KUCHING, June 4: Two young individuals, a male and a female, from Sibu who have fallen victim to a job scam which led to forced labour in Cambodia, were brought back safely to Malaysia today.
Dudong assemblyman Dato Sri Tiong King Sing, who facilitated the rescue mission, said the two victims were lured to Cambodia in mid-March by a job posting on Facebook claiming to provide high salaries.
When they arrived in Cambodia, he said, their passports and mobile phones were confiscated by the ’employer’ while the duo was forced to work to find targets on social media to scam them of their money.
“After they reached Cambodia, they lived life as if under house arrest, only having freedom around their workplace and dormitories. Their job scope was also different from what had been described earlier (on the job postings).
“If they could not achieve a specific KPI (key performance indicator), they would be punished physically. About a month after (they went overseas), the young man’s family received his call for help.
“After my (Dudong branch) service centre knew about the incident, we immediately began the rescue mission,” said Tiong in a statement today.
Understanding the high temptation of high-paying job advertisements online, he urged members of the public, especially the youth, not to fall for these scams as “there is no free lunch”.
Tiong, also Bintulu MP, extended his gratitude to all those involved in making the rescue mission a success.
They included the Malaysian Ambassador to Cambodia, the Embassy of Cambodia in Malaysia, Interpol, and the Bukit Aman Police Headquarters.
In April, Tiong also managed to help facilitate the return of a Sarawakian who had fallen victim to a human trafficking ring in Thailand. — DayakDaily
