HYDERABAD: What began as a promising overseas job offer — complete with glossy video calls and the promise of a villa with a swimming pool — ended with a frantic plea for rescue from a cramped house near the Thailand-Myanmar border. For a group of young men from Hyderabad and other parts of southern India, the journey exposed the brutal mechanics of an international cybercrime racket operating under the guise of employment.
A Job Offer Too Good to Refuse
In November, Mir Sajjad Ali, 23, left Hyderabad for Bangkok believing he had secured a steady job as a digital sales executive. The offer promised long but manageable hours, a monthly salary of nearly ₹1 lakh, and accommodation that appeared luxurious. During a video call with the recruiter, Mir was shown images of a villa with a swimming pool and modern amenities. He was urged to travel quickly, his cousin Mehdi Ali later recalled, or risk losing the opportunity.
Mir, a college dropout who had completed several online courses and relied on part-time digital work, had been struggling to find stable employment. He did not tell his parents the full details of the job, saying instead that he was going on a holiday. His father works in Kuwait City; his mother lives in Hyderabad. After landing in Bangkok, Mir called home to say he would be working from there.
For the first few days, his reassurances seemed genuine. He made video calls showing a clean workplace and told his family that his employer was treating him well. Then, abruptly, the calls stopped.
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From Bangkok to the Border
Nearly two weeks later, Mir managed to place a hurried call. His voice, relatives said, was strained and fearful. Based on his phone’s location, he appeared to be somewhere near the Thailand-Myanmar border. Soon after, contact ceased again.
On January 16, Mir made a distress call asking to be rescued. He said he and several others were being held at a call centre that was scamming people online. According to a relative who received the call, those who refused to work were beaten and abused. Passports and phones were confiscated.
The account mirrored what other families were beginning to hear. At least two other youths from Hyderabad — Sameer Khan of Maula Ali and Arshad of Banjara Hills — were identified as being caught in similar circumstances. Several Indian nationals, Mir said, were trapped alongside him, forced to meet daily targets tied to online fraud.
A Network Exposed
The cases gained public attention after Asaduddin Owaisi, a Member of Parliament from Hyderabad, posted about the situation. He said he had received messages indicating that at least 16 Indian nationals, including three from Hyderabad, had been lured to Thailand with job offers and then taken to the Myanmar-Thailand border, where they were effectively enslaved.
According to his post, the youths were forced to work 18 to 20 hours a day, physically punished, and deprived of basic necessities, including medical care. He urged India’s external affairs minister to intervene.
Law enforcement officials in Andhra Pradesh later confirmed that those who had been rescued described being manhandled, abused and threatened if they refused to participate in cybercrime. Daily performance targets were enforced, and failure led to further punishment.
Rescue and Repatriation
The racket was not new to authorities. In November, with assistance from the central government and Thai officials, the Andhra Pradesh government rescued 370 people from call centres operating near the Thailand-Myanmar border. Fifty-five of them were from Andhra Pradesh, and they were brought back to India in three flights.
In the second week of January, another 22 youths from Andhra Pradesh were rescued through coordination between Indian agencies and Thai authorities. Officials described the phenomenon as “cyber slavery,” saying victims were coerced into committing online fraud from dubious call centres.
For families like Mir’s, the rescues offered cautious hope. But the details emerging from survivors — of deception, confinement and violence — underscored how easily economic vulnerability could be exploited across borders, and how a promise made over a video call could lead, within weeks, to captivity in a foreign land.
