0:00 There is a modern-day epidemic happening all across Southeast Asia, and it's affecting us far more than people 0:05 realize, right the way through to murder. This isn't an epidemic built on disease or famine or virus, but on human 0:13 deception instead. and it has claimed the lives of thousands of people including Vera Craftsova. Found deep in 0:20 the forests and mountains of Myanmar and its neighboring countries, a vast and rapidly expanding network of scam 0:27 compounds, cyber fraud prisons, and human trafficking hubs have swallowed not tens but hundreds of thousands of 0:34 victims. These are the places where people are lured by job offers and relationships that appear to be 0:40 legitimate only to then be abducted, sold, and coerced and to work under the constant threat of torture. And behind 0:47 the glossy promise of online opportunities, there is a much darker truth going on and one that is rarely 0:53 acknowledged. Inside of these compounds, the death toll is believed to be staggeringly high and almost certainly 1:00 far higher than any government is willing to publicly admit. And the reality is that these are not isolated 1:07 crimes either because this is an industry that is worth billions of dollars. One that is fueled by global 1:14 victims, Western targets, and an endless supply of people who are desperate for 1:19 work. And as these scam compounds and operations grow in size, well, so too 1:25 does their need for new workers. As a result, recruitment scams have exploded, 1:30 posing as tech firms, marketing agencies, tourism companies, and even young women on Telegram, which I'm not 1:37 sure about you, but is something that I receive on a literal daily basis. And 1:42 all of this is precisely how a bright, ambitious, and hopeful 22-year-old woman 1:47 named Vercraft Sova found herself boarding a flight to Thailand for what she thought was a dream opportunity. But 1:55 unfortunately, as you may have clocked by now, it wasn't. And tragically, she 2:00 would never be seen alive again. You see, Vera told her family that she would be safe in Thailand, and she told her 2:07 friends that she would be back home soon. But instead, the job that she was traveling for did not actually exist. 2:14 The company wasn't actually real. And the moment that she landed, she was pulled into the same trap that thousands 2:20 of other people had already fallen for. An underground world that was ruled by 2:26 violence, gangs, coercion, and fear. For Vera, it would end in death. But her 2:31 story reveals something far larger that I'd like to talk about today, and a crisis that is happening right now in 2:38 the shadows of Southeast Asia. Welcome, or welcome back to Coffee House Crime, folks. My name is Adrian and today we're 2:43 traveling to Myanmar and its surrounding countries to uncover the terrible truths about their scam presence. By the way, 2:50 Americans pronounce it as Myanmar and Europeans as Myanmar. So, depending on where you are in the world, sorry. The 2:55 other day, I received yet another message on Telegram from a seemingly attractive woman who claimed to know me. 3:01 And it got me wondering where are all these random messages coming from and why? Now, it was quite obvious that I 3:07 was very likely being scammed. But when I realized that this could be part of a secret scamming compound in Myanmar, I 3:13 decided to let it happen. And the deeper that I looked into this scamming compound, the more I realized how often 3:19 it actually bleeds into homicide. And that is when I learned about the case of Vera Craft Solver. So, let's talk about 3:25 Vera's case, then dive into the world of scamming compounds, and then check out how my scammer did against me. So, we're 3:32 veering into slightly new territory here. But if you like true crime, strange, and dark stories, then please 3:37 consider subscribing to Coffee House Crime. Thank you. And now, with that said, please grab yourself a coffee and 3:43 let's begin. This is the case of Vera Crafts. 3:56 Welcome to Bellarus, folks. A country that many people actually struggle to picture. Nestled between Russia, Poland, 4:03 Lithuania, and Ukraine, it's a place that is defined by its dense forests, villages where time seems to slow down, 4:10 and cities that still hold on to its old Soviet architecture. The country is technically considered as Europe's last 4:17 dictatorship and a nation where free speech seems to be a luxury rather than anything else. Elections here are more 4:24 of a performance than an opportunity, and the state likes to pretend that it's best friends with Russia. But politics 4:31 aside, Bellarus is actually beautiful. Winters blanket the land with thick 4:36 white snow. Rural wooden homes hold a cuteness about them. And the food here is