Mr Viral
When Chinese actor Wang Xing arrived in Thailand on Jan. 3, he thought he was there to shoot a movie. He had no idea he’d been lured into a trap by human traffickers.
Four days later, he appeared at a news conference after being rescued by Thai authorities from a scam operation based on the Myanmar border. Looking sallow, with a shaved head, Wang said he had been abducted, trafficked, imprisoned, and forced to undergo “fraud training.”
Wang is among the many people from all walks of life — largely from developing countries — who have fallen victim to so-called “scam farms,” which lure people with the promise of legitimate work only to enslave them in a web of criminal activity.
However, as details of Wang’s abduction emerged, other Chinese performers took to social media to share similar terrifying experiences, including one who was held captive for more than 100 days. A China Federation of Radio and Television Association notice also warned that, recently, a number of entertainment professionals had been enticed abroad by scammers offering roles in films, TV dramas or other work.
In an industry where there are often no contracts or guarantees up front, and where eager-to-please, young newcomers are willing to take risks in search of their big break, victims appear easy pickings for criminal gangs.
Warning signs
According to social media posts by Wang’s girlfriend Jia Jia, Wang received an invitation to shoot a movie in Thailand in late December after sending a self-taped audition to someone who claimed to be an employee at GMM Grammy, the largest entertainment company in Thailand.
The actor landed at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi International Airport around 3 a.m. on Jan. 3 and was collected by a Thai driver who spoke neither Chinese nor English. Yet, instead of heading to a hotel, Wang was driven to Mae Sot, a city almost 500 kilometers north of the Thai capital, close to the Myanmar border.
Wang exchanged a series of messages with Jia Jia during the hours-long journey. Around 10 a.m. local time, he posted on social media, “Crazy start to 2025 at the Thai-Myanmar border.” Then, about an hour later, he disappeared.
Jia Jia quickly raised the alarm and called the Shanghai police. Meanwhile, she also contacted the Chinese embassy in Thailand. On Jan. 7, the police commander in Thailand’s northwestern Tak province confirmed that the actor had been located in Myanmar and rescued. Jia Jia and Wang were reunited in Bangkok the next day.
Hearing the news, fellow actor Fan Hu felt chills down his spine. The 22-year-old had received the same invitation as Wang after passing an audition, and had arrived in Thailand just a few days earlier. Yet, only at that moment did he realize he’d had a lucky escape.
Fan saw the casting call posted by the Thai film crew on Dec. 27 in an online group chat for actors. After sending his audition tape, Fan learned from China-based talent agent Ma Xin, who was acting as an intermediary, that the movie’s producer had been impressed and wanted Fan to replace the male lead, promising a hefty salary.
Ma set up a chat group on the instant messaging app WeChat with Fan and three other Chinese performers who had also received offers, and introduced them to Belia, who claimed to be a casting director for GMM Grammy. She booked Fan on a roundtrip flight to Bangkok the next day and arranged accommodation.
Although everything was happening so fast, Fan did not feel anything was out of the ordinary, as “actors being replaced at the last minute is normal.” He did begin to feel uneasy when a Chinese actress, who had already arrived in Thailand, told him that someone on the crew had attempted to take her passport. But others suggested that this was standard practice, as production staff needed the actors’ ID documents for “personal information reasons,” which worked to allay Fan’s concern.
However, when Fan landed at Suvarnabhumi International Airport, he found it strange that he and another actor on the same flight were to be picked up in separate cars. It was then he opened his phone to see a message in Ma’s group chat that said, “Come home, this may be a scam,” along with news that the return tickets for some performers had been refunded. Fan and the other actor decided it was safer to make their own way to the hotel that Belia had arranged.
The next day, as the casting call had listed the movie’s director as Weerachit Thongjila, Fan sent him a private message on Instagram to confirm the authenticity of the project. The Thai director replied, “Not me. Please protect yourself and those around you from scams.” On Dec. 30, the four Chinese actors left the hotel early without informing Belia and flew back to China. “If the casting call hadn’t mentioned a well-known director, or if Weerachit didn’t answer that message on Instagram, it wouldn’t have been easy to reveal the deception,” Fan says.
Looking back, Fan feels that being part of a group and sharing updates online was key to escaping the scam, while Wang had been entirely alone.
Writing on social media, Jia Jia explained that Wang also had concerns early on. He was excited to learn he’d passed the audition on Dec. 27, but after a few days of receiving only vague information about shooting schedules in remote locations in Thailand, he was beginning to hesitate. Yet, when he contacted the casting agent Yan Shiliu, who claimed to work for GMM Grammy, to turn down the offer on Dec. 30, Yan cursed at him and demanded he arranges his schedule as soon as possible, saying it wasn’t easy to find another performer who could speak English at such short notice.
Wang agreed and began packing for his flight. Jia Jia said that her boyfriend had been keen to build his credibility in the industry and hoped for more opportunities in overseas projects, utilizing his language skills, adding that this was perhaps why he was unwilling to reject the offer or ask too many questions.
Locked up
Fortunately, Wang spent only a few days in the grip of his abductors. However, Xu Bochun, a 38-year-old part-time actor and background artist — often referred to as an “extra” — was held for more than 100 days in 2023 after being tricked into going to Laukkai, a town notorious for gambling, prostitution, and human trafficking in Myanmar’s northern Kokang area.
