The government this week urged people who are planning to work in Southeast Asia to exercise extra caution, as Taiwanese jobseekers were reportedly abused and coerced into engaging in fraudulent activities in Cambodia.
Taipei City Councilor Angela Ying (應曉薇) said scammers had advertised on social media high-paying jobs that required little to no experience. Promises of free round-trip tickets, favorable treatment and a salary of more than NT$100,000 per month had Taiwanese falling for the employment scam.
Upon arrival in Cambodia, the victims’ passports were confiscated by the scammers, and they were held captive in industrial parks, where they were forced to work for the scammers’ illicit operations.
People engaged in the scams can be categorized into three groups: gullible and inexperienced young people; disadvantaged minorities who seek a better life, including sex workers whose livelihoods have been severely hit by the COVID-19 pandemic; and people who participated voluntarily.
The syndicates capitalize on the weaknesses of the first two categories — their limited access to information, their need for money and, in many cases, their trust in people employed by the scammers who seemed equally disadvantaged and pitched the jobs on the scammers’ behalf.
In response to the incident, several political parties have attacked the government, decrying its incompetency and reluctance to take action. Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) said people who are happy with their lives would not want to venture to Cambodia, and that the reports were a slap in the government’s face at a time when it claimed that things are looking up for Taiwan.
However, Ko could not have been more wrong. Taiwanese are far from the only victims of the scammers; a larger number of victims are Chinese.
As fraud rings excel at enticing people by promising them benefits that they will never see, anyone could have been targeted, regardless of nationality or background.
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) has accused the government of spending too much money on promoting the New Southbound Policy, while failing to “prevent Taiwanese from being cheated and abused” in a country covered by the policy
The policy, an initiative launched by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) aimed at enhancing trade and exchanges between Taiwan and Southeast Asia, seeks to reduce Taiwan’s dependence on China. The KMT’s assertion that the policy has anything to do with the scams is baseless, as the policy targets investors and the scammers target workers.
The Cambodian government adheres to Beijing’s “one China” principle, which makes rescue missions difficult. Instead of taking the focus off the policy, Taiwan should double down and use it as a means to facilitate ties with Cambodia.
As for deterrence measures, it is high time for Taiwan to impose stricter laws and harsher punishments for scammers and their accomplices. Most scammers convicted in Taiwan receive jail sentences of less than a year, while money mules typically receive less than four months in prison, and the recidivism rate is high.
At the other extreme, China punishes scammers with up to life in prison, or even sentences them to death.
Having formed a task force, Taiwan should also work with global scam watchdogs to rescue Taiwanese trafficked to Cambodia. In the long term, it should also work with other Asian nations to crack down on scam rings and step up the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ measures to tackle international fraud.
For jobseekers, perhaps the best principle to bear in mind is that there is no such thing as a free lunch. They should be wary when things are too good to be true.
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