rich, rustic, and unapologetically 4:44 comforting. It's the kind of food that you can quite literally feel in your chest. Think of potatoes, mushrooms, 4:51 slow-cooked stews, thick rye breads, and draaniki that is fried so golden that 4:57 they practically glow. Okay, I'm getting a little bit hungry now. Which rather 5:02 conveniently brings us to our sponsor today. Come on, you knew it was going to happen, didn't you? While most of us 5:07 aren't packing our bags for a holiday anytime soon, we are all always looking for new ways to make our life a little 5:13 more delicious. And that's precisely where HelloFresh steps in. If you haven't heard of them yet, HelloFresh is 5:19 America's number one meal kit. And with over 1 billion meals delivered, that is a welldeserved title. Now, personally, I 5:26 use HelloFresh as a healthy way to make good food quickly because most recipes take 30 minutes or less. And of course, 5:32 that's faster than waiting for delivery. 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The offer is valid while supplies last, and my 7:13 link above will automatically opt you into HelloFresh's best active offer if redeeming after the activation window. 7:19 Thank you again to HelloFresh for sponsoring today's video. Go to hellofresh.com and use the code copyhouse hfzwl. And now, let's get 7:26 straight back to our investigation today. The food here really is great, but beneath that surface, life can be 7:34 extraordinarily difficult. The wages are low, the opportunities are scarce, and 7:39 many young people like Vera Sova dream of taking their skills somewhere brighter, somewhere that they can build 7:46 a future, live freely, or simply just escape the systems monotony. If you scroll back far enough on Vera's 7:52 Instagram feed and past all of the travel photos, music clips, and selfies, you will find an average girl who was 7:59 growing up in Minsk, Belarus. Born on New Year's Eve in 1998, Vera grew up 8:05 loving art in all of its forms. She enjoyed singing, instruments, music school, and basically anything that 8:12 involved creativity. She was expressive, colorful, and always dreamed for 8:17 something bigger. And friends and family describe her as someone who always had a song on her lips. So quite 8:23 understandably, Vera found Bellarus to be a little too small for comfort. It 8:29 was quiet, dated, and far away from the future that she wanted. And so, being 8:34 someone in her early 20s, she decided to make the move to St. Petersburg. That of course being a cultural hot spot where 8:41 many artists, especially from Bellarus and Russia, seemed to travel to. It was while she was here that she continued 8:47 with her music, experimented with her style, and would even find a small pocket of fame. And that's because in 8:54 that moment she would appear on the Bellarusian version of The Voice, a moment that would give her a brief 9:00 flicker of popularity. Now for an Instagrammer like her, she enjoyed this attention and it did seem to light a 9:06 small spark in her too because from that moment onwards, Vera no longer wanted 9:12 just her career. She wanted reach and influence and a life that extended 9:17 online. By her mid20ies, Vera had now started to jump around Asia. She mostly 9:22 traveled around Vietnam, China, and Indonesia, where she built this very cool hybrid lifestyle that seemed to 9:29 suit her needs perfectly. As an English teacher by day, she was a club singer by 9:34 night. And in between those moments, would create content. Her Instagram profile, which is still up to this day, 9:41 even shows snippets of this lifestyle. You have a beach at sunset in Daang, mirror selfies in tiny apartments and 9:49 backstage clips from neon lit karaoke bars. Her profile was not merely just a 9:54 diary. It was her life and one that many people found extraordinarily fascinating. All of those who knew her 10:01 say the exact same thing. That Vera was independent, adventurous, and very ambitious for her age. And she believed 10:08 that something bigger was waiting out there for her. And at the age of 26, she was finally starting to find it. I mean, 10:14 seriously, who else can call themselves a model, singer, traveler, and influencer? So, when a new opportunity 10:20 landed in her DMs, which was advertised as a glamorous modeling project abroad, and the kind that promised exposure, 10:26 travel, and the next step up in her career, well, you could say that Vera was a little excited about that. 10:32 However, what she didn't know at the time was that this dream was not actually a gateway to fame at all. 10:38 Instead, it was the beginning of a nightmare that she would never escape. 