Indian business executive rescued from Myanmar captivity reveals shocking honey trap scam

BENGALURU: He was held captive along with several other Indians at a sprawling campus in Myawaddy on the Myanmar-Thailand border, where they were allegedly asked to trap at least three Americans on social microblogging platform ‘X’ every day . “We were ordered to forward the chats to our Chinese and Burmese ’employees’ on their WhatsApp and Telegram groups after befriending these Americans, and the former would then defraud them using the details of their chats” , said Jeevan, a business executive from Karnataka and one of them. of four state men who were rescued along with other Indians by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA). The four recently returned to India from Yangon and Bangkok.

These men were tricked into accepting fraudulent marketing jobs in Thailand, but eventually landed in Myanmar, where they were allegedly held captive and forced to entrap foreigners, mostly Americans, using fake profiles of female models. “Chinese men on campus are sharing the X post profiles of some Americans, aged between 45 and 50, with large followings on the microblogging social media platform. They ask us to pretend to be models and celebrities, and to befriend Americans using a script they gave us. Once they felt comfortable with us, we were asked to hand over our conversations to our captors, who would defraud the Americans using the details of the discussions,” he said.

While they were chatting, some “American online friends” requested an audio call. “There were three Russian and Chinese women there, who pretended to be models and were talking to them. If they demanded a video call, they were blocked,” Jeevan said.

Jeevan was twice duped into fraudulent overseas jobs, the first time in August 2022, when he had come across a vacant job posting of a marketing manager in Bangkok on Facebook, with a monthly salary of $1,500. Instead of Thailand, he was taken to Myanmar, but got lucky the first time and escaped thanks to pressure from the Indian and Burmese governments.

Despite a bad experience and sound advice from the MEA on overseas job offers (https://www.emigrate.gov.in), Jeevan once again fell into the trap of a fraudulent job offer in Yangon by an Indian agent in December 2022. “I was taken to the Myawaddi campus and demonstrated with others. That’s when they locked us in rooms without food or water. In March 2023, we staged a massive protest and demanded our return to India. I managed to email MEA, Protector of Emigrants (PoE), Bengaluru and Mandya SP from my mobile phone, to rescue us. The Indian embassy swung into action and helped us, but my Chinese captor demanded 1,10,000 rupees from me to be released. I spoke to my family and they sent the money,” Jeevan said.

He added that there are “hundreds of Indians still stuck on the Myawaddy campus on the Myanmar-Thailand border, forced to submit to Chinese and Burmese crooks.”

Alongside the MEA, the Cybercrime Coordination Center (I4C) pays great attention to controlling organized cybercrime gangs in Southeast Asian countries, including Cambodia, Myanmar and Laos PDR. The Interior Ministry has set up an interministerial committee headed by a senior security official.

(Visit https://www.emigrate.gov.in to check overseas job openings)