Sibu duo recall harrowing tale of falling victim to online job scam

SIBU (Dec 15): Ting, 39, from Sibu, shares a harrowing tale of falling victim to an online job scam orchestrated by human traffickers.

Rescued by the Malaysian government from Myanmar on Dec 1 along with 100 other Malaysian victims, Ting reflects on the ordeal.

“I heard a lot of people fell victim to online and job scams. I thought I would not be one of them. Unfortunately, I was,” he lamented.

He was speaking to reporters at the Lanang Service Centre here today with another victim Yong, accompanied by Lanang MP Alice Lau.

Expressing gratitude for returning unharmed, Ting recounts the brutality he and friend Yong, 36, endured.

“Throughout the ordeal, I was beaten with a PVC hose, while Yong experienced being (electric) shocked. We saw others being beaten badly and they wanted to commit suicide because they could not stand being beaten anymore,” he recalled.

In early August, enticed by an illegal job opportunity in Thailand via Facebook offering RM7,000 to RM8,000 monthly salary, Ting contacted an ‘agent’ through Facebook Messenger and later WhatsApp.

Despite the agent’s claim to be from Sibu and speaking the local Foochow dialect, Ting never met him in person, relying solely on linguistic cues.

“This agent, he said is from Sibu. I trusted him because he is from Sibu, he has Sibu Foochow dialect, and he knows the places in Sibu. I thought he would not cheat us,” he said.

On Aug 22 after making their first passports, Ting and Yong flew to Kuala Lumpur and then to Chiang Mai, with all travel arrangements prepared by the agent.

Ting informed his family he was headed to West Malaysia, while Yong told his family he was going to Thailand.

Arriving in Chiang Mai, they undertook a four-hour car ride to a presumed location in Chiang Rai before spending a night in a hotel.

The next day, they were taken to a residential area and coerced into hiding, later crossing a river into Myanmar in a makeshift bathtub.

“They forced us to hide at one of the residences and closed all the windows and doors.  They told us not to make any noise or the police would come. At the back of the house, there was a river and we had to cross that river to Myanmar.

“They had a bathtub, underneath the bathtub they installed tyres, so the thing was floating on the water and there was a string attached to the bathtub. We sat on the bathtub, and someone pulled the bathtub to the other side of the river,” he said, adding that this all happened during the daytime.

On the other side of the river, they were taken by car with two other Vietnamese, believed to be human trafficking victims as well, to a location before the two of them were told to ride in another vehicle.

“I think the whole journey took about four days. I was worried that they would bring us to Golden Triangle, but we were brought to Laukkaing Myanmar,” said Ting.

Once they arrived at a location, they were bought by an unknown Chinese man for Chinese Yuan Renminbi (RMB) 80,000 each, before being locked in a room.

Their passports and MyKad were also taken from them.

“We met a woman from Sibu. We know that she is from Sibu because she heard us speaking in Foochow and asked us if we were from Sibu,” he said, adding that no one knows what actually happened to that woman now.

“Next day, they brought us to meet an agent of a company but were rejected because we were from Malaysia. Then we were taken to another company and we were hired,” he said.

They were told to get to work in an office building with the business of scamming people.

In their “employment” contract, they must reach a target of RMB15 million within two years, scamming people in China.

“We spent two weeks studying their system and their scamming business, but we were too slow and we could not start our work yet.

“From what we learned, their scamming method is more like an investment and their mode of communication is WeChat and QQ to name a few for China, while for overseas it is more to bitcoin,” he said.

There was nothing they could do, said Ting, as they were being closely watched at all times.

“If we expose them or lodge a police report or we try to run away, we will lose our lives.  Because we were too slow and could not learn anything, thus they felt we were of no use to them.

“So, they allowed us to go home but we need to pay RMB200,000 compensation to the employer. If not, each of us had to cheat three people to go there in exchange for our release.

“We nodded, but we could not cheat three people and ended up like us. So, I thought, that was it, I even called my family and said that we might not be able to see each other anymore,” he said.

Sold to another Chinese syndicate for RMB130,000, they were later sold again for RMB180,000 due to the Chinese authorities cracking down on the syndicate. After a month in China, they were rescued by the Malaysian government on Dec 1, 2023.

“We revealed everything to the police in China and (they) asked us whether we cheated anyone in the process. We said we have not cheated anyone yet because we were still studying their operation,” he said.

Reflecting on the ordeal, Ting emphasised the importance of caution and urged the public not to trust lucrative online job offers.

Lau meanwhile echoed the sentiment, highlighting the rise in scams and the need for vigilance, especially in the era of artificial intelligence (AI).

“There are just too many scam cases in recent years. I know there are cases like one in Korea, but the victim was convicted of a crime and is now serving a jail sentence. The parents had been notified, but he is okay, that is the most important thing.

“Some of the victims did not want to come back, for whatever reasons, I do not know, and some we do not know where they are now and we cannot find them,” she said.

Lau urged people to consult with family before making decisions involving unfamiliar job opportunities and cautioned against accepting illegal jobs online.