February 27, 2025
JOHOR BARU – It was a golden opportunity – a job that offered RM80,000 for a one-week stint. All you had to do was transport gold from a dealer in Thailand to several gold shops in Malaysia.
For Gan Jiea Jie, who turned 18 in February last year, it was something he just could not say no to.
Gan, who comes from a broken family and had debts to pay off, answered the advertisement on social media.
And he left without informing the family. It was his biggest mistake.
For the next 11 months, he was beaten up, tasered and forced to work up to 18 hours a day without pay in scam centres in Myanmar, cheating people around the world, including Malaysians.
As a victim of a human trafficking syndicate, he was smuggled from Thailand to Myanmar and “sold” from one boss to another.
However, Gan escaped this “nightmare” several days ago with the help of a friend in Johor Baru and the Malaysian Embassy in Thailand. He is now awaiting repatriation to Malaysia.
The traffickers, who held his passport, also allegedly put a US$10,000 (RM44,000) bounty on his head following his escape.
Gan is not the only Malaysian in the predicament. He says he met many others who were lured there with promises of good jobs and lucrative salaries.
In an exclusive interview with The Star after his escape on Feb 16, Gan said he had first been uncertain about the job offer.
However, he was convinced when a “company representative” sent him a picture of a plane ticket in his name from Johor to Penang and then another to Bangkok on March 30 last year.
They also showed him his return ticket to Johor.
“They also sent me a booking for a posh hotel in Thailand. This convinced me and I decided to leave home with just a small bag of clothes and my passport.
“I have never even been to an airport, let alone travel. I was nervous as I did not have any money but the ‘representative’ gave me a cash advance, which was banked into my account,” he said, adding that all their communication was done via social media.
Gan was told someone would meet him at the Bangkok airport and send him to the hotel.
At the airport, things started going wrong.
The journey to the hotel took many hours.
“The driver, who only spoke Thai, kept assuring me that everything was good.
“We passed at least four police checkpoints before we reached the hotel in a remote forested area,” he said, saying there was no mobile phone signal there.
Tired, he fell asleep only for someone to wake him up in the morning, telling him to get ready to leave.
“We reached a river, and a raft took us across the narrow river. On the other side, there were men in uniforms and machine guns,” he said.
He was then forced into a four-wheel drive and taken to a house where there were soldiers.
“I think it was a soldiers’ camp as they came in to rest and have meals,” he said.
Then, the real nightmare began.
A man, believed to be a Taiwanese national, told Gan he would need to work for one year before being allowed to leave.
If he wanted to return home, he would have to pay US$50,000 (RM220,000).
At that moment, Gan realised he had fallen victim to a scam.
Over the next few days, two other Malaysians – a man and a woman – arrived. All their mobile phones were seized.
The woman, in her 30s, and the man in his 20s, were also victims of the scam.
“After three days, we all decided to work as there was no way to escape with so many soldiers.
“We were assigned our hostel and work areas in a complex with hundreds of people and many buildings. The complex was like a small town with shops and amenities. It was guarded by men in uniforms carrying machine guns,” he said.
Gan said the scam operations were very organised, with a chief executive officer, general manager, managers, supervisors and staff.
He said the staff were from various nationalities with Chinese making up the majority.
“We also received our own identification tags, and everyone had a nickname.
“No one was permitted to use their own name,” said Gan, whose nickname was “Archie”.
“I had a quota to achieve. If not, I would be punished,” he said, adding that each of them was given a month-long training on methods to scam people.
Each of them received at least eight mobile phones, which they used to search for victims of love or investment scams on social media.
“I worked 18 hours a day. If I did not achieve my targets, I was beaten up. There was even a time I was zapped with a taser,” he said.
Within a month, the man he had met earlier at the house had escaped while being sent to the hospital after faking an illness.
Whenever a person escaped, a bounty of between US$5,000 (RM22,000) and US$10,000 (RM84,000) would be posted on social media.
“I was too scared to escape,” said Gan, adding that during his 11 months there, he did not make any money.
The Malaysian woman, who could speak other languages, was given a job as a translator.
Those who could bring in the money would get rewards including dinners at restaurants and cash bonuses to be used at the complex.
“Those who do not meet targets only ate mixed rice at the canteen.
“I was sold and moved to three different companies with different bosses,” he said, adding that he had scammed victims in Japan, Korea, the United States, the United Kingdom and Malaysia.
Gan, who had at times wanted to end his life, said his hope of escape came in February when the company decided to move operations to Cambodia.
He said on Feb 16, his manager, nicknamed Vicky or Robert, another man and he walked across a shallow river back into Thailand as part of the move.
“We then made a two-day land journey to a hotel in Bangkok,” he said.
The third person in the group then went his own way.
“We had to avoid the roadblocks as my manager was carrying dozens of mobile phones used in the operations,” he said.
On Feb 18, his manager went out to get breakfast and Gan saw the chance for him to escape.
He said he pretended to go out for food, where he called his friend Joyce Hwang Qi Hui, 30, who told him to get help from the Malaysian Embassy in Thailand.
With only 400 baht (RM52) in his pocket, he was unable to get to the embassy, but it was enough for a Grab ride to the nearest police station.
Gan is now helping the police in the investigations and is undergoing screening under Thailand’s National Referral Mechanism (NRM), which is part of the country’s fight against human trafficking.
NRM is designed to help identify and support victims of human trafficking and modern slavery.
It includes multiple agencies, such as law enforcement, NGOs, and social services, that collaborate to provide a comprehensive response to trafficking.
Asked what he plans to do now, Gan said he just wants to come home and eat some local food.
“I have been forced to do some bad things. I also know that my escape is a miracle and I promise to change and lead a better life after this,” he said.
It has been a year of hell for the young man, and he has a message for youngsters – never take job offers abroad that are too good to be true.