HYDERABAD: A chilling account of cyber slavery and online fraud has come to light after a 19-year-old from Hyderabad escaped captivity in Laos and exposed an international racket targeting Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) in the United States. The Telangana Cyber Security Bureau (TGCSB) is now investigating what appears to be a sophisticated sextortion and cryptocurrency scam operated by Chinese nationals under the guise of call centre jobs.
According to the victim, the ordeal began on Facebook when he was contacted by a man, Ashique Baba, a so-called travel agent from Kashmir. Lured by the promise of a lucrative data entry job in Laos with a monthly salary of Rs 1.20 lakh, the teenager accepted the offer and travelled to Bangkok in December 2023.
From there, a man, Bell, reportedly from Ethiopia, met him and escorted him to Laos, where he was taken to a call centre and introduced to manager Titu, who was from China. He was then asked to sign the contract and hand over his passport and phone.
“As per their demand, I signed the contract on December 27, 2024. They trained me for 15 days in cyber frauds. When I asked to return to India, they demanded $3,000 to release my passport,” the victim told TGCSB.
During the training, he was allegedly instructed to download photos of attractive women from social media platforms and use them to create fake Facebook profiles. These profiles were used to send friend requests to unsuspecting men, mainly NRIs living in the US.
“Once a connection was made, the victim along with other members in the team would pose as women and engage the men in sexually suggestive chats. If the targets showed interest, the profiles were then handed over to senior members of the racket, who would gradually lure the victims into fake cryptocurrency investments,” the police said.
“The fake websites showed fabricated earnings and profits. To build trust, they would allow small withdrawals. But once the victim invested a larger amount, their accounts would be frozen. They would then demand more cryptocurrency under the guise of government taxes,” the bureau said.
The victim also revealed that despite a contract promising a salary of 20,000 yuan, he was never paid. After months of cyber exploitation, he managed to escape the facility with the help of local residents and sought refuge at the Indian Embassy. Officials arranged for an emergency passport and facilitated his safe return to India.