Episode 246: Trafficked: Part Three, Asian Scam Compounds

Summary

---

What the Hack? – Episode 246: Trafficked: Part Three, Asian Scam Compounds

Date: April 7, 2026
Host: Beau Friedlander
Guests: Aaron West (Operation Shamrock), Small Q (victim/survivor)

---

Episode Overview

This powerful episode concludes a three-part series exploring the hidden human cost of scam compounds in Southeast Asia’s “special economic zones.” The focus is on human trafficking: how victims are lured, forced to work as scammers, and what it takes to rescue them from these “hellholes.” The podcast features first-person testimony from Small Q, an Ugandan survivor who escaped Myanmar, alongside insights from Aaron West of Operation Shamrock, an anti-trafficking advocate who recently helped bring home another Ugandan, Shaquillu, from a Cambodian scam compound. The episode is an urgent, eye-opening look inside industrial-scale cybercrime, the suffering of its victims, and the global fight to disrupt this brutal business.

---

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Setting the Scene: The New Face of Global Scams

• Special Economic Zones in Southeast Asia
  • Laws are suspended, enabling “towns within towns” run by crime lords ([04:58]).
  • Sites of massive scam compounds—essentially “prisons” or “cities” where trafficked workers are forced to scam people worldwide.
• Target Shift from China to the US and Beyond
  • English-speaking Africans, especially Ugandans and Kenyans, are recruited to scam Americans and other nationalities ([11:12], [42:12]).

2. How Trafficking Happens: Small Q’s Story

• Dreams Sold, Lives Stolen:
  • Small Q, a gospel artist and community computer educator in Uganda, is offered a “data entry” job in Thailand for $1,200/month ([12:03]).
  • He invests everything, even selling his equipment ([13:19]).
  • Upon arrival in Thailand, he’s abducted, transported across borders, and forced into a massive scam compound in Myanmar ([14:19]-[16:57]).
  • Immediate confiscation of documents, phone, and brutal threats: “You are far away from home, you are in Burma. You cannot escape... all you have to do is work for us if you want to survive.” ([17:08])
• Life Inside the Compound
  • Compounds are vast: “20 acres…a town with supermarkets, casinos, basketball courts,” housing thousands ([19:15]-[19:54]).
  • 100 people per company, dozens of companies in each compound ([20:55]).
  • Work involves sending AI-generated romance scam texts pretending to be wealthy women, targeting older men ([21:42]).

3. Abuse, Torture, and Resistance

• Violence for Non-Compliance:
  • Refusal to scam leads to beatings, electrocution:

    “The guy electrocuted me for almost 20 minutes…they called my boss.” – Small Q ([18:34])

• Stealing a Phone & Risking Escape:
  • Small Q risks his life to steal an iPhone SE from the boss’s office to contact the outside world ([23:24]).
  • Endures solitary confinement (“dark room”), starvation, and severe physical/psychological torture ([24:09]).
  • Witnesses murder of fellow captive:

    “I witnessed a Burmese soldier hitting him on the head till his last breath.” ([25:39])

• Courage and Community Save Lives:
  • Contacts family and, with help from Ugandan ambassador and anti-trafficking orgs, is rescued in a group with 22 others ([26:54]-[28:32]).

4. Aaron West’s Mission to Rescue Victims

• Operation Shamrock
  • West receives desperate pleas via contraband phones hidden by workers ([04:30]-[06:01]).
  • Describes process: first verifying legitimacy, then negotiating with brokers and NGOs for rescue—often costly and complex ([07:08], [30:10]).
• Shaquillu’s Ordeal
  • Recruited from Uganda, trafficked into Cambodia, forced to scam Americans, and repeatedly beaten ([09:09], [29:18]).
  • Escape impossible: “There’s literally no way I’m getting out of this compound.” ([29:57])
  • Ultimately “sold” to another compound as property for $3,600 ([34:19]).
  • West loses touch, fears he’s been killed—until, after the arrest of a major crime boss, chaos allows Shaquillu to flee and reestablish contact. West helps him into a safe shelter; he’s finally repatriated ([36:48]-[38:38]).

5. Crackdowns, Disruptions, But Not the End

• Law Enforcement Action
  • High-profile criminal arrests (e.g., Chen Zhi) cause bosses to flee, some compounds to empty ([35:24]-[36:24]).
  • However, the syndicates simply move to fringe locations:

    “It feels a lot like what is happening in Cambodia…all these fringe locations…we’re going to keep running those, Those are still very much in business and growing.” – Aaron West ([40:43])

• Scale and Ongoing Risk
  • Compounds observed capable of housing 100,000+ people, aimed at global targets ([41:47], [42:12]).

