His supposed employer took the then 37-year-old and other victims to the Myanmar border. Armed men forced them across rivers and barbed wire. After six days, they reached a camp. Xu realized: he wasn’t an actor, but a prisoner—one of many trafficked to Myanmar to deceive and rob fellow citizens.
Xu speaks fast, as if needing to get it all out. He’s tall, with a deep voice and a kind face. He used to watch his weight; now he eats whatever he wants. “You never know when you might die,” he says.
“We were kept like chickens in a fast-food chain.”
His captors took him to one of Myanmar’s lawless border zones, where he was forced to work in a scam factory. These camps emerged after the 2021 military coup plunged Myanmar into civil war. Xu was made to scam people from China, Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia with fake crypto schemes, NFT investments, and other digital frauds.
Those who refused were beaten, sold, or disappeared without a trace.
Xu describes the guards’ beatings with closed eyes. Initially held in a house miles from the factories, 80 prisoners—many handcuffed, half-naked, with bloody wounds—were crammed inside. It stank of sweat. “We were kept like fast-food chickens.” The guards carried guns and batons. You had to raise your hand to drink water. Rice was served twice a day—“just enough not to die.” Newcomers were immediately robbed: passwords stolen, accounts drained, online loans taken in their name. Then the scammers joined the victims’ online groups—endangering their friends, too. “Like an assembly line,” says Xu.
According to the UN, Chinese gangs are now trafficking tens of thousands globally into these scam centers, often via the Thai or Chinese border.
Chinese, English, and increasingly Hindi are the most sought-after languages—India is a growing market. In October 2024, India’s Interior Ministry reported that 29,466 Indians who traveled to Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar, and Vietnam on visitor visas between January 2022 and May 2024 never returned. Victims also include people from Ethiopia, Kenya, Pakistan, and Brazil. Xu met others from Taiwan, Morocco, and Hungary. A Russian woman fled winter and ended up in captivity.
The business is booming—and far less risky than drug trafficking
U.S.-based Institute of Peace estimates these scams already generate $63.9 billion worldwide annually. It’s booming—and much less risky than drug trafficking. In the U.S., the CEO of the Bank of Kansas was both perpetrator and victim of a crypto scam, losing $47 million in deposits. The FBI has since pressured Thai authorities to take the issue seriously. Germany remains relatively safe due to the rarity of the German language.
But in reality, China is the only regional power with enough influence to curb this crime. It long supported Myanmar’s junta, and most victims—on both sides of the scam—are Chinese. Xu says uniformed officers at Myanmar checkpoints took bribes from his captors and spoke a Chinese dialect he didn’t recognize. Many fraud operations are based in Myanmar’s Kokang region, home to ethnic Chinese. Xu was taken to Laukkai, the regional capital—“like a 1990s Chinese town, with skyscrapers housing scam factories.” As the kidnapped group passed through a village, a child called out, “Another group of Chinese being sold.” “Everyone knows, even the kids,” Xu says.
Xu tells of beatings for underperformance. Cameras were everywhere; windows locked. One man called the police—“Useless,” Xu says, “they’re in on it.” He recalls a Buddha figure at the door—goddess of wealth. “The guard washed blood off his hands before touching her.”
Every day, Xu sent hundreds of messages via WeChat, Facebook, dating platforms—building trust, talking about hopes, relationships, worries. “Sometimes I was a woman, sometimes a man. Most people aren’t after sex—they’re just lonely. Loneliness makes you easier to scam than lust.” Once the victim is hooked, they’re asked for money, led into fake investments, or told they owe fabricated debts. The tactic is known as “pig butchering.”
“If someone asks for proof, we generate AI-faked videos,” says Xu. They steal personal data, using it for blackmail—photos, screenshots, especially nudes.
“You scam them until they’re broke.” Good performers can message family to reassure them. Failures get sold—up to three times. “After that, they cut your stomach open.”
The issue is so massive it’s straining ties between Bangkok and Beijing
A Chinese blockbuster film, “No More Bets,” dramatized the issue. But Xu’s story, backed by chats, receipts, and messages seen by SZ, mirrors many others.
The crisis now strains Thailand–China relations. Tourism-dependent Thailand saw over 11 million Chinese visitors annually pre-COVID; in 2024, six million came. But in early 2025, actor Wang Xing was kidnapped during a casting trip to Bangkok and trafficked to Myanmar’s Myawaddy. His girlfriend’s viral SOS saved him within four days. But by then, Chinese tourists had canceled millions in bookings. Fear spread fast.
Thai police paraded Wang, though emaciated and bald. Yet they’re helpless against such crime—lacking jurisdiction in Myanmar. In February, Thailand’s PM traveled to Beijing to discuss cybercrime and tourist safety with Xi Jinping. Both countries now try to control borders—an impossible task. The terrain is vast and confusing. Even in Beijing, there’s growing awareness that China is part of the problem. A Chinese investigation unit is now stationed in Mae Sot, Thailand, near the Myanmar border.
But the fraud gangs adapt quickly, now operating in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia—Chinese client states, but with fewer security controls. Not all details of Xu’s case can be published. Chinese authorities warn returnees not to speak, especially to foreign media. Videos of survivors are deleted, as is criticism of China’s crisis response. Some returnees are jailed or banned from studying or working. Xu feels the online hate: “Many believe we deserve punishment.”
Xu met fellow victims from Thailand, Vietnam, and Russia who wrote to their families for help—but no government came. “The world looks away,” he says. “I saw people die.”
Xu secretly called a childhood friend, who alerted his family. They ransomed him for 100,000 euros in yuan. His mother sold her house. “I can barely look her in the eyes,” Xu says. “But I’ll pay her back.” He cried only upon seeing her again. “That’s when I knew I was alive.”