10:45 The offer was exactly what she was hoping for, a part-time modeling contract in Bangkok with good pay, a 10:51 flexible schedule, professional shoots, and a genuine foot in the door. And for someone like Vera, this wasn't merely 10:58 just a job, but validation, too. It was quite literally living proof that the world was now finally beginning to 11:05 notice her. After receiving the offer, Vera wasn't quiet about it either. Her friends often highlighted that she would 11:11 always light up when talking about Thailand and that she shared her excitement online by posting hints that 11:17 something exciting was coming soon. And so, after spending a while with her family and friends, it was finally time 11:23 for Vera to pack her bags, give them one final kiss goodbye, and then board her flight to Thailand on September 12th, 11:31 2025. And after a long flight, Vera finally landed in Bangkok. Now, 11:36 initially, she believed that the first few days would be filled with photooots, signings, and the start of her new 11:43 career. However, almost immediately, something felt off about the situation, 11:49 especially when she found herself in a dark and dingy hotel and was told that she'd be flying to another country 11:55 before any official work would begin. The contract never seemed to materialize, either. And as for those 12:02 promised shoots, well, they too never appeared. And within days of her landing 12:07 in Bangkok, the entire facade that was sold to her slowly began to crumble. It 12:12 slowly became apparent that whatever she'd been invited to was not actually a modeling job after all, but it was bait. 12:20 It was around September the 20th that high authorities believed that Vera had been persuaded to cross the border into 12:26 Myanmar. Maybe at the time she had no way of knowing it, but that opportunity that lured her to Thailand and then 12:33 Myanmar was actually a trap from the very beginning. Now, of course, this is nothing new. For many years, criminal 12:40 networks have been targeting young travelers with jobs that look perfect behind a screen, and these are usually 12:46 in the form of modeling gigs, tech roles, online marketing, or even crypto. However, the reality in the end is very 12:54 different. Instead of these travelers finding themselves in the role that they were initially promised, they instead 13:00 are tied up, abducted, and then put straight into captivity. We're going to talk about this a little bit more later 13:07 on, but for now, it is just worth saying that obviously this is a genuinely 13:12 terrifying situation to find yourself in. And the terrifying thing is that it's believed to be happening to 13:18 thousands of people right this very second. And as for Vera, well, she was 13:24 one of those to fall for it. Again, this is something that we'll discuss more later on, but Myanmar has seen a very 13:31 distinct shift in power and corruption in recent years. And once inside of Myanmar's borders, which is known as the 13:38 epicenter for these scam compounds, you are sadly at a much higher risk of coercion, forced labor, torture, and 13:46 even death. Vera's freedom vanished instantly. Not 13:51 only was her passport and mobile phone confiscated, but communication with the outside world was cut off, and she was 13:58 under constant surveillance. And as for the work, well, they weaponized her own appearance against her. Vera was likely 14:05 forced to pose message and flirt with rich men online, manipulating them emotionally to funnel money back to the 14:11 gang that held her captive, which of course is a gross and immoral way of living and is the exact opposite of what 14:17 she had ever wanted to do. Vera was talented, creative, and very skilled, and she knew that she could make money 14:23 that way. But instead, she was now in a locked room exploiting other people. In those first few days, she surely must 14:30 have believed that she could escape and that other people would notice she'd gone silent. And the truth is, they did. 14:36 Not only her family and friends, but her followers online, too. And they all began to worry. But the thing is that 14:42 Vera was untraceable. In fact, she wasn't even in the same country that she was supposed to be in anymore. And by 14:49 the time that people could connect the dots, well, unfortunately, it was all too late. For a while, nobody knew that 14:56 anything was wrong. Whether in the meantime she was actually the one to be messaging her family and friends, we may 15:02 never know. But it was on October the 4th of 2025 that her phone immediately 15:07 fell silent. After that date, there were no more replies, no answers to any phone 15:13 calls and no new posts or replies on any of her social media. It was just a 15:18 sudden and very apparent silence. Now, at first, her family did try to 15:24 rationalize it. Maybe she had bad signal, or maybe there was no Wi-Fi, or 15:30 maybe her schedule just meant that she was busy. But as the day stretched on, that concern changed into anxiety, fear, 15:37 and dread. And by October the 9th, that being 5 days since anyone had last heard 15:42 from her, her mother could no longer bear the silence. And that is when she filed an urgent request for help, and 15:49 begged the authorities to find her. For multiple weeks, nobody knew where she had gone to. She had just simply 15:56 suddenly disappeared. And during that time, Thai authorities were not too helpful either. In fact, after learning 16:02 that she had left the country, they seemed to be more concerned about shifting the blame onto Myanmar instead. 