Like Fan, Wang, and other actors, Xu, who has worked in film and TV for almost two decades, was initially hooked by a casting call in an online group chat. He recalls that it was for an S-level project — an industry term meaning a large production crew with heavy investment — based in China’s southwestern Yunnan province.
What followed was the usual pattern: rapid audition, job offer, prepaid flight tickets, pickup at the airport, transfer to a remote area, and eventually discovering it’s a scam when it’s already too late to escape.
Xu landed in Yunnan’s southern Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture on July 6, upon which his cellphone and ID card were immediately confiscated by the production crew, who were polite and explained that this was for confidentiality and administration reasons. However, he soon grew anxious when he was taken on foot into the deep mountains and realized he had not seen any cameras, lights, or other filming equipment.
When he chatted with his travel companions, he also learned they weren’t even actors — they were fitness instructors, chefs, and from other professions, who had all been hired through various online groups for part-time workers.
Later, as they trekked through dense jungle, about a dozen middle-aged men in camouflage outfits and carrying knives leaped out and surrounded the group, before leading them through several mountain passes and making them climb over barbed wire fences, which likely marked China’s border with Myanmar.
After descending the mountains, Xu and the others were separated into different vehicles. He recalls that his captors, who were now carrying rifles, took him to a farmyard holding many other Chinese people and detained him in a room that had blood stains on the floor and beds. People were shackled by the ankles or wrists, and each newcomer was shaved bald, stripped naked, and in some cases beaten for no apparent reason.
“At the end of July 2023, I was sold to a guesthouse in the infamous Laukkai,” he says, explaining that he was forced to work every day for a telecom fraud operation.
“If you disobeyed them or didn’t get a client (victim), you could be beaten.” He was also made to send text messages to his family and friends telling them that he was safe and well, “or else they might be the next victims.”
Xu was eventually able to escape after sending a message to a friend that read, “Save me on the seventh floor of the Red Lotus Hotel in Laukkai, Kokang, Myanmar,” which he then immediately deleted. After enlisting the help of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce in Myanmar, and working with local gangs involved in people smuggling, known as snakeheads, Xu’s family was able to buy his freedom. “It cost my family more than 1 million yuan ($136,400), with 620,000 yuan of that actually going to the scam center, while the rest went on making useful connections, snakehead fees, etc.”
Luring talent
After reading about Wang’s ordeal, Xu feels the human traffickers’ methods are becoming more sophisticated. Fan says that the materials for the fake casting call were highly professional — the poster was well-designed, and there was detailed information, with a synopsis of the movie and character biographies — which was why it was so believable.
When he returned from Thailand, Fan sent the materials to several agents that he knew. “They told me the casting call was better produced than for most micro dramas and looked like a project with investment of millions of yuan,” he says.
Belia was also convincing, displaying a casting director’s talent for “putting out fires,” and would use a perennially angry assistant director (AD) no one ever saw to play “bad guy” whenever anyone asked awkward questions. After Fan asked to meet this AD, Belia showed him a screenshot of a text conversation in which the AD had sternly censured her for wasting time and making mistakes, saying he was too busy meeting with investors to talk to the performers. On reflection, “everyone in the chain played their role well,” he adds.
Fan began acting after leaving high school, and has appeared in several online micro dramas and TV commercials. He says the online groups where casting calls are posted are generally established by casting directors, agents, or ADs. New performers need to be invited to join or, in some cases, pay an entry fee.
“There’s no shortage of young, good-looking people in this industry. When a casting call is sent out, people will bend over backwards to get a chance to sign up, even for micro dramas,” Fan says. The fake ad posted by the Thai crew featured many of the ingredients that would attract such talent, including a good story, a well-known director, and Sino-foreign collaboration.
The criminals also exploit the industry’s unique power dynamic, preying on young or inexperienced performers eager to take any opportunity they can and are too afraid to ask questions in case they are fired from a production or develop a reputation for being difficult. “The circle is very small. Those who don’t do well, miss appointments, or mess with other people can easily be exposed. That would make it hard for them to get other opportunities,” Fan says.
Many netizens responded to the news about Wang by saying that it should have been easy to spot it was a scam with just a little digging, but Xu explains that, on some projects, it’s taboo even to ask to speak with the director, especially for low-level performers. They are briefed only on their payment, the shooting schedule, and other basic details.
After Jia Jia reported Wang missing on Jan. 5, the actor’s family enlisted the help of the Bangkok-based Mandarin Accounting Law Firm, which has offered assistance to many other Chinese victims of scams. An employee at the firm says that the number of cases in recent years has been “quite high,” reaching a peak of 11 requests a week in the first half of 2023. They said the systematic targeting of performers represents a new trend.
“Telecom fraud farms are very good at disguising themselves, which causes people to let their guard down,” the employee says.
Reported by Zheng Ziyu, Li Yaoyao, Mu Yuxing, and Li Jiayan.
A version of this article originally appeared in Original (Jiefang Daily). It has been translated and edited for brevity and clarity, and is republished here with permission.
Translator: Eunice Ouyang; editors: Wang Juyi and Hao Qibao.
(Header image: Wang Xing (center) is escorted by Thai police officers at an airport in Bangkok, Thailand, Jan. 7, 2025. The Royal Thai Police via EPA/VCG）
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