Jalil Muyeke was the victim of Internet scammers. But as Tara Siegel Bernard writes for the New York Times, "the masterminds behind these schemes didn't drain his bank account. ... They stole seven months of his life." The 32-year-old from Uganda is one of thousands of such victims: People who travel great distances to take what they believe to be a great job offer in Southeast Asia, only to end up forced to work at a so-called fraud farm. Siegel Bernard writes that many have popped up in casinos that closed during the lockdown, and often house "trafficked workers laboring under the threat of severe beatings, electric shock, or worse." In telling Muyeke's story, she focuses on his suffering, rather than that of his victims.
He thought he had landed a six-month contract job in Bangkok paying $2,500 a month but realized something was wrong after landing at the airport. Bangkok was minutes away; instead he was driven more than eight hours to the Moei River. He saw a canoe in the water and Myanmar on the other side, along with armed men. He ended up at a compound called Dong Feng and was told his pay would be $400 a month. He started work at 8pm seven days a week, logging into dating apps and posing as a female fashion designer living in San Francisco. For 17 hours a day he used a script to try to chat up American and Canadian men, ideally over 40. The goal was to get phone numbers from at least two a day; once he succeeded, a "higher-level scammer" would take over the conversation. If his productivity sank, he was forced to do hundreds of push-ups. (Read the full story, which details how he managed to get out seven months later.)
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uBlock 
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Ghostery 
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