6. Victims’ Voices: Trauma and Advocacy

• Survivors as Advocates
  • Small Q explains why he speaks out:

    “Coming back with a lot of drama…tears inside me, fear, nightmares. I felt like I should let out the silence.” ([42:41])

  • Urges awareness, helps others (e.g., grieving mother seeking a missing son).
  • Expresses forgiveness amidst pain:

    “But I forgive them, for they don’t know what I’m doing.” ([43:51])

7. Fighting Back: What Can Be Done?

• Multifaceted Response
  • Law enforcement, NGOs, and public awareness key.
  • Disruptions (indictments, rescues) matter even if they don’t end the system ([44:21]):

    “There are disruptions that can be done…There’s no one thing that is going to make this go away.” – Aaron West ([44:21])

• Practical Tips for Listeners ([46:34])
  • Use privacy extensions (e.g. Block Party) to tighten social media access.
  • Remove personal data from search sites.
  • Remain vigilant for scams starting with “wrong number” texts:

    “You know, there’s a person on the other end of that communication who needs our help.” – Beau Friedlander ([45:53])

---

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Luring Victims:

  “$1,200 is approximately 4.5 million Ugandan shillings. With that, I could pay fees for my young siblings. I could help my parents with medication…” – Small Q ([12:24])

• On the Horrors Inside:

  “It felt like a military base, it felt like a prison…Africans, especially Ugandans and Ethiopians were recruited there.” – Small Q ([17:08], [20:19])

• On Forced Scamming:

  “The templates that were generated by AI…to seduce these people into relationships.” – Small Q ([21:42])

• On Escape and Hope:

  “My first text to my family…I can’t forget the tears my father shedded when he had my voice. After three months, thinking maybe I had died.” – Small Q ([26:00])

• On the Evil of the System:

  “That these operations even talk about expiring contracts is as crazy as the whole thing. Contracts, but they do that.” – Beau Friedlander ([33:42])

• On Disruption:

  “Did it close down scammy in Cambodia? No. Did it disrupt it and make it and allow Shaquillo to get out and get home? Yes.” – Aaron West ([44:21])

• On the Need for Action:

  “It’s going to take all of us, all of the time…more expensive, more difficult, more time consuming for these bad actors to do this work.” – Aaron West ([44:21])

• On Survival:

  “But I’m back…I missed you. I know that you miss me too. But I’m back.” – Small Q ([39:00])

---

Important Segment Timestamps

• [04:30] – Letter from trafficked Ugandan in Cambodia
• [12:03] – Small Q describes his journey from hopeful jobseeker to victim
• [17:08] – Arrival and indoctrination in scam compound
• [21:42] – Mechanics of running romance scams with AI
• [23:24] – Small Q recounts how he risked his life to acquire a phone and reach out
• [26:54] – The process and cost of negotiating their freedom
• [29:18] – Aaron West’s attempts (and obstacles) helping Shaquillu
• [34:19] – On victims being “sold” to new compounds for thousands of dollars
• [35:24] – Major shifts after the arrest of kingpins
• [36:48] – Shaquillu’s escape and safe shelter
• [39:00] – Small Q’s emotional homecoming
• [41:47] – Scale and ongoing expansion of scam compounds
• [44:21] – Aaron West on how to “fight” back
• [45:53] – Call to action: Raising awareness and protecting yourself

---

Conclusion

This episode is a gripping, deeply human account of the lives shattered and the rare but vital rescues happening “inside the machine” of global cyber scams. The blend of testimony and investigation underscores the massive profits driving this “industrialized” scam system, the resilience of its survivors, and the messy, expensive, and risky business of saving victims—one at a time. The episode concludes by calling listeners to raise awareness, protect themselves online, and remember that behind every scam text, there is a real person, a potential victim, and a story that needs to be told.

---

For more resources and Small Q’s music, see the episode links. For information on data privacy and security tips, check out the podcast’s tools and recommendations.

Transcript

[Beau Friedlander]

Last night you spent two hours deciding what to wear to the party this morning. It'll take you two minutes to list it on Depop and make your money back. Just grab your phone, snap a few

[Aaron West]

photos and we'll take care of the rest.

[Beau Friedlander]

The sheer dress and platform heels you'll never wear again. There's a birthday girl searching for them right now.

[Aaron West]

Your one and done look is about

[Beau Friedlander]

to pay for your next night out,

[Aaron West]

or at least the ride home. Your style can make you cash.

[Beau Friedlander]

Start selling on Depop, where taste recognizes taste. I wrote a little song to remind you. Choice hotels get you more of the experiences you value. The Cambria Hotel's got it all. A rooftop bar. Have a bar.

[Small Q]

Bring a date, your squad, or even your mom.

[Beau Friedlander]

Book [e-mail] before we get into it this week, a word of warning. This episode includes descriptions of human trafficking, torture, and murder. If you listen to our earlier episodes on scam compounds in Southeast Asia's special economic zones, you probably found yourself wondering what can be done to help the people trapped there. Forced to work this week, how to liberate a trafficked human being from these hellholes.

[Aaron West]

My first step was to reach out to both him and his brother on WhatsApp, and I was nervous about doing that because I'm well aware this is a contraband phone and I don't want to call attention to him, but. But he did leave his phone number. So I reached out, I said, I'm an American and I would like to be helpful in getting you out of Cambodia.

[Beau Friedlander]

This is where those texts come from.

[Small Q]

You know, the ones you'd be like, hey, how are you? Those were the templates that were generated by AI, actually, and they were given to us to seduce these people into relationships. So a template could be like, hey, I miss you. It's been a while. Do you remember me? You send a picture to this guy when the guy sees you. And you know old men about, you know, beautiful ladies, they fall easy.

[Beau Friedlander]

In this episode, we go inside a scam compound with someone who was forced to work there.

[Small Q]

One of the rules inside that prison. Not sleeping. That's the only word I heard from English from the Sotias in Myanmar.