16:09 By now, they were able to determine that she had left the country on September the 20th, with this surveillance image 16:15 being taken from a self-service immigration channel in Bangkok's main airport. The authorities claimed that 16:21 this image shows that there were no signs of coercion. However, what we don't know is that if maybe she was 16:27 perhaps persuaded or even indirectly forced to board that flight. Either way, 16:33 this image along with her recorded biometric data confirms that she had in fact left Thailand to travel to Myanmar 16:40 8 days after arriving in Bangkok. And it's shortly after this moment that she then suddenly vanished. And tragically, 16:48 at the end of all of that silence was a horrifying letter that was addressed to her family. That is when a criminal 16:54 group reached out to Vera's family, not only claiming that she was dead, but also that if they wanted to see her 17:01 body, they would have to pay a ransom of $500,000. I mean, imagine getting that letter as a 17:08 parent. That must have felt so painful. Now, at first, the Thai authorities believed that maybe all of this was just 17:15 a lie, or maybe it was just another cruel scam. They would even try to negotiate with the crime group on behalf 17:21 of her family, praying that Vera might still be alive. And of course, while 17:27 they waited, the news of her sudden disappearance then began to spread like wildfire across the border. Within days, 17:34 this story had become international with headlines erupting all across social media. Some claimed that she had been 17:40 tortured, others that her organs had been harvested, and some claims would even say that she had been enslaved in a 17:47 jungle compound. And while all of these rumors were both twisted and multiplied, which muddied the waters even further, 17:54 the tragic truth is that all of them were technically correct. And for Vera's 17:59 family, who were hanging between hope and dread and drowning in all of those rumors, those weeks were absolute agony. 18:06 With Vera's trail ending at the border, Thai officials handed the case over to Bellarusian diplomats and warned 18:13 travelers to be cautious of job offers coming from overseas. And that is when Myanmar authorities stepped in with a 18:19 horrific report. I've gone ahead and translated it for you, but the report reads, "This is confirmation that the 18:26 death is real." Veraucratsova, a 27-year-old citizen of the Republic of 18:31 Bellarus, who worked in Myanmar in the village of Flu and held passport number 18:36 redacted, died of cardiac arrest on October the 15th, 2025 at 1:20 p.m. Her 18:43 body was then cremated in the proper manner at the crerematorium in the village of Incan on October 16th, 2025 18:50 at noon. Signed, administration of the village of Flu, Miadi Township. Of 18:56 course, this was the most heartbreaking thing that Vera's family could have received. But their pain did not end 19:02 there. Instead, it also brought so much more anger and frustration. I mean, not 19:07 only did it claim that a perfectly healthy young woman had died, apparently of a heart attack, but that she had also 19:14 been cremated, therefore erasing any possibility for an autopsy. To Vera's family, this made no sense whatsoever. 19:21 She was only 26 years old and perfectly healthy. Yet now, her body had been 19:27 entirely erased before anyone was even notified. And the truth is that while 19:32 diplomats and detectives were busy digging deeper, a darker and far more believable story had already started 19:39 forming. It was around that time that they found credible information to suggest that Vera had been taken to a 19:46 scam compound in Myanmar's Cayan state. that being an area that is notorious for 19:51 guarded scam prisons. Witness accounts also suggested that she had been beaten, 19:56 overworked, and even tortured when she failed to meet extortionate quotas, with 20:01 some reports even alleging that her capttors had dismembered her body to sell her organs on the black market. 