This "trip to northern Myanmar" may be a nightmare that 26-year-old Xiao Li will never forget in his life.
Xiao Li is a native of Rong County, Zigong City, Sichuan Province. In July last year, he obtained a "monthly salary of 10,000 yuan" as a loader driver through online recruitment information, and embarked on the road to "get rich" in Xishuangbanna, Yunnan Province, with a beautiful vision and more than 10,000 yuan of savings. However, he never imagined that this was the beginning of a nightmare...
After nearly 10 days of running around the highway, walking the trail, climbing the mountains, he was taken out of the country by so-called recruiters and locked up in a building in northern Myanmar, unable to escape.
"Either study seriously (telecommunications network fraud) or pay money and leave; if you don't study seriously, you will be beaten." Xiao Li later recalled that there were people with guns guarding the building. Although he had only been in that building for about a week, this nightmare was something he would never forget. Later, he was released after his family paid a ransom of 45,000 yuan to the fraud gang. After that, he was exiled to the local area, but fortunately was taken in by a Sichuan compatriot who opened a restaurant and settled down temporarily.
Until mid-March this year, as the epidemic prevention and control situation improved, with the help of restaurant owners, Xiao Li asked the local police for help and was sent to the entry-exit border checkpoint and handed over to the local police in Yunnan. After 8 months of "robbery", he finally returned to his long-awaited motherland.
He said that when he was trapped in the fraud den in northern Myanmar and had nowhere to go for help, he once felt that he might die in a foreign country, "the moment he stepped into the country, his heart was solid." ”
↑ Xiao Li returned home and was interviewed. Video screenshots
yearning:
Online application for "high-paying positions"
With ten thousand yuan of savings, he went to the border to "enter the company"
Xiao Li, 26 years old, a native of Rong County, Zigong City, Sichuan Province, originally worked as a loader driver with a monthly salary of 45,000 yuan. But as a young man, he always had the dream of seizing the opportunity to make a career in other places.
One day in July 2020, he browsed the recruitment information on the Internet through his mobile phone, and a recruitment message of "monthly salary of 8,000 to 10,000 yuan" caught his eye. The work content is the loader driver, located in Xishuangbanna, Yunnan. It seems that the salary and position are in line with his psychological expectations, and he immediately submitted his resume to the other party.
Soon, he received a reply. The other party invited him to Xishuangbanna for an interview and went through the entry procedures.
Subsequently, after briefly telling his family about the work situation that he was about to enter, Xiao Li took his only savings of more than 10,000 yuan and embarked on the long-dreamed road of "getting rich".
On April 21, 2021, Xiao Li recalled to the Red Star News reporter that after arriving in Xishuangbanna, he immediately contacted the introducer who released the recruitment information. The other party said that the position was full, and he had to wait a few days and notify him if there was a vacancy. In desperation, Xiao Li found a hotel to stay in and waited for the news.
This wait is more than 20 days, the 10,000 yuan brought with him is basically spent, he really can't wait, call the other party, said "there is really no work, I am ready to go back." The other party quickly replied to him, there is no position at present, but other enterprises on the border need loader drivers, with monthly wages of tens of thousands of yuan.
After several considerations, Xiao Li agreed.
Not long after, the other party called and said that he had sent a car to pick him up. He got into a van and was taken to an unknown place. "When I got in the car, my phone was taken away and I couldn't make a call." Xiao Li recalled that the car was stopping and going. During this time, one car after another came in to form a convoy of about five or six vehicles. It was only then that he realized that he might have fallen into the trap of a telecommunications fraud ring.
However, he was alone in a different place, and he found that he could not get out at this time...
nightmare:
Over the mountains and mountains was taken out of the country to northern Myanmar
Forced into fraud by armed captivity, his family was released after paying a ransom
"Drive over highways, walk over trails, and over mountains." Xiao Li recalled to the Red Star News reporter that at that time, he changed vehicles many times along the way, and only stayed in the hotel 3 times in the past 10 days. At first, there were more than 30 people in the group, and they were arranged to other places on the way. When he arrived at the place where he arrived, there were only about 10 people left in the car.
Xiao Li said the car later arrived in a sparsely populated place where he did not know where. He was housed in a building not far from the road, surrounded by gunmen and delivered food in several rooms. When he entered the house, he found that there were many people living in the building. I was put in a room where more than 10 people lived, bunk beds. Before checking in, someone reminded him in particular: no talking, no communication.
That night, he couldn't sleep all night. It wasn't until the early hours of the next morning, in a brief exchange with his fellow housemates, that he learned that he had left the country and was now in northern Myanmar.
Early the next morning, he and the others were taken to another room with many computers, according to Xiao Li. Someone gave each person a notebook and a pen and asked them to listen carefully to the lecture. At this time, Xiao Li finally confirmed that he had fallen into the den of telecommunications network fraud.
Subsequently, a young man of Chinese nationality began to give "lectures" to everyone, teaching them how to meet people through the Internet, how to chat... In this way, 3 consecutive days are sleeping and "going to class".