[Beau Friedlander]

And hopefully we start to see a way to solve this problem. I'm Beau Friedlander, and you're listening to what the Hack, the podcast that asks, in a world where your data is everywhere, how do you stay safe online? So here's the third installment on the scam compounds in Southeast Asia. If you haven't heard the Those first two episodes, go check them out. We've talked about the machine, the compounds, the billions of dollars being stolen from people, from us over here by people over there. That's what it feels like. The crime bosses in the special economic zones of Southeast Asia who've built a country inside a country. Today we're going to talk about the people inside that machine, two of them who escaped. And also, welcome back Aaron west of Operation Shamrock, who actually got a message she wasn't supposed to see. And. And this is the story. So there's. There's a lot to talk about, but this week, I really want to focus on human trafficking. And. And you just posted big news about. I don't know if I'm going to say the name right. Shakilu.

[Aaron West]

You've got the. You are hot off the press. Yes, I just literally posted that. And his name is Shaquillu. And I'm delighted to talk about this great success story.

[Beau Friedlander]

Aaron west has spent the last little while doing something most people would never think of doing, which is actually going to where these scams are happening. She's been to Cambodia, the Philippines, Uganda, and. And she works with a whole network of other people who are also trying to solve this riddle of how do you stop a global scam epidemic?

[Aaron West]

So I'm in a group text and a group text with a lot of NGOs and people who are concerned about human trafficking. And there was a letter inside this group chat, and it was a man asking for help, saying, I am a Ugandan man. I was trafficked into a Cambodian compound. Every day I target Americans and I am being tortured and I want out. Can you please help?

[Beau Friedlander]

If. If you didn't hear the first two episodes, I think it's important just to the lay of the land. Here is this. They're in. In Southeast Asia, we're talking about Cambodia, Myanmar and Laos. There are these special economic zones, and in these special economic zones, the laws that apply to the rest of the country don't apply. Think of it kind of like Las Vegas. There's casinos in these spots. But there's also scam compounds, and there are crime lords. Now, these scam compounds take up huge spaces. They're like towns within a town. That's where you get those phone calls. That's where you get those texts. Mostly texts that say, hey, are we going to. Are you still meeting me for tennis today? Or, you know, and they're the wrong number, right? But they're not the wrong number because you seem nice. And therefore, let's talk and who knows? Maybe we'll fall in love. That's the setting. How did he get this message out if he's in a. In a. In a scam compound?

[Aaron West]

So that's the funny thing is. So it's. There are different levels of security in different compounds. Like if you just read Andy Greenberg's Wired article where he was talking to a man named Red Bull, Red Bull was able to freely come and go. But in most scam compounds, you do not have the ability to come and go. And in some scam compounds, you may have access to a phone, and it's a phone that you and your friends hide in your dorm, or they may even know you have a phone.

[Beau Friedlander]

So it's not the phone that they're giving you to use to scam people, because that's probably tightly controlled.

[Aaron West]

That is tightly controlled. Absolutely not. So the tightly controlled phone is the. Is the work phone, and that work phone at the end of your shift has to be charged and placed in the special location. I've seen them. They. There's wall hangings that are numbered, and you have a number where your phone needs to go at night.

[Beau Friedlander]

So this is a contraband phone. Like in prison, people make. Make, you know, prison hooch out of prunes. This is the phone version of that.

[Aaron West]

That's exactly what this is. And so he reached out and he said, I need some help. And he listed his WhatsApp, his brother's WhatsApp, and two other WhatsApp numbers. And so I reached out to the group, and I. I didn't have any experience at that time with what does it actually take to get someone out of one of these compounds? But I reached out, I said, is anybody handling this? And nobody put their hand up. And I said, well, this is my. I want to see if I can be helpful to Shaquilleu.

[Beau Friedlander]

So. So you actually started with the problem set. How do you get someone out of a scam compound who wants to leave?

[Aaron West]

Exactly. Yes. My first step was to reach out to both him and his brother on WhatsApp. And I was nervous about doing that, because I'm well aware this is a contraband phone, and I don't want to call attention to him. But. But he did leave his phone number. So I reached out, I said, I'm an American, and I would like to be helpful in getting you out of Cambodia. And I didn't hear anything back. And then I reached out to his brother, and his brother got right back to me, and his brother, and I started talking, and I think There were about two weeks worth of conversations between the two of us.

[Beau Friedlander]

And you guys are speaking in real time, actually talking.

[Aaron West]

Sometimes we'd talk, and then most of the time we would text. And. And first I just needed to establish that I was a legitimate person. So luckily there is. There's some press that I can send his way and show that I'm a legitimate person. And then I also have my Operation Shamrock website that I can. That I can lead him to. So I wanted him to believe that I was a real helper who wanted to get his brother home.

[Beau Friedlander]

Now, where's his brother? In Uganda or also in a scam compound.

[Aaron West]

He is in Uganda.

[Beau Friedlander]

So you reached out to the brother. The brother vouches for you. And then you just wait.

[Aaron West]

So finally, after about two weeks, Shaquiloo does respond to me, that he feels comfortable talking to me. And so we begin chatting on WhatsApp. And he starts sending me pictures. He gives me the coordinates of where he's located.

[Beau Friedlander]

All right, before we go any further, I mean, it's important to understand that Shaquilleu is not alone in this. And the reason he got targeted is the same reason a lot of people are finding themselves in these scam compounds from Uganda. Why? Because they can read and write English, which. And they're needed to grow these scam compounds. Revenue coming out of the United States.

