[News Today] Employment scam in Myanmar

[LEAD]
Employment scams targeting young Koreans are showing no signs of slowing down, especially in Southeast Asia. Earlier this year, Chinese scam syndicates operating in Myanmar were exposed. Now, it's been confirmed that a young Korean man was held captive and forced to take part in a large-scale financial fraud operation. KBS met with the victim.

[REPORT]
This man surnamed Park was notified back in April that he passed the test and can start working for a trade company located in Bangkok.

Upon hearing the news, he immediately headed to Thailand.

Park 0 0 / Victim of employment scam (VOICE MODIFIED)
They said they needed someone who spoke English, so I applied.

But on the first day at work, a vehicle carrying him that was supposed to visit a partner firm instead traveled ten hours to cross the border and arrived at Myawaddy in Myanmar.

This was the home turf of a Chinese scam syndicate.

Park 0 0 / Victim of employment scam (VOICE MODIFIED)
There were barriers all around and the gate was really high. The guards were all holding guns.

With no time to put up a fight or resist, Park lost all his belongings and was immediately trained and put to work for a scam operation.

It was a financial scheme of creating a fake social media account showing a female photo and then approaching Korean men in their 40s and 50s to lure investment.

Park 0 0 / Victim of employment scam (VOICE MODIFIED)
Fluctuations of digital coins could be manipulated. When we sent screenshots, people replied amazed, asking how it was done.

The scheme urged people to increase investment by initially returning a profit of some 20%.

Park 0 0 / Victim of employment scam (VOICE MODIFIED)
Once a larger amount was invested, contact would suddenly stop. Some victims lost KRW 300-400 million, even up to KRW 1 billion.

When the workers fail to secure investment or had poor performance results, they were physically abused.

Park 0 0 / Victim of employment scam (VOICE MODIFIED)
They kick you and beat you with a stick. I was also slapped a lot. I failed to make profit and that was the scariest moment.

Park said he wish he could have done something about it, but it was too late and he blamed himself for falling for the employment scam.

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