After the third day of class, someone went into the house to check the learning situation and check the notebooks one by one. But those who did not record the content of the lecture in the notebook were beaten on the spot; Xiao Li could not escape. "They hit them with planks, and they hurt all over the body." Xiao Li said that he did not dare to fight back after being beaten, because there were more than 10 people on the other side, and only five or six people attended the lecture together. Moreover, the other side has a gun in his hand.
Xiao Li said that because he really couldn't stand it, many people shouted to leave. At this time, the other party said: either study seriously and lose the cost of coming here before you can leave; or contact your family to lose money and pay money to leave.
On the fourth day, two young people could not stand the beating and took the initiative to contact their families to pay for leaving, each paying 45,000 yuan.
He stayed up for two more days, but he really couldn't stand it, and asked to "lose money" and leave. So, under the surveillance of the other party's personnel, he took back the mobile phone and then contacted his family through WeChat voice. "You can't type, you can't say more, you can only do what they say." Xiao Li told his family that he encountered an emergency during his work and needed 45,000 yuan for an emergency.
Later, according to the requirements of the other party, the family put the money into the designated account, and the other party confirmed that the money had arrived, and then released Xiao Li.
Displacement:
Sichuan compatriots who opened restaurants were taken in to work
After half a year of not daring to go out, he asked for help from the local police and was sent back to China
After being collected by the fraud gang, the time has come to September 2020. For Xiao Li, northern Myanmar is a completely unfamiliar place. After leaving the closed building, he had to walk aimlessly and in a direction along the highway, hoping to see a Chinese and then asking for help.
Just when he felt desperate, he suddenly saw a Chinese restaurant in front of him, so he quickly ran over.
The owner of the Chinese restaurant, a native of Mianyang, Sichuan, expressed his willingness to help him return to China after hearing about his experience. However, it was during the epidemic prevention and control period and there was no way to go back.
There was no other way, the kind restaurant owner let him stay in the shop to work as a handyman, eat and live, and give him a salary of 3,000 yuan a month until the time was right. The restaurant owner gave him only one request: he was not allowed to leave the restaurant. Because in the restaurant, his personal safety can be guaranteed; once out, unexpected things can happen at any time.
In this way, Xiao Li stayed in a Chinese restaurant in northern Myanmar for half a year, never stepping out of the restaurant door for half a step.
In March 2021, as the epidemic prevention and control situation improved, with the help of restaurant owners, Xiao Li was sent to the entry-exit border checkpoint through the local police and handed over to the local police in Yunnan.
"The moment I stepped into the door of the country, my heart was solid." Xiao Li said that after entering the country, in accordance with the requirements of epidemic prevention and control, he was quarantined in a designated place.
In fact, as early as during the period of working in the restaurant in northern Myanmar, Xiao Li got in touch with his family and friends through WeChat. But during that time, he did not confess his true experience to his family, only saying that he was working in other places and his life was still quite passable. It wasn't until he was about to return to China that he couldn't suppress his inner excitement and told his family the truth.
After learning of Xiao Li's situation, the police of the Rong County Public Security Bureau in Zigong City, Sichuan Province, took the initiative to contact Xiao Li and his family, and added him through WeChat, hoping to use the isolation period to conduct psychological counseling and ideological education for him.
On March 17, 2021, a group of three police officers from the Xuyang Town Police Station of the Rong County Public Security Bureau drove to the Border Guard Port in Yunnan to pick up Xiao Li and return home.
Afterglow:
When I was most helpless, I felt that I might die
Sigh "This is a nightmare, go home and be sure"
According to the police handling the case, through the early exchange and communication in WeChat, it was found that Xiao Li's mental state was relatively good, and the most he said on the way home was "This is a nightmare" and "Going home is solid".
Xiao Li confessed that when he was trapped in the building in northern Myanmar and had nowhere to call for help, he once felt that he might die in a foreign country, and his heart was grief-stricken.
He said that the main reason for this encounter was that he had a weak sense of law and was greedy and wanted to make a lot of money, and after going out, he knew that "the outside world is not as (beautiful) as he imagined", or he needed to work steadily, rely on his own ability and ability to earn money and eat.
↑Xiao Li returned to Rong County, Sichuan. Courtesy of the police
At the same time, Xiao Li also hopes to use his own encounters to warn the masses and not to trust strangers, especially the temptation information on the Internet about "high-paying recruitment, taking you to make a lot of money, and taking you to get rich", maybe your nerves will be slightly relaxed, and you will fall into the trap of telecommunications network fraud.
Rong County police especially reminded: In recent years, with the intensification of the crackdown on telecommunications network fraud in China, domestic fraudsters have fled abroad, and the telecommunications network fraud industry has blossomed everywhere abroad. If one day you are also attracted to the high salary to leave the country, especially into Myanmar, you must be screened again and again, maybe what awaits you is not a decent job, but a regret after being trapped in the den of fraudulent wolves.
Yang Jun Red Star News reporter Yuan Wei
Edited by Peng Jiang
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