Job scam victim shares harrowing experience of being held at gunpoint

KUALA LUMPUR: A man from Kepong shared his harrowing experience of being held at gunpoint after falling victim to a job scam syndicate at the “Golden Triangle” region near the Thailand-Laos-Myanmar border.

Max Thian, 30, who sells medical products, said he met an individual in August last year who persuaded him to go to Thailand.

“Once I arrived in Thailand, he arranged for a taxi to bring me to the Thailand-Myanmar border.

“As soon as we reached there, he took out a gun and asked me to get in a small boat to cross the border,” he said during a press conference at the Parliament building on Monday (March 18).

Also present at the press conference were Petaling Jaya MP Lee Chean Chung and Malaysian International Humanitarian Organisation (MHO) public relations officer Daniel Khoo.

According to Thian, he met another agent at the border who took his passport and mobile phone.

“When you are there, you see many other victims, those who are Malaysians, Taiwanese and Chinese nationals.

“We were told to work for 16 to 17 hours a day.

“They asked us to recruit more people under the scam, and they (targeted them) from TikTok and other platforms,” he said.

They were also told to build trust with the customers first and ask them for money, he added.

“Once you get about RM1,000 or RM2,000 from the recruitment, they will take all the money,” said Thian, who added that he was aware of eight other Malaysians working in the same place.

Asked how he managed to escape from the syndicate, he said he was there for three months before there was a clash in the area, causing his office to be closed down.

“That is when we contacted MHO for help and they rescued us with the help of the Malaysian government,” he added.

Lee believed there are still Malaysians being duped to work at the Thailand-Laos-Myanmar border.

“Aside from sharing the victim’s experience, this is not a new issue.

“If we use the same approach (of rescuing) victims, the situation will persist or worsen.

“After discussing with the victims and NGO, we need to create an awareness campaign at our main airports to highlight this issue.

“I also hope the Home Ministry will ensure that those who are rescued and manage to return to Malaysia using official entry points will have a ‘cooling off’ period of two years, so they cannot go back to those countries.

“This is because some of them are willing to go back even after being rescued.

“Even the police have previously revealed that there are repeat cases.

“We do not want the government’s facilities to be abused. Once we rescue them, some of them go back after three months.

“How many times should we rescue them?” he asked.