For three weeks, Malaysian Bilce Tan was held hostage and had to scam others to survive. He secretly gathered evidence to expose his captors. Now, he gives CNA Insider the details of life and work in a Cambodian scam compound.
Bilce Tan, 42, is a manufacturing manager who lives and works in Malaysia. This is an edited version of his story, as told to CNA Insider.A Malaysian company was seeking someone to manage a customer service team and develop new business opportunities for the company. The only thing that struck me was that the job was in Cambodia.cases of Malaysians being duped
So why not, I thought? The application process wasn’t easy; I had to pass four rounds of interviews, and the questions asked were related to my managerial experience, such as how I’d deal with employees who lack motivation and how I’d resolve operational issues. But as the driver locked the doors and continued the journey, I felt it was strange that they didn’t seem friendly.
I got mad, but he told me it was precautionary, albeit necessary, because there’d been outsiders who’d brought in drugs. Everything felt strange to me. But since I was already there, I might as well see what the next steps are, I thought.I found out that the green pass meant I was of the lowest rank and couldn’t leave the compound or move around freely. There were other people with different-coloured passes, who were allowed to go out.
It all sounded professional. The word “scam” was never used. But in my heart, I was laughing at him. “You’re just scamming people,” I thought. “Why do you even need to say so much?”I learnt what to do by sitting beside my colleagues and watching what they did. My first task was to transfer money from banks in Singapore, Malaysia and other countries to Cambodia or other overseas banks.
A printout of a scam manual titled “The Fundamentals of Chatting”. Such a manual is typically used to instruct scammers how to groom their victims. All this was done by the IT department, which would send me these things whenever I needed them. You could say my job was basically typing out stuff and forwarding things.This elderly man asked me for video calls, and I’d come up with excuses to avoid making any. I told him I was assigned to work overseas, and the different time zones didn’t work for us.
We’d greet each other, but I didn’t dare say too much because I realised some of the people I’d met were there willingly. They’d been telling me not to take photos and videos, which showed that they had something to hide. That made me all the more determined. But things soon came to a head.On the night I first got here, I was told to text my family to let them know that I’d arrived safely and would contact them again after I received my pay. I wasn’t sure if I was being watched, so I didn’t dare say anything else to them.
I was shocked. How could they have caught me? They slapped me and insisted that I was lying about not calling the police. I was stripped naked, and they took photos and videos. Then they wanted to film me bringing a piece of luggage to a car, hugging everyone and saying goodbye as well as saying hello from the inside. I realised this was so they could claim that I hadn’t been forced to be there.
I lost hope. Every time I went for a meal, I looked round for anyone who could help me escape. But there was no one. People there were scared to die and didn’t have the courage to try escaping.But I didn’t want to stay. I wanted to escape, and eventually I did. Its founder helped me a lot. She introduced me to reporters, I also met some MPs, and we even held a press conference.
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