20:09 By late October, Bellarisian officials confirmed that Vera was tragically gone. What began as a journey towards a 20:15 brighter future would sadly lead Vera into one of Southeast Asia's darkest criminal networks and a place where 20:22 dreams are leveraged into forced labor and profit. And although her story is tragic enough as it is already, it 20:28 unfortunately is all too common. In fact, it helped expose a far wider horror going on right now in Myanmar. 20:36 And of course, I'm talking about the scam compounds. So, let's dig a little 20:41 bit deeper here because on the surface, these compounds do look like office parks, casino resorts, or gated 20:48 apartment complexes. But in reality, the fact of the matter is that they are essentially prisons. And inside of these 20:55 so-called gated communities, thousands of people work around the clock sending fake love messages, investment pitches, 21:03 and job opportunities to unsuspecting victims worldwide. And again, I have to 21:08 stress here that these workers behind the screens are not willing employees, but instead are captives who are trapped 21:15 into modern-day slavery. To rephrase again, the way that they manage this scheme is surprisingly straightforward. 21:22 All these upper end gang members have to do is bait people who are looking for a job, promise them a high salary and free 21:29 accommodation, and then boom, many people across all walks of life are desperate enough to fall for it. For 21:36 example, a young woman in Thailand might see a Facebook ad for a well-paid admin position with a free bedroom in a 21:42 resort. And a recent graduate in India might get a WhatsApp message offering a role in tech support with an overseas 21:49 company that requires no experience and has all flights covered. Both of these 21:54 examples are similar to Vera's story, who was an influencer and singer who was desperate to get her foot in the door. 22:01 When they arrive in the same or neighboring country, they are then shuttled between isolated guest houses, 22:07 handed over to black market agents and then finally herded onto a boat at 22:12 gunpoint. So why have these scam compounds spread so rapidly across 22:17 Southeast Asia? It is actually down to the perfect storm of geography, economics, and sheer lawlessness of a 22:24 few countries. Most of them are on the borders in Cambodia, Myanmar, and Laos 22:30 with smaller pockets found scattered throughout the Philippines. And this problem has propagated in each country 22:36 for its own different reasons. For example, it was in 2019 that Cambodia 22:41 banned online gambling. Changing that one single policy, which was huge in the country, flipped an entire underground 22:48 economy on its head. And Chinese syndicates that had been running online casinos had suddenly found themselves 22:54 out of business. But instead of shutting down and walking away from this rather dodgy industry, they decided to pivot to 23:02 online scams. As for Myanmar, well, that story is both quite similar and 23:07 drastically different. Thailand's deputy director in technology and cyber crime 23:12 raised a very good point in this, highlighting that Myanmar lacks political stability ever since its coupe 23:19 four years ago. In fact, funnily enough, a small-time influencer unknowingly captured the very moment that the 23:25 military coup happened right behind her, all while she continued to record her fitness routine in the foreground. With 23:32 the collapse of a central government, a lot of Myanmar's ethnic minorities now govern themselves instead. So, a lot of 23:39 Chinese gangs have since taken the opportunity to move over and exploit this gap in power. Just a quick note 23:45 here, but most of their victims are actually Chinese citizens themselves, and there is no specific target against 23:52 the West or any other specific country apart from themselves. In Cambodia, 23:57 investigators have identified at least 50 scam compounds across the country. Many of them are old casinos, hotels, or 24:05 abandoned factories, which are all quietly leased by Chinese gangs and partially ignored. The problem is that 24:12 money talks loudly in struggling economies. And all of these operations pump millions of dollars of cash into 24:19 the region. The deeper that you look into these scam 24:24 compounds, there is one thing that is obvious that no country is dealing with this alone because this is a crossber 24:31 machine. It also means that no single country can actually take full accountability here and that also means 24:37 that no country is bothered about doing anything about it. Take Thailand for example. There are no compounds that 24:43 actually exist in that country. But it is seen as a soft launching pad for other less developed countries because 24:49 Thailand is generally perceived as a safer country. And so what they do is often lure people to that place instead. 