Rip-off Factories is a podcast collection from The Dialog Weekly taking you inside Southeast Asia’s brutal fraud compounds. It accompanies a collection of articles on The Dialog.

Tons of of 1000’s of individuals are estimated to work in these rip-off compounds. Many have been trafficked there after which compelled into criminality by defrauding folks world wide through e mail, cellphone and social media.

The Dialog collaborated for this collection with three researchers: Ivan Franceschini, a lecturer in Chinese language Research on the College of Melbourne, Ling Li, a PhD candidate at Ca’ Foscari College of Venice, and Mark Bo, an impartial researcher. They’ve spent the previous few years researching the growth of rip-off compounds within the area for a forthcoming guide. They’ve interviewed almost 100 survivors of those compounds, analysed maps and monetary paperwork associated to the rip-off business, and tracked scammers on-line to learn how these operations work.

On this first episode of the podcast collection, No Abilities Required, we learn how individuals are recruited and trafficked into the compounds – with many believing they’re going there to do a respectable job.

Our researchers journey to a village in Cambodia, Chrey Thom, to see what these compounds seem like. And we hear from two survivors, a Ugandan man we’re calling George and a Malaysian lady we’re calling Lee to guard their actual identities, about how they have been tricked into travelling to compounds in Laos and Myanmar.

You’ll be able to learn the multimedia article accompanying this episode right here:

‘We may hear the screams till midnight’: life inside Southeast Asia’s brutal fraud compounds

Folks across the globe are swindled out of billions of {dollars} a yr in scams. The scammers, although, are generally victims, too. Many are sometimes duped into jobs, then trapped in compounds and subjected to unspeakable violence.

The Dialog contacted all the businesses talked about on this collection for a remark, besides Jinshui, which we couldn’t contact. We didn’t obtain a response from any of them.

This episode was written and produced by Gemma Ware, with help from Mend Mariwany and Katie Flood. Leila Goldstein was our producer in Cambodia and Halima Athumani recorded for us in Uganda. Hui Lin helped us with Chinese language translation. Sound design by Michelle Macklem and enhancing assist from Ashlynee McGhee and Justin Bergman.

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