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Slavery dressed as a sales floor
The job offer
The engineer, who asked to be called Red Bull, was a computer engineer with a diploma from an Indian university and an offer for what he thought was an IT manager job in Southeast Asia. He was told to fly to Thailand and cross the border into the Golden Triangle region of Laos, a special economic zone largely controlled by Chinese business interests and, it turned out, Chinese criminal organizations. At the compound, his passport was confiscated, and he was told the only way to get it back was to buy it back.
The debt trap
His captors told him he owed thousands of dollars for the cost of getting him there and for his room and board, and that he could pay it off only by scamming victims and earning a commission. The bosses promised that anyone motivated enough to run big scams could go home to their village with money. In practice, he and his coworkers were fined constantly for missing their outreach quotas and for not arriving to work exactly on time. He ate cafeteria rice and vegetables that tasted of strange chemicals, and he felt sick all the time.
The sales floor
The place was dressed up as a corporate sales floor, with a mission statement to match. Each day the bosses sent inspirational messages telling the workers to reach out to the next customer as if they were about to change that person's life, and to act like they had something of value.
Why do compounds confiscate workers' passports?
Without a passport, a foreign worker cannot legally cross borders, rent housing, or easily approach the authorities. Holding identity documents also gives the employer a bargaining chip, since the worker must pay or comply to get them back. The International Labour Organization lists retention of identity documents among its indicators of forced labour.
How does debt bondage keep workers from leaving?
The debt is set by the employer, who can inflate it with fees for travel, housing, food, and fines, so it grows faster than the worker can pay it down. Because the worker is told they owe money, leaving feels like a theft rather than an escape. The International Labour Organization estimated in its 2022 global report that 27.6 million people were in forced labour in 2021.
Why do scam bosses send motivational messages?
Scam operations are organized much like sales departments. Reports from the UN Office on Drugs and Crime describe scam centers run with team leaders, scripts, performance targets, and bonuses, much like legitimate call centers. Motivational language fits that structure, because quotas are easier to enforce when workers are told they are professionals chasing a goal.
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