24:56 And when they least expect it, that is when they're abducted and taken across the border by river. And once you're 25:02 inside, the operations become even more complex because these gangs are organized and know how to avoid 25:08 detection. They even bribe local authorities to turn a blind eye because they know it's kind of good for the 25:15 economy. And unless you're being hunted by Coffeezilla, crypto mostly keeps transactions nameless with the entire 25:22 process designed to be as opaque as possible. Inside, armed guards normally 25:27 patrol the perimeter walls, which are usually covered with barbed wire. And if that's not enough already, cameras are 25:34 scattered throughout the compound. The entire place feels kind of like a cross between a tech startup and a maximum 25:40 security prison, except there is no aircon and you are violently attacked if you fail to meet your quotota. Every 25:47 quote employee here is assigned a specialty. Some may provide job offers where they are seeking more employees 25:54 into the compound where others run romance scams where they seek money from their victims. This is actually the one 26:01 that I was targeted with by a so-called Amy Lee. And as soon as they felt like they got somewhere, they then siphoned 26:07 me to a second Telegram account. They do this because they are actually transferring me from one employee to 26:14 another, essentially being moved from a head hunter to a seasoned scam artist. Now, in the scamming industry, this is 26:21 known as pig butchering, where scammers are essentially grooming people online by building trust and then convincing 26:27 them to send or invest their financial savings in one way or another. The tactics are quite limitless here, where 26:34 scripts are written in advance, methods are tested in real time, and if one scam 26:39 fails, another takes its place. As for scam prison schedules, from what we know, they are brutal. 16-hour shifts 26:47 are standard here with 7 days a week on the clock and barely any breaks. Meals are sparse, sleep is overcrowded, and 26:54 new arrivals are often handcuffed for days. And if you refuse to work, well, 26:59 then you are beaten by other inmates who are often forced to do it. Many of the 27:04 captives who have been lucky enough to escape these prisons have openly reported being tasered, beaten with 27:10 crowbars, and even shocked using shock collars. And no surprise, the medical 27:15 care here is basically non-existent, especially if it's after a beating. And 27:21 in many of these cases, even if you are allowed to be released back into the outside world, they will only let you go 27:28 once all of your bruises have faded. Things get much more severe, too. As we 27:33 know, many people die here in these places. Things get out of hand. Some are 27:38 sexually abused and some are even used in the black market for organ harvesting. It genuinely is a absolutely 27:46 horrible place to be, especially if you're a woman. The psychological fear and pressure is its own form of torture, 27:53 too. I mean, imagine spending 16 hours a day betraying strangers online, knowing 27:58 that if you slow down, someone will hit you. In fact, after a while, many of these captives even feel like they 28:05 deserve their punishment for the pain that they are inflicting onto their scam targets. These captives stop sleeping. 28:12 Some stop eating, and some even start planning ways to end their own suffering. For many women and some men, 28:19 the nightmare goes even deeper here. And that's because several of these compounds double up as hubs for sexual 28:25 exploitation, where they force people into prostitution or adult content creation. 28:30 [Music] The scale of this crisis is almost impossible to comprehend and the truth 28:36 is that we don't actually know how many have fallen victim to this industry or how many are in there right now. But 28:42 what we can confidently say is that the numbers are not in the thousands but in the hundreds of thousands and these 28:49 prisoners are mostly Southeast Asian. And of course the truth is that for every prisoner on the inside there are 28:55 several other victims on the outside that could have fallen victim to this scam. I mean, I too could have been one 29:00 if I wasn't careful. On that note, I'm curious now. Have you ever received a message on WhatsApp or Telegram or 29:06 otherwise that likely was dodgy. Please share your experiences down below. By the way, many have died trying to escape 29:13 their prisons. While some have jumped from high floors, others have drowned while trying to swim across rivers. And 29:19 apparently, there have even been reports of landmines being used. And on the inside, there is malnutrition, untreated 29:26 illness, and routine violence. and human rights groups believe that the numbers are vastly under reportported 29:33 by the sheer numbers alone here. This has to be one of the largest trafficking and slavery crises of the 21st century. 