don't want to do it, you can get a ransom of 50000 yuan," Hua Zai said calmly. Zhu Hang didn't have that much money, so he had to make phone calls to his family and friends, using the dialect of his hometown that his roommates didn't understand, and asking his family to help raise money.
In mid April, "Hua Zai" finally let go and agreed to let Zhu Hang leave the park for only $2000, but he had to keep his passport. "Perhaps it was because I worked for a short time and my abilities were not good enough to create too much profit for them, that I was willing to pay and leave," Zhu Hang recalled.
My parents transferred a sum of money to him through WeChat, paid a ransom, and as expected, "Hua Zai" let Zhu Hang go. After leaving the park, Zhu Hang took a ride and drove along Highway 4, delivering him to the embassy in Phnom Penh a few hours later.
Along the way, Zhu Hang did not stop worrying because "people are often kidnapped and extorted on this road.". At the entrance of the embassy, someone approached him and told him that in order to apply for a new passport, he needed to obtain a police report. He could get it done for $80. I paid and received a certificate, but still cannot apply for a passport. I can only apply for a passport after working locally for two years. He found a hotel to stay and continued to think of ways.
At that hotel, Zhu Hang met two young Chinese people who had escaped from the Arc de Triomphe Park. "The people in the park have been catching them, and once caught, they will be sold and can only hide in small hotels all day long.".
Those two people were scammed to a place in Southeast Asia and then sold to the park owner. They have seen that after the fugitive was caught, he was locked in a cage, beaten to death, and not given food or drink. The "supervisor" threatened them and sold them to Myanmar or buried them on beaches if they didn't obey. But they still decided to run away, on a day off to eat out, while the person in charge was not paying attention, and ran away.
Zhu Hang became increasingly scared as he listened and wanted to leave there as soon as possible and return to his home country. "The things over there are very expensive. The hotel costs $25 a night and we also have to eat, which costs several hundred yuan per day. Moreover, if we are not familiar with the place, what should we do if something unexpected happens one day?" However, due to my passport being confiscated and the lack of relevant proof materials, I am unable to obtain a valid entry and exit certificate.
Perhaps Zhu Hang is lucky. On April 21st this year, police officers from the Caohejing Police Station of the Xuhui Branch of the Shanghai Public Security Bureau investigated a case and found out that Zhu Hang had previously engaged in "running the score" activities. They contacted Zhu Hang and urged him to surrender. Upon learning that he was in a certain location in Southeast Asia and had a strong desire to return to his home country, the police contacted his parents and coordinated with multiple parties to provide him with the necessary certificates. In early May, Zhu Hang successfully obtained a one-time certificate of return from the local consulate and purchased a plane ticket to Shanghai on May 18th. After landing in the early morning of May 19th, he was escorted by the police to the police station.
"I know I have committed a crime and may face imprisonment when I return to China. However, when the police added me on WeChat and patiently advised me to come back and surrender, I realized that no matter what, I must return to China first." Zhu Hang said, thanking the police for their help, which helped him get rid of his anxious life.
"The days there must have been dark." Looking back now, Zhu Hang still felt scared and regretted getting on that plane. "Everyone wanted to make money, but where did pie fall from the sky? There were probably too many traps."
