Human Trafficking Into Scam Call Centers with Matt Friedman

Easy Prey

It’s hard to imagine finding a job, advancing into a second interview, they send you a ticket to their overseas office, only to find out that you’re about to be trafficked into a life of forced labor while they threaten your family. But this is happening all around the world today. Today’s guest is Matt Friedman. Matt is an international human trafficking expert with more than 35 years of experience. He is the founder and CEO of The Mekong Club, an organization of Hong Kong’s leading businesses which have joined forces to help end all forms of modern slavery.

Show Notes:

• [0:57] - Matt shares his background and the extensive experience he has in this field.

• [2:09] - Matt explains some of the terrible situations that he has seen in human trafficking and the reason he became an activist.

• [5:31] - Covid-19 impacted criminal activity in China. They started to trick and deceive people into accepting a job at a scam center.

• [6:51] - There are tens of thousands of people who have been human trafficked into scam call centers.

• [9:12] - A red flag is if it sounds too good to be true.

• [12:15] - Matt describes the buildings these call centers are in.

• [13:34] - In Myanmar and Cambodia, the people being trafficked into call centers tend to be citizens of other countries.

• [16:04] - The scams that they are forcing people to do are pig butchering.

• [18:20] - Matt shares some of the types of scams that they do from these call centers.

• [20:28] - In these call centers, if a person does not hit their daily quota, they are beaten and tortured.

• [22:56] - If you think that you want to have a job opportunity overseas, you need to know without a doubt that it is legitimate and have a system in place to make sure your friends and family know where you are.

• [25:21] - Matt’s organization The Mekong Club works with businesses on understanding scams and trafficking.

• [27:09] - Where does this laundered money go?

• [28:41] - The Mekong Club has a large social media presence in multiple languages and PSA campaigns to provide education.

• [31:32] - We’ve entered a time where scams are commonplace and it’s getting harder to tell what is real and what is not.

• [33:40] - If we don’t take action now, we will find ourselves in a situation that we cannot control.

• [37:33] - Share this information with other people. This is the most important step to take and right away.

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