[Aaron West]

I was a prosecutor for 26 and a half years. The last three years of my career, I did nothing but pig butchering cases. I dealt only with people who had lost everything they had and many of whom had taken out loans on top of that. So I was seeing Americans get destroyed. And this level of destruction was like nothing I'd ever seen as a prosecutor. These people were. They were self harming, they were near suicide. They were completely emotionally bereft. It was the worst type of victimization I had seen as a prosecutor. And so the more I learned about what had happened to them and more, I realized, oh, my God, this is happening in Southeast Asia at scale, in an industrialized way, that there are massive compounds where people are being human trafficked in with this sole mandate of stealing money. And I had to see it for myself. I had to see it with my own eyes to understand the gravity of what was happening.

[Beau Friedlander]

There was a point when these special economic zones realized there was more money to be made than just from gambling. Tourists coming out of China. And these scam compounds started targeting Americans.

[Aaron West]

They went to the American market, and when they went to the American market, their Southeast Asian population, human trafficked. Population that had been previously speaking Chinese to people. Now we needed English speakers. And we've got English speakers in Uganda and Kenya. And so that is an easy, easy move. And what these bad actors look for is they look for people that need money and are willing to travel for it.

[Small Q]

After my high school, I was actually not looking for a job. I created my own job. It was an Internet cafe because I loved to share, you know, my computer knowledge with the community.

[Beau Friedlander]

Small Q is a musical artist and an activist from Kampala, uganda. He was 23 years old when a regular customer at his Internet cafe told him about a job opportunity in Thailand. Data entry, $1,200 a month. And in Uganda, small Q was making $100 a month. So it was attractive.

[Small Q]

$1,200 is approximately 4.5 million Ugandan shillings. With that, I could pay fees for my young siblings. I could help my parents with medication. I could pay for myself tuition to continue with my studies, because I've always dreamt to continue with my computer science and engineering course ever since I finished high school.

[Beau Friedlander]

But to get that job, he had to go to Kenya first to get

[Small Q]

a Thai visa, you know, the Thai embassy, which we didn't have in Uganda. So firstly, I had to travel to Kenya, a neighboring country in East Africa. And that's how the process started. I got my visa also excited, I shared it with my, you know, family. Then I traveled after purchasing my own ticket to Thailand, they told him they

[Beau Friedlander]

would reimburse him for the travel.

[Small Q]

I traveled to Kenya to get to receive my visa first. Then when I came back to Uganda is when I purchased my ticket and I flew from Entebbe airport to Dubai. I was promised that whatever I invest in this opportunity, I'll be given a back to. So they told me, when you get to the company, they will refund your money. So I had to, you know, spend living in Kenya waiting for my visa. I had to purchase my ticket. I remember it was Emirates Airline, but unfortunately it was all lies. Guess what? I had to sell out every computer that I had in the Internet cafe. I left nothing back. Just went with the hope that I'll come back with something.

[Beau Friedlander]

Small Q flew from Entebbe to Dubai, Dubai to Bangkok, where he was then met at the gate by a man who took him out to a fancy car.

[Small Q]

Immediately I got to the airport at Gate 8. I remember there was this car that came. There was this guy that came, came out very happy, you know, very welcoming. He was not speaking English, but he tried to communicate with me and that's when I was lied into a car. Then we set off from the airport. So from the airport I was promised to be taken to the hotel to rest. Then the next day I would meet my bosses. Now just on the way. Remember, it was 17 hours on the flight. I was feeling so hungry. Then I asked this guy, can I get something to eat? He never knew English, so he had to pull out his phone. Then we started chatting using a Google Translate. So that's when he told me, it's okay, I can branch out off to a nearby restaurant. He was so charming, like, he was like friendly. We go, I got something to eat. Then we continued the journey. I kept asking him, when are we getting to the hotel? I feel so exhausted. And that's when he branched off from the highway to a nearby warehouse where he met other colleagues that pulled me out of the car very aggressively, confiscated my bag, my passport, my phone and everything that I had. And they made me kneel down for hours.

[Beau Friedlander]

So what's going on in your mind at this point?

[Small Q]

I was so scared. I didn't know what to do. I started praying. Like I was thinking a lot of things. I was like, are they. Have they abducted some. Someone wrong? Like, is it a misunderstanding? Not until I saw another car that arrived at a very high speed. They got me in forcefully and we. And we departed from this warehouse in the middle of the night. Then we went to a river where they'd made me cross, you know, in that coldness with a lot of tears that I was experiencing at that point. Then we crossed to the other side. There is a car that was waiting for us again. Like, I spent 20 hours on road from the airport till we got to the almost. Because I departed from the airport around 2pm and I got to Myanmar in the morning around 10am but at the

[Beau Friedlander]

time, he didn't know where he was. The place where he was taken is one of the most notorious scam compounds on the Thai Myanmar border.

[Small Q]

It was the first day when I asked my boss where I am. And they told me, you are far away from home, you are in Burma. You cannot escape from this place. All you have to do is to work for us if you want to survive in this place. And those were the words of a supervisor. I was introduced to the moment I got into this company where I saw a lot of frustrated people typing on computers, very scared, being monitored by Meritadi personnel. And I got so scared. It felt like a military base, it felt like a prison at the same time. But my hope came back When I saw Africans and actually they were Ugandans. So when I was introduced to the job, I actually failed to work. I was like, I am a gospel artist. I give hope to the people. How can I start even scamming people? I denied to work and that's when they called my boss. The guy electrocuted me for almost 20 minutes, shouting in Chinese. I didn't know what he was saying. Just explaining to me after by the translator that you have to sit and work for these people who want to survive.