29:41 And the insane thing here is that all of this emerged in barely 5 years. Hundreds 29:46 of thousands of young people from Asia, Africa, and even from Western countries are all vanishing into scam compounds 29:54 which are designed for fraud. It is unbelievable to think that all of this sounds like some kind of offshoot from 30:00 the Squid Games. But the terrifying thing is it's not actually fiction. All of this is happening right now. And the 30:07 cost isn't measured merely in dollars, but in actual human lives, too. So, 30:12 there is a slight slither of hope here because in the last few years, raids and 30:17 rescues have finally dragged this industry into the spotlight. However, at the same time, despite talking about 30:24 this to many of my family and friends while researching this story, not a single one of them was aware that this 30:30 entire industry existed. To share a slightly hopeful story, one of the 30:35 biggest bus stops came earlier this year where Myanmar's military stormed scam hubs found in Miaadi. The infamous fraud 30:43 gang KK Park was blown apart in this operation where thousands of captives were reportedly freed and hundreds of 30:50 gang members were arrested. It is actually mindblowing if you research this online. There are many photos and 30:56 videos of frail survivors, entire fields filled with gang computers, and rows 31:02 upon rows of buildings that look more like barracks than anything else. And the terrifying thing here is that there 31:08 are dozens of these compounds all along the Thai border and this is just one of them. Cambodia 2 has recently began to 31:16 crack down with raids in Cen Oakville and Phenom Pen uncovering buildings packed with terrified foreigners. But 31:22 sadly, as you can likely imagine, corruption runs deep here. Many activists and organizations warn that 31:29 the real owners of these compounds still remain untouched. They just simply grab a few of their top dogs, set up a new 31:36 facility somewhere else, and the cycle then repeats itself. Now, thankfully, beyond the local forces, the world is 31:43 now finally waking up to this. Interpol has since issued its own global alert, 31:48 and crossber police operations have freed thousands of people. Many outraged nations like South Korea have since 31:55 started sending special forces directly into Cambodia. Of course, in an effort to help track and rescue their own 32:02 citizens. In parallel to this, the US has issued indictments and sanctions, Europe has frozen assets, and even 32:09 China, whose nationals are both victims and offenders, has started arresting anyone who is connected to these 32:16 compounds. Although all of these are positive signs, the fight against this huge dark systemic issue is still next 32:23 to futile. And not enough is being done to prevent this issue from happening further. And not enough punishment is 32:30 being dished out to all of those who are responsible at the top. And until the day arrives where we stand with enough 32:36 pressure, awareness, and force back against these people, the scam compounds will continue to trap, berate, torture, 32:43 abuse, and even murder thousands of victims. 32:51 So the next time you receive a message that looks like a scam, ask yourself something. Who really is behind that 32:57 screen? Normally, we feel repulsion towards whoever it may be, but the truth is it could actually be someone who is 33:04 forced to work against their will. I guess for now, all we can do is report on what we find and hope that things get 33:11 better in the future. Anyway, folks, that's the end of the video for me today. It's kind of funny how this one started with just one message from 33:17 Telegram. On that note, let me know what you think about this one and this slightly different investigation. As 33:23 always, thank you so much for being here today. I really do appreciate it. And thank you to HelloFresh for sponsoring 33:28 today's video. If you'd like to use my code, go to hellofresh.com and use the code coffee househ 33:35 or click the link in the description below. And it's time for Nero to say hi as well. Here you go, mate. Oh, some 33:40 chicken. Do you want that? Oh, you dropped it. Here's another one. Get that instead. Ooh. Anyway, folks, 33:48 thank you again for watching today. And as always, I'll see you again very shortly for another one, likely in a few days time. For now, look after 33:55 yourselves. Look after each other and stay safe and enjoy the new year. Thank you and goodbye.