Telecom fraudsters cast long shadow

Lucrative offer

Li dropped out of senior high school after his junior year to start work. After taking a number of jobs, he ended up working as a pharmaceutical sales representative at a company in Chongqing, earning about 9,000 yuan per month.

In February 2020, Li met a friend online while playing games. After chatting from time to time for about a month, the man offered Li a lucrative job in northern Myanmar, promising him that he would make at least 50,000 yuan per month. However, he did not give Li any details about the work.

The man also agreed to cover costs for travel and accommodations, and told Li that he could leave at any time if he was not satisfied with the job.

"Lured by the high salary, I accepted the job without thinking carefully about it. I provided my ID card number, bank account details and phone number to the man, who booked flight tickets and a hotel for me," he said.

Following the man's instructions, Li flew to a city in Yunnan province near the border with Myanmar in March 2020.

He was later taken to a shabby flat in the mountains, where he and several others were driven by tractor along remote roads for several hours to evade checkpoints. After walking on mountain paths for more than 10 hours before boarding a dinghy to cross a river, the group entered northern Myanmar and was taken to a company.

Li's personal items were seized on arrival, and he was told he owed the company money for his travel and smuggling fees. He was also told he could not leave unless he paid the money or met the company's income targets. At this point, Li realized he had been cheated and was trapped.

The manager of the company told Li and the others that in China they could never earn the amount of money they could make in a short time with the company, before providing them with details on how to build relationships with their targets and extract money from them.