[Beau Friedlander]

Where is Daredevil?

[Small Q]

I'm right here.

[Aaron West]

Don't miss the return of Marvel Television's Daredevil Born Again.

[Beau Friedlander]

So what's next? I feel liberated. We're gonna take this city back over

[Small Q]

medicated in an all new season.

[Aaron West]

Now streaming only on Disney Plus. They're hunting us. It's time we started hunting them.

[Beau Friedlander]

I can work with them.

[Aaron West]

This should be tons of fun.

[Beau Friedlander]

Marvel Television's Daredevil Born Again. Now streaming only on Disney. So how big was this scam compound where you were held against your will and forced to work?

[Small Q]

It's around 20 acres. Inside this scumming center, there are a lot of companies. Like a scamming center could have around 50 companies. Imagine a two story building with almost eight companies. So each large room on a. On a big, big, big building is a company. So there. It's a very big, huge place.

[Beau Friedlander]

It sounds like a mall, actually. Or maybe the small town made up of scamming operations.

[Small Q]

A town. A town with supermarkets, A town with casinos inside it. A town with basketball courts. It's. I don't know. It's a huge, huge place.

[Beau Friedlander]

And are there Westerners there or is it only populated by people who work at the scam compounds and the Chinese people who run it?

[Small Q]

I got to know that Africans, especially Ugandans and Ethiopians were recruited there. Then on the other side, it's a lot of Chinese people from Sri Lanka. I witnessed a France, a French guy, two Kenyans and one Indian guy.

[Beau Friedlander]

And they were all running these different scam companies.

[Small Q]

Yeah. And a company can have like a lot of people from different areas.

[Beau Friedlander]

And how many people are typically, how many people were in the company where you were being held captive?

[Small Q]

Around 100 people in each company.

[Beau Friedlander]

And your work situation is there are computers and phones and people guarding you with guns and with electrical devices to shock you.

[Small Q]

Working actually 20 hours a day without rest. 20 hours? Almost 20. Sometimes they give you overtime. So after the 18 hours or 14 hours, you get two more extra hours or four hours, depending on what target you have failed to rich on.

[Beau Friedlander]

So why were they walking around electrocuting people? What were you being tasked to do? How. How did they decide whether or not you did your job?

[Small Q]

The moment I got there, I was given around 100 numbers. And I had to convince these people that I'm friendly. And we've met before. Imagine. So I was in a picture of a lady called Madeleine. Very Beautiful girl, around 28 years old, very rich, you know, with a very luxurious life. And now I was given numbers of men around 40 to 60 years. These men were almost in their retirement age. So that's how the scam goes, is a beautiful lady that acts, you know, friendly to these people, then trap them into scams. So that's how it goes. You be like, hey, how are you? Those were the templates that were generated by AI Actually, and they were given to us to seduce these people into relationships. So a template could be like, hey, I miss you. It's been a while. Do you remember me? You send a picture to this guy when the guy sees you. And you know old men about, you know, beautiful ladies, they fall easy.

[Beau Friedlander]

When small Q learned what he was doing, he didn't want to do it. Remember, he's a. He's a gospel artist. He gives people hope. He doesn't crush them. And so he refused to do it. And he was severely beaten and electrocuted and eventually sent to what they called the boss's office to be dealt with directly, which, it turns out, put him exactly where he needed to be.

[Small Q]

I was able to steal a phone. It's the iPhone SE that I'm holding right now. It's one of the phones that we are using to scam people. These phones were stored in a certain room. It was the room actually of the boss that I was able to access after being taken there to be punished after denying working for, you know, several days. So that's when I accessed this phone. I was able to steal it. No one witnessed me. Thank God for that. Then I logged on to wi Fi and I started communicating to people in the outside world. I started with my family till I was able to get the number of the ambassador of Uganda, Madame Letty Begombe. And she's the reason why actually came out of that company. It was kind of dangerous. You could lose a hand or a life with that action. But I was brave enough because I tried to escape before, like, they captured me. They took me to one of the most dangerous prisons. Inside actual this prison, there were more dangerous prisons. Like, it was called the dark room. I spent there almost five days without eating anything. I was tortured. I was, you know, spitted on. I was denied to. To urinate. I was denied to use restrooms for all those days. I felt so disgusted. These people are heartless. That's what I can say. I reached a point. I started imagining stuff. I imagined myself back home with my family in that room. It was a torture room. They torture you psychologically and physically. They were beating me, if at all. I tried to dose. Cause one of the rules inside that prison, not sleeping. That's the only word I heard from English, from those sotias in Myanmar. They come to you, they knock you on the head with a baton. They tell you stop sleeping. I was not alone in this prison. On my left there is this Ethiopian guy that was screaming a lot, screaming a lot to be released. But I witnessed a Burmese soldier hitting him on the head till his last breath.

[Beau Friedlander]

So it makes sense that you would take a risk to, to escape. And, and the, the phone was a. A risk you were willing to take?

