It’s been suspected for a while that Japanese citizens were among those held forcibly by scammers in a lawless part of Myanmar. That was confirmed this month with the rescue of two Japanese citizens from a compound run by Chinese fraudsters.
The most shocking part, though, is the age of the victims: a mere 16 and 17 years old. How did two high school students from Japan end up captive in Myanmar? Experts are warning that online gaming is a new avenue criminals are using to cajole Japan’s youth into a life of crime.
The 17-year-old
Local media broke news of the rescue last week. One was a 16-year-old from Aichi Prefecture, while the other was a 17-year-old from Miyagi Prefecture. Both were taken into protective custody by Thai authorities. Two separate Chinese crime groups forced both into running “ore-ore”-type phone scams against Japanese citizens. They are now both safely back in Japan.
The two have offered various reports of their circumstances to those involved with the case.
According to the above report, the 17-year-old was led to Myanmar by a 29-year-old Japanese man. (That man has, thankfully, been arrested.) Once there, scammers forced him to work. He left without his family’s knowledge, leading them to file a missing person’s report.
The youth says he was smuggled into Myanmar from Thailand. His captors forced him to work in a room guarded by men with machine guns. He reports there were 10 other Japanese people working with him.
The 16-year-old
According to the 16-year-old’s family, the boy was a skilled programmer. He was lured in online by the group, who promised him lucrative work. Upon arriving, however, they took his smartphone and set him to work scamming Japanese citizens. (It isn’t clear if his family knew of or approved of this. )
The 16-year-old said he was forced to work until he paid the group 1 million yen (USD $6,715). In another story reported by NHK, he says that on days he didn’t make his quota, his captors would shock him with a stun gun.
NHK says the 16-year-old alerted his family to his plight after he contacted them for help through some form of messaging service. The parents contacted the Thai Embassy. Thai authorities later helped the boy sail in a small boat from Myanmar to Thailand.
Meanwhile, the 17-year-old was rescued when authorities found him via his smartphone’s GPS signal.
The boys were the first wave in a mass of people freed from criminal gangs in Myanmar. Kyodo reports that around 10 other Japanese people might have fled a group in Myanmar recently. There’s a possibility some may have been trafficked – and a possibility that some joined the group knowing what they were getting into.
The growing “Dark Gig” economy
Japan has seen a spike within its own borders lately of scammer groups recruiting young people to do their dirty work. This Dark Gig economy (闇バイト; yami-baito) has grown more popular as the nature of organized crime in Japan has changed, with shady underworld groups replacing the traditional yakuza. Meanwhile, inflation and wage stagnation have convinced more cash-strapped youngsters to sign up.
Many groups lure young people in with the promise of easy money. It’s only once in that the “workers” fully realize they’ve been recruited for crime. At this point, the criminals often use threats to keep recruits in line— threatening them with violence or public humiliation of their families.
It’s not uncommon for such groups, such as Japan’s notorious Luffy crime group, to work from other countries, such as the Philippines. This incident shows how criminals worldwide are employing the same tactics. Lately, Chinese groups have set up operations near the country’s expansive border with China. The move takes advantage of the chaos caused by the country’s ongoing civil war.
Lured in via online games
Many recruits for the Dark Gig economy – like the 16-year-old in this story – respond to “job” postings on social media. However, according to Asahi Shimbun, the 17-year-old reported he was lured in through another avenue: gaming. The 29-year-old was an acquaintance he knew through an online game, where he corresponded with him via text and voice.
This isn’t the first case of scammers using online games to allure young people into crime. According to Asahi, scammers will get players to trust them by giving them expensive in-game items.
To date, there have been 89 such cases reported. That number includes 37 victims in the game Knives Out, 13 in Identity V, and 13 in Fortnite.
Japanese police are urging parents to be more vigilant by taking advantage of parental controls and teaching their kids not to share personal info online. Guardians, cops say, should take more interest in the games their kids are playing —and, particularly, who they’re playing them with.
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