Scammers behind the “click a button” app Ponzis are now targeting Chinese mainland actors and models.

Multiple cases over the past weeks detail Chinese nationals being lured to Thailand under false pretenses.

The most high-profile of the recent human trafficking kidnappings is Wang Xing (right).

Xing is a Chinese actor who was lured to Bangkok for a bogus casting call last week.

As reported by The Independent on January 9th;

The actor said he realised he was not in Thailand when the “armed people pushed me into the car”.

[Wang] was told there was a casting call in Thailand but was instead trained to scam other Chinese people

“There were about 50 people in the building that I was in. There were more in another building, and people came from different countries,” he said, adding that he was forced to practice typing for two to three days under high pressure.

“I can’t sleep. I can’t eat. And I didn’t even have the time to pee,” Mr Wang added.

Wang was rescued by Thai authorities on Tuesday but specifics have not been made public. If I had to guess, media coverage of Wang’s kidnapping likely led to a handover as Thai police don’t have jurisdiction in Myanmar.

A second case is under investigation following reports Chinese model Yang Zeqi (right), was kidnapped last month under similar circumstances.

The Weibo user, whose identity was verified by the social media platform, said Yang arrived in Bangkok on December 20 and lost contact with friends near the Myanmar border the next day.

Yang made a video call to his mother on December 29 in which he appeared to be in poor condition, with scars near his eyes, according to the post. The call ended shortly and his family has not been able to reach him since.

Chinese gangs behind the scam compounds targeting high-profile Chinese nationals marks a new chapter. Previously the gangs focused their abduction efforts in neighbouring south-east Asian countries.

The group of organized criminals behind the recent kidnappings are believed to be operating out of Myawaddy in Myanmar.

The Global Times reports a joint letter from families representing 174 trapped individuals is doing the rounds on social media.

A joint letter asking for help from the families of 174 individuals trapped in Myanmar has been trending on China’s social media platform Sina Weibo on Thursday.

In a group on WeChat the families established, the Global Times found a document containing information about their missing relatives including the age, origin, time, and routes of disappearance.

The document indicates that most of the missing persons are aged between 17 and 35 with men being the majority. The information reveals that the missing individuals have been unaccounted for, for a few months to three years.

After analyzing the document, the Global Times found that the missing relatives’ disappearance primarily follows two routes:

Some went missing after entering Myanmar near the Thai-Myanmar border, while others disappeared after crossing the border from China’s border city of Yunnan into Myanmar.

In recent years, telecom fraud syndicates operating in northern Myanmar have been unscrupulously targeting Chinese citizens, luring them to travel to their sites and participate in their fraudulent schemes against residents in China.

To date Chinese authorities have failed to crack down on Chinese organized crime gangs operating in Myanmar and other countries. Local authorities hosting the crime gangs, such as those in Myanmar, turn a blind eye to the fraud in exchange for bribes.

In September 2024, the US Department of Treasury sanctioned Cambodian politician Ly Yong Phat over ties to Chinese human trafficking scam factories.

Through various companies he owns, Phat is alleged to shelter Chinese scammers operating out of Cambodia.

The BBC reports unaddressed scam factories across south-east Asia are “thriving criminal businesses that still entrap hundreds of thousands of people”.

Beijing too wanted to end the discussion about Wang’s case. It wants its citizens to believe it has done enough and that scam centres along its border are no longer an issue.

BehindMLM has an interest in the gangs owing to them being behind the “click a button” app Ponzi plague.

Since 2021 BehindMLM has documented hundreds of “click a button” app Ponzis. Most of them last a few weeks to a few months before collapsing.