[Small Q]

Definitely. This is like a souvenir to me. I remember the first text to my family. I can't forget the tears my father shedded when he had my voice. After three months, thinking maybe I. I had died. You know, it gave them hope. They tried everything they could. The news was spread because I'm an artist. Where I come from, people love me. I was inspiring kids before. So the issue went to the parliament. And I'm glad by the point I communicated to the ambassador, Betty Wigombe. She knew about the issue and she promised me that actually, she said in her own words, I'll get you out of that place. My children.

[Beau Friedlander]

Through his family, Small Q reached out to Uganda's ambassador to Thailand, and she connected with an organization called Global alliance, run by a man named Judah Turner, who knew somebody who knew somebody who knew somebody who could get the boss of that compound. Boss. Whatever they negotiated, they started to negotiate terms. And it started at $10,000 a person

[Small Q]

for 23 people, which the government of Uganda couldn't believe and couldn't trust because these people were already scammers. There is a compound that I was sold to. It's called the Keke park, one of the most dangerous parks on the border of Myanmar and Thailand. So this day came like any other day inside there, thinking that I'm maybe woken up to go to work. But unfortunately, it was the day. It was the last day in this scamming compound. They read 23 names. We were a lot of Ugandans there. But they read 23 names, and my name was first on the list. And we marched out of that compound. When we got out, I couldn't believe it. What brought my hope back was seeing a huge bunch of passports that was held by one of the Merritale guys. Then I knew it's time to go back home. Finally, I shedded tears on the ferry to cross the river from the other side. This is a second chance to me. And finally I was rescued. That day.

[Beau Friedlander]

They held the group in a Thai shelter for three weeks while the government verified their stories. And then. And then they flew home. Small Q made it out with a stolen phone, the help of an ambassador, and a negotiation that took months. Right around the same time in Cambodia, Aaron west was in the middle of her own version of that story. But the trail went cold in that case.

[Aaron West]

And so once I got those coordinates, I could see using Google Earth where he was, and he was on the Cambodia Vietnam border. And what occurred to me in looking at it was, you're not far from the border, and I can see if you can get out of this compound. You could probably run to safety on this dirt path that's right there.

[Beau Friedlander]

So how far we're talking, Many of these compounds are in the special economic zones right on the border of other countries. How far are we talking? 100ft, 200ft?

[Aaron West]

Not much more than that? Yeah, I mean, it was right there. But he said, oh, but there's no way I'm getting out. There's. This place is filled with security. There's literally no way I'm getting out of this compound.

[Beau Friedlander]

And are you getting pictures at this point of the inside and what the security looks like or anything like that, or just kind of his conditions where he's communicating with you? Because I imagine he's not bringing the phone with him to his workstation.

[Aaron West]

Correct. Because, and I didn't know this at the time, they have them go through a metal detector coming in and out, so that you're not bringing a phone in and you're not taking a phone out with you. And so he would say to me, I wish I could take pictures of what's happening on the inside. But what he was showing me was the building itself, and then he was showing me the construction. And this really dovetailed with what I had just seen. I had been to Cambodia five months prior, and I had seen the massive construction that was happening all over the country. So when he showed me that he was inside a compound with lots of construction, that that all that all tracked with what I had personally seen. So he's given me the coordinates for where he's located. So I had been to Cambodia, and I had friends in Cambodia, and I gave them those coordinates for them to go see what they could find out. So they went out there and they took pictures for me, and they said we could not get anywhere near it, that it is highly guarded, it is highly fortified, it's a very scary place, and we do not have the ability to get in there at all. So. So that. So knocking on the door was not going to be an option. So then I started reaching out to other. Other NGOs who do this work and who have been successful in getting people out. And I asked them about the process. And the process essentially is you need to go through a broker, and the broker will negotiate for the safe passage out of someone. But that's an exposure, expensive endeavor, and it's thousands and thousands of dollars to get someone out because they've, quote, unquote, put that much money into them already. So you have to essentially buy them back. But that didn't seem like something that was going to. To work for us either, because we really didn't want to become the. We pay the ransom. We. We didn't want to become known as the people who pay ransom. So. So that was. That was not going to work. Meanwhile, Shaquilleu is sending me more and more interesting information. He sends me a plea in his own words, explaining that we're real people in here and we're being abused and we are being forced to steal your money. And so he gave me the authority to use that. He had me use a voice changer on it, and I published that, and that got some interest. But nothing was as easy as I thought about this. So we continued to talk, and we continued to talk for months and share information. And he would let me know that he was becoming more and more injured in there. He was being beaten, he was being asked to stand for extended periods of time, and his legs were really suffering as a result. And I knew that he had been a bit of a thorn in the side of his captors. And he told me he thought that he might be transferred to another facility. And then the next thing I knew, he was gone. And I didn't hear from him again.

[Beau Friedlander]

This transfer practice is one of the more perverse practices of the scam compound system. When a worker's contract is about to expire, they're moved to. To another facility, handed a fresh contract, and the clock resets another year. Another term, another prison with different walls. That these operations even talk about expiring contracts is as crazy as the whole thing. Contracts, but they do that. And I've also heard that the price to liberate a worker in some of these places can be as low as $3,000. But the families of the human trafficked victims, they don't have that three grand.

[Aaron West]

You're exactly right. He was sold to the other, to another compound for $3,600.

[Beau Friedlander]

So I assume you lost him.

