A lucrative overseas job offer promising high pay, short working hours and luxury living turned into a nightmare for a Hyderabad resident. The 23-year-old was allegedly trapped in a cybercrime racket operating along the Thailand-Myanmar border, The Indian Express reported.
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Mir Sajjad Ali, a resident of Kattal Guda in Hyderabad, travelled to Bangkok last November after being offered a role as a digital sales executive. He was promised a monthly salary of nearly Rs 1 lakh and accommodation in a villa equipped with modern amenities, including a swimming pool. What followed, however, was a grim ordeal involving confinement, abuse and forced cyber fraud.
Lured by luxury, trapped in a scam hub
Within two weeks of his arrival, Mir found himself shifted from Bangkok to a cramped and overcrowded house near the Thailand-Myanmar border, allegedly run by an organised cybercrime syndicate. The situation escalated when Mir and others refused to participate in fraudulent online activities.
“On January 16, he made a distress call asking to be rescued. He was confined with several others at a call centre that was scamming people, and when he and others refused, they were beaten and abused,” Sayed Ali, his relative who received the call, told The Indian Express.
The matter gained wider attention after Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi flagged the issue on social media. “I have received a distressing message: at least 16 Indian nationals, including three from Hyderabad, were promised jobs in Thailand but taken to the Myanmar-Thailand border and enslaved. They are forced to work 18-20 hours daily, physically punished, and deprived of passports, phones, and medical facilities,” he wrote, urging External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar to intervene.
Mir’s cousin Mehdi Ali said the recruiter initially projected an image of affluence and urgency to lure him abroad. “Mir told me that when the recruiter made a video call, he showed a beautiful villa with a swimming pool and several amenities. He was told this was the workplace and encouraged to travel as quickly as possible to Bangkok or someone else would take the job,” he said.
‘Cyber slavery’ network ensnares youths from Telangana, Andhra Pradesh
According to family members, Mir did not initially disclose the job offer to his parents, claiming he was travelling on a holiday. After landing in Bangkok, he briefly reassured his family through video calls, showing what appeared to be a decent workplace.
“Mir did not inform his parents about the job offer. He simply said he was going on a holiday. He called his mother after landing in Bangkok and informed her that he would work from there. Although his mother tried to persuade him to return, he refused. For about eight days, Mir made video calls to show his workplace, which was good. He said that his employer was treating him well. Then, there was no call for nearly 15 days,” Mehdi Ali said.
The next communication was alarming. “When he eventually did make contact, it was a hurried and scared phone call to inform that he was confined somewhere near the Thailand-Myanmar border, based on the location his phone showed. Then there was no call again for several days. A few days ago, he called to say his phone had been taken away for a while. He told his mother and another relative about the ordeal that he and two other youths from Hyderabad were facing. He said that several Indian youths were trapped in a similar situation, and asked to be rescued,” Mehdi Ali said.
Mir, a college dropout who had completed multiple online courses, was struggling to secure stable employment before taking the overseas offer. Two other Hyderabad youths — Sameer Khan from Maula Ali and Arshad from Banjara Hills — are also believed to be trapped in the same network.
Authorities say the problem is widespread. “Those who were rescued by Thai police and returned home said that they were manhandled, abused and threatened if they refused to do the work, which is basically cybercrime. They are given daily targets, and if they fail, their passports and phones are seized,” an Andhra Pradesh CID official said.
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Last year, the Andhra Pradesh government, with assistance from the Centre, rescued 370 Indians from similar call centres along the Thailand-Myanmar border. CID Director General Dr A Ravi Shankar described the operations as forced exploitation. “They were forced to commit online fraud from these dubious call centres. In the second week of January, 22 more Andhra Pradesh youths were rescued by the CID in coordination with the Centre and Thailand officials,” he said. |
