“We were tased, locked in cages.” What M’sian job scam victims faced overseas

Recently, 24 Malaysian job scam victims in Cambodia were rescued and returned to Malaysia by Foreign Minister, Saifuddin Abdullah. However, this raised further concerns because there are an estimated 1,000 Malaysian victims who are still stuck overseas.

These scams work by offering high salaries and other attractive perks, with victims being forced to work against their will or trafficked into neighboring countries once they’ve arrived into the clutches of the syndicate. In short, that overseas dream job would soon become a living nightmare.

But if you thought the trafficking and forcing to work was bad enough, it actually gets much worse; with stories of beatings, deaths, and human cattle-like conditions coming to light…

 

A 20-year-old Melaka waiter claims he was pushed off a third-floor balcony 

After refusing to take part in a love scam in Myanmar, Seah claimed he was tortured for days before finally being pushed off a balcony. He described the entire ordeal in this video, but here’s an except:

“I told them that I don’t like it and I don’t want to take parts in scams. I just want to go home. Then I was beaten up for three or four days in a row (with a baseball bat). One day they came in my room to beat me up again. I blocked the attacks and ended up at the balcony, and they asked me, “Would you believe I’ll just push you off from here?” I continued to block and they just pushed me.” – Seah, during a press conference at Wisma MCA, transcribed by CILISOS

Seah is among the lucky ones as his family and friends managed to raise the RM70,000 ransom required for him to be sent back home. Another Malaysian in Myanmar, however, wasn’t so lucky.

 

An Ipoh couple learnt their son died in a hospital, under a fake name

No one truly knows what happened to Zhan Feng, a 23-year old from Ipoh after he left to visit an online friend in Bangkok in January 2022. But after missing his mother’s birthday and phoning home to say he needed RM80k for hospital bills, his parents had reason to believe their son fell victim to a job scam.

Traveling to Bangkok in May searching for their son, they found that Zhan Feng had died in a hospital located in Mae Sot, a Thai town bordering Myanmar. He was admitted to the ICU under a fake name and passport number, passing away on May 11 after a month without any further medical treatment due to the fake identity. The doctor also informed his parents that he believed Zhan Feng was abused before being left at the hospital. 

To make matters worse, the couple were informed that they had to settle the outstanding hospital bill of RM40,000 in order to obtain a proper death certificate and cremate the body for burial in Malaysia. Thankfully, they managed to fundraise RM50,000 from the public in less than a day.

 

We briefly spoke to a victim who claims they were tased in Cambodia

A friend of a friend to one of our writers briefly shared his experience in Cambodia, before being rescued. He’s currently recovering from the ordeal and hasn’t decided whether he’s ready for a full interview, but here’s a snippet of what he shared on Whatsapp:

“They are not guards, they are more than that. They aren’t army also, but they have guns so you can’t even run. If you run, they’ll shoot you. And inside, they are crazy. If you got no value, you’re f*cked up, they’ll sell you. Human trafficking, they will sell you. Sell your organs all.

And within a month, if you don’t have any sales, they will use the electric shock thing [electric shock baton] to hurt you. It is so f*cked up.” – Anonymous.

He also added that, to his understanding, the situation in Myanmar is much worse than in Cambodia.

 

Some victims would rather not come home

While it sounds like every Malaysian that’s fallen for these job scams are helpless and awaiting rescue, Malaysian Ambassador to Cambodia Eldeen Husaini Mohd Hashim revealed a different side to the story to The Star – that some refused the rescue attempts. 

“We have rescued many but many also don’t want to go back to Malaysia. Some of them ran away from home, some ran away from ah long.” – Eldeen Husaini Mohd Hashim, as quoted by The Star

In the same report, he added that, out of desperation, parents of runaway children mislead the authorities by reporting that they were kidnapped and forced to work against their will; but the children refused to go back once they were located.

So maybe the issue isn’t as straightforward as it may seem because people go through different circumstances in life. But still, if you’re looking to live that expat life, just remember to be extra careful when a job offer sounds a little too good to be true.