[Aaron West]

He fell off the grid. And I had a rare opportunity during this time, and I was asked to go speak at a G7 event. And I really want. And I was the opening speaker and I really wanted to make this a human issue. And so I played his voice, and I played his voice and his plea for help, because there's really nothing. But it was during that period of time where I hadn't heard from him, and months were going by and months were going by, and I became quite confident that he had been killed.

[Beau Friedlander]

Let's talk about what happened. Around this time, these crime bosses started to experience some friction.

[Aaron West]

People who were running scam compounds had seen that some had been raided, and a lot of the big bosses fled.

[Beau Friedlander]

Well, there was a bigger restaurant then, right?

[Small Q]

In January, a Chinese tycoon was arrested in Cambodia and extradited to China. Chinese authorities called him the ringleader of a major transnational crime and gambling syndicate. The US and UK alleged that Chen Zhi oversaw a network of scam compounds that enslaved workers and stole from many across the world.

[Aaron West]

There was, there was the United States indicted a man called Chen Zhi. And In January of 2026, China stepped in and said, oh, yes, we indict him also. And they extradited him to China. And so, so the Cambodian world got a. A look at the fact that people weren't invincible and that people could be arrested and that maybe this wasn't as secure as they thought. And a lot of the crime bosses fled and they, they went into hiding or they, they picked up somewhere else, or they just moved to a different place in Cambodia and left their shop unattended and people walked out the door.

[Beau Friedlander]

So the scam compound bosses and their armies took off. Workers, whatever you want to call them. The Cambodian officials who made all of this possible were also on the run. And the compounds in that area essentially just opened their doors. And the people who'd been forced to work there scattered. That's when Shaquilla resurfaces. He's in the wind along with everyone else. But somehow he gets a hold of a phone. How'd that go down?

[Aaron West]

So he borrows a phone from a friend. He reaches out and he says, hi, it's your friend from Uganda. And I thought, wow. So I asked him a question only he would know the answer to, and that was, what is your brother's name? And he told me, and then I realized, oh, my gosh, this is him. And so we began talking again because now he was in a different predicament. And his predicament then was, I have overstayed my visa because he. He was supposed to have left Cambodia seven months ago. And so I am subject to arrest, but I have nowhere to go. There's no shelter. There's no. It's unclear how I'm supposed to get home. So I reached out to a friend in Cambodia that runs a shelter and talked to him about it, and he was able to get Shaquilu admitted to that shelter.

[Beau Friedlander]

Oh, that's amazing.

[Aaron West]

Yes.

[Beau Friedlander]

And the shelter was a place where he was actually going to be shielded from any further trafficking.

[Aaron West]

Absolutely, yes. So. So Shaquillu went to that shelter, and I was going to Cambodia at that time. So my first stop when I got to Cambodia was to see him in the shelter.

[Beau Friedlander]

Amazing. Okay, so give us the coda. Shaquillu goes home. That just happened.

[Aaron West]

So, like, literally, he's been home six hours? Yes.

[Beau Friedlander]

Wow, that's amazing. And went to his brother.

[Aaron West]

And went to his brother. Yes, he is back in. Flew into Entebbe and then went to see his brother.

[Beau Friedlander]

When Small Q got home, he went and got some street food. Something really familiar.

[Small Q]

It's called a Rolex. You know, you get chapati, you put in eggs and everything. So I missed that. So I remember when I was, you know, taking the first bite of it, I was like, it's been a long time for my family. It's been a long time for my motherland. Truth is that I missed you. And I know that you miss me too. But I'm back. I'm back. I'm back. I'm back. I'm back, man. I'm back from Elonant. Elonant I'm back from.

[Beau Friedlander]

Aaron, this is not over. Far from it. I mean, you met up with Shaquilleu. The two of you were touring the area looking at new construction, and you saw massive developments happening there. Apparently all these kingpins, these. These gang leader leaders, whatever you want to call them, they're back in business. So. So you. You met up with Shaquillu, and. And I know that you Were touring the area to look for new construction and you saw some, some massive, massive developments happening there. So apparently all these, these kingpins, these, these, these, these gang leaders, whatever you want to call them, they're back in business.

[Aaron West]

Well, that's the thing I liken this to. We had the super bowl in San Francisco, Santa Clara county, and, and there was a sweep of the homeless people. And we moved them out, made it look like we don't have a homeless problem. And so that feels a lot like what is happening in Cambodia, that we will take down the massive compounds in the locations you know about. But all these fringe locations on the border that you might not have heard about yet, we're going to keep running those, Those are still very much in business and growing and growing. I have never seen anything like the compound that I saw at the Vietnam border that was just insane in terms of its, its height, its length and the entire scam city that was being built around it with brand new boulevards and lights and stores. This was being built and is being built to be an outpost of, of Scambodia.

[Beau Friedlander]

And we're talking about an area that could house 100,000 people without question. Yeah, I mean, just to give you a sense of scale, this is the size of a middle to small, middle, you know, middle, small US City. These are, these are, these are amazing concentrations of people. And they're all there to do one thing. And they're all pointed at the United States now, aren't they?

[Aaron West]

Well, I would say that, except I've heard recently from some of the, some of the people coming out that there also are targets in Israel, targets in Brazil, targets in different parts of the world, Sweden. So it's not just the United States anymore.

