Cyber Crime: 300 Indians Trapped In Myanmar

More than 300 Indians, all well-educated, have fallen prey to high-paying job promises in Bangkok by the agents in Myanmar and Thailand and are now stranded in Myanmar, desperately waiting for help from the Indian authorities to reach home.

A majority of them are techies and they were illegally taken to Myawaddy in south-eastern Myanmar. Firstly, they were taken to Dubai on a visit visa and then told that they would soon be shifted to the project site. Once they were in Myanmar, the trapped Indians were taken to an unknown location in cars and then to highly-guarded areas in boats.

At the ‘project site’, the Indians reportedly were asked to trap netizens posing as girls and see to it that the customers booked hotels online or made some other investments. If they refused, they were threatened at gunpoint and even made to do sit-ups as punishment.

The victims have been cut off from access to phones and are being tortured by the members of the international group involved in cybercrime. Of the 300 Indians trapped by the agents, around 60 are natives of Tamil Nadu.

One of the victims said that he was shocked to know the nature of job they were hired for in the foreign country. We were into an online fraud, he said.

Reportedly, agents in Myanmar and Thailand have begun targeting Indians for such jobs recently. Earlier, they hired Chinese and Malaysians but now, they are targeting Indian techies considering them as cheap labour, reports said.

It is learnt that some of the Tamilians, including a woman, managed to escape to Thailand but couldn’t return to India due to legal hurdles. However, the only way out is to pay a ransom. If the amount is not paid, Indians are being tortured, explained one of the victims. They are being thrashed or even subjected to electric shock if they refused to follow the orders of the gang.

Reportedly, targets were set for the victims, which many of the techies felt they could not reach as the rules were strict and the agents hardly paid what they promised.

Much worse, when the techies protest, they are warned that they could even “disappear”.

Those trapped have been trying to reach their families and officials seeking rescue. None of the victims revealed their identity as they feel anything could happen to them. The victims reportedly reached the district collector, Chief Minister MK Stalin and even approached Telangana Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan.

Meanwhile, the Indian embassy in Yangon has been working closely with the Government of Myanmar for their rescue.

“So far, the embassy has rescued more than 30 Indian citizens trapped in the Myawaddy area and efforts are on to bring out others also at the earliest possible,” he added.