Trapped in scamsters' web

'MODERN SLAVERY': INDONESIAN CAPTIVES FORCED TO DO ONLINE SCAMS

- 

Indonesian fruit seller Budi was seeking better prospects when he signed up for an IT job in Cambodia. But he found himself detained in a heavily guarded compound where he was forced to carry out online scams.

"When I arrived I was told to read a script," Budi, not his real name, said on condition of anonymity. "It turned out that we were to work as scammers."

The 26-year-old worked 14 hours a day in a site ringed by barbed wire and patrolled by armed guards, he said. He was threatened by the supervisors, and the nights were short. At the end of six weeks, he received just $390 (about R7 000) of the $800 he was promised.