[Beau Friedlander]

And the pipeline that fed these compounds, Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia, isn't slowing down. In fact, the whole thing's moving closer to those places and involving them more,

[Small Q]

coming back with a lot of, you know, drama, you know, tears inside me, fear, nightmares. I felt like I should let out the silence. Now, seeing news like that made me one day speak about it in an interview because I was a musician and the reception I got from the people. You know, there is this mom that called me and she told me I lost my son in a way like that. I've never heard from him for three months now. How can you help? That's when I started, you know, knowing that this is a serious issue. I felt like this country, it's also a victim. That's why these people, you know, the Chinese syndicate and Chinese gang mafias use it as a way to, you know, to explore the outside world. Left Africa looking for greener pastures, pressures, abducted and slept. Six months in tortures, tortures. Then I stole an iPhone. Se reason why I'm not free. Thank you, Mama Betty. I'm not free. I'm not free. But I forgive them for they don't know what I'm doing.

[Beau Friedlander]

What does fighting them look like right now.

[Aaron West]

To fight these scam compounds? It's a non stop endeavor. It is. There's no day offs when you're fighting scam compounds because they're not taking a day off. It's all about getting awareness out, accepting any opportunity to talk about it, to educate about it. It's about keeping law enforcement engaged and up to speed and having access to the latest technology that allows them to be better investigators, building capacity nationwide for them to do this type of investigation. The fact is, every time I speak about this, I ask people to look around because I don't know your shop. I don't know what you have access to that I don't. But I know that you know something or have access to something that's going to make it a little bit more difficult, more expensive, more time consuming for these bad actors to do this work. It's going to take all of us, all of the time that there's no one thing that is going to make this go away. I'll tell you some things that have happened that have been influential, and that is the United States indicting a kingpin that caused a ripple effect. Did it close down scammy in Cambodia? No. Did it disrupt it and make it and allow Shaquillo to get out and get home? Yes. There are disruptions that can be done. And I think we need to not think of this as how are we going to win, but how are we going to make it more expensive, more difficult, more time consuming for them to do this work?

[Beau Friedlander]

Winning the war against these scam compounds is possible. As with any war, though, the first order of business is understanding the enemy, doing reconnaissance and putting that intel in front of the people who can use it to make plans. We're in the very beginning of this war. Spread the word. Tell people what you know about that scam text they keep getting. Hey, how you doing? You know, there's a person on the other end of that communication who needs our help.

[Small Q]

I wish the world had me and you times 100. We could end this very soon.

[Beau Friedlander]

Now it's time for the tinfoil swan, our paranoid takeaway to keep you safe. On and offline. Now, we've been hearing about these scams, and I want to talk about two things that you can do, and they, they both actually are the reason this podcast exists. One is you can use something called Block Party. It's an extension. It's a browser extension that allows you to toggle and, and set your privacy on social media so that you are not sharing stuff with just anybody. And that really matters because a lot of scams are starting on social media, and they're starting on social media where everything's wide open. They know who you know and can therefore create really good scams based on that. You know, kind of guessing at what you'll. What, what kind of bait you'll bite on now. And the second one is, is making sure as much of your personal information is private as possible. And you may know, you may have seen that your information is like kind of right there on people search sites. Well, you can get Delete Me and, and. And have it removed. It's as simple as that. Deleteme was the New York Times wirecutter's number one pick for data removal. It, it works. It works very well. And if you, if you go to joindeleteme.com wth and you. And you sign up there, you'll get a 20% discount. So it's worth doing. All right, that's what we got for this week. I hope that you come back next week. I hope you'll spread the word about these scam compound episodes and share them with people because it really does matter and we really can make a difference. Okay, see you next week. This episode of what the Hack was produced by me and Andrew Steven, who also did the editing. What the hack is a production of Delete Me, which was picked by the New York Times Wirecutter as the number 41 Personal Information Removal service. You should be using it already. If you're not and you want to, well, you can. Here's what to do. Go to joindeleteme.com wth that's joindeleteme.com WTH and get 20% off. I kid you not. 20%. 20% off. That's joindeleteme.come wt th and some of the music in here was. It's by Small Q. And you can find that music by Small Q on any streaming service out there. Please go listen to it. It's on YouTube too. And if you can find his Patreon, you should do that too. All right, have a great week. We all need advice, but it's not always clear who to ask, even in 2026. Enter how to the Long Standing Advice show an Ambie Award nominated Best Personal Growth Podcast. That's back with new episodes and a new host. Who? Me. Mike Pesca. Each week I tackle a listener question ranging from travel to finance to relationships and beyond, with help from a world class expert. You know, someone who actually very much knows what they're talking about. Think of it as eavesdropping on someone else's therapy session without the copay or awkward silences. You've got questions, we'll find the experts and the answers. So follow how to with Mike Pesca. Wherever you get podcasts, have you ever

[Aaron West]

asked yourself, can the president really do that? Or wondered if there was too much money in political campaigns? Then check out the new season of you Might Be Right, hosted by us

[Small Q]

former Tennessee governors Phil Bredesen and Bill Haslam.

[Aaron West]

We're back for a brand new season now, and you Might Be Right cements

[Small Q]

the idea that constructive disagreement can lead

[Beau Friedlander]

to real problem solving.

[Aaron West]

This season we're going to dig into the role of the National Guard AI regulation, and a lot more. New episodes drop every other week.

[Beau Friedlander]

Follow you Might Be Right.

[Small Q]

Wherever you get your podcasts.