A small country with a population of 75 lakhs is situated about 1721 km away from India in the South East of Asia. Its name is Laos. It is the only landlocked country in South East Asia. This means that none of the borders of this country touch the sea, as a result it has to depend on China, Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand or Myanmar to use the sea route. Laos shares its border with these 5 countries.
This country has been the topic of discussion in India for the past few years. The reason is Indians going to this country in the lure of a good job and then falling prey to some fraud and getting trapped there. The Indian Embassy has rescued 47 Indians from cyber scam centres who were trapped in one such trap in Laos for the past several months. These people were trapped in the Bokeo province of Laos.
The embassy has rescued 635 Indians
This is not the first time that such a large number of Indians have been rescued from Laos. There have been many such incidents before this. According to the Indian Embassy, so far 635 Indians have been rescued from Laos who were being tortured in Laos after getting trapped in job scams. Let us tell you what this ‘Cyber Scam Center’ is and how people from India are getting trapped in it. But before that let us tell you some facts related to Laos.
1. Laos has an area of 236,800 km². This country is 13 times smaller than India (3,287,263 km²), with a population of just 7.5 million.
2. Laos shares borders with China to the north, Vietnam to the northeast and east, Cambodia to the south, Myanmar to the northwest, and Thailand to the west.
3. This country has the longest border with Thailand, which is 2,161 kilometers long.
4. Laos is considered one of the most beautiful countries, hence many tourists keep coming here.
5. The GDP growth of this country, burdened with debt to China, is currently less than 1 percent.
Fraudsters confiscate passports
According to media reports, cyber scam criminals are quite active in Laos. These people invite people from neighboring countries including India to their country by giving fake job advertisements. The passports of the people who reach there are confiscated and then the game of cyber scam begins. People who reach Laos in greed of jobs get trapped after their passports are confiscated and it becomes difficult for them to get out.
This is how cyber fraud is done
People who come to Laos from different countries of Asia in the lure of jobs are first made to create a social media profile of a girl on a dating app using fake photos. After this, they are asked to commit cyber fraud. People who are badly trapped are given a target. People who get trapped there chat with boys on dating apps pretending to be girls. When they feel that the person in front has been trapped by their words, they convince him to invest in cryptocurrency trading. Whoever is unable to fulfill their target is tortured worse than hell. He is even made to crave for food and water.
Source (PTI) (NDTV) (HINDUSTANTIMES)