Over the past few weeks, Chinese people have been glued to the story of actor Wang Xing, who briefly went missing in the Thai town of Mae Sot, near the border with Myanmar. 

Amid the outcry, Thai authorities found Wang in Myanmar, and said the actor was held at a compound called KK Park in the Myanmarese town of Myawaddy, on the other side of the Myanmar-Thailand border. The compound is notorious for being a hub for illegal scams. 

Wang’s disappearance revived fears among many in China and elsewhere in East Asia of kidnapping rings in Southeast Asia, where victims are lured to countries like Thailand and Cambodia under false pretenses, then forced to work—often running new scams. 

What happened to Wang Xing?

Thai police say scammers lured Wang to Bangkok for what the actor thought was a film audition. The perpetrators communicated to Wang through WeChat, the Chinese messaging platform, pretending to be employees from a major Thai entertainment company. 

Instead, when Wang arrived in Bangkok on Jan. 3, he was kidnapped and driven to Mae Sot. 

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Wang’s girlfriend took to Weibo, China’s version of X, to plead for help. Chinese celebrities picked up her request and shared it over social media. The outcry caught the attention of both Chinese and Thai authorities, and Wang was rescued on Jan 7.  

Wang’s kidnappers shaved his head in captivity, and forced him into training to run scams on new victims. The actor claimed that at least 50 others were held at the compound. 

What effect is it having on tourism?

The kidnapping has revived concerns about travel to Southeast Asia, particularly countries like Thailand and Cambodia.

In a statement, the organizer for Eason Chan’s concert said it made the decision due to “safety concerns regarding travel to Thailand for Chinese citizens and fans from other countries.” 

On the social media app Xiaohongshu, users asked whether it was safe to travel to Thailand. Cancellations of flights from China to Thailand surged by 155% over the weekend of Jan. 11, according to Bloomberg citing data from ForwardKeys, a travel analytics firm. 

It’s a knock against Thailand and the broader region heading into the Lunar New Year Holiday, traditionally one of the most important travel periods for tourists from mainland China. Sisdivachr Cheewarattanaporn, president of the Association of Thai Travel Agents, warned that tourist numbers could drop by as much as 20% unless Thai authorities worked to restore confidence in the travel hotspot—such as by noting that the scam centers are usually not based in Thailand, but rather in neighboring countries. 

A drop in tourist numbers, particularly from China, would hinder Thailand’s drive to restore its tourism sector, which has yet to return to pre-COVID numbers. Thailand welcomed just over 35 million visitors last year, generating around $52.2 billion in revenue, according to the Tourism Authority of Thailand. That’s still below the 40 million tourists and $60 billion in revenue enjoyed before the pandemic. 

Chinese outbound travel is showing some signs of recovery after a prolonged post-pandemic slump. Nearly 7 million Chinese travellers went to Thailand last year, up from 3.5 million in 2023 but still below the around 11 million people that traveled before COVID.

How have other governments reacted?

The scams target people throughout Asia, but primarily in locations like mainland China, the island of Taiwan, and the Chinese city of Hong Kong. Scammers reach out to potential victims offering them a job and sometimes flight and accommodation. Then when the victim arrives, they seize their passport and take them to an isolated location in countries that border Thailand. 

In addition to Thailand, Cambodia has been another hub for these job scams. One kidnapping method has been to invite victims to take fake construction jobs in Sihanoukville, a budding tourism and casino hub that fell on hard times during the COVID pandemic.

Governments in Mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan routinely lobby Southeast Asian officials to take firmer action against job scams.

Hong Kong recently sent a task force to Thailand to follow-up on 12 cases of Hong Kongers trafficked into Southeast Asian countries and forced into labor. The task force revealed that 11 out of the 12 victims were based in neighboring Myanmar. The delegation also claimed that Thai authorities introduced the delegation to a 24-hour hotline and a mobile application for any visitor who needs assistance.

A Thailand Tourist Police App was launched in December last year in a bid to facilitate easier communication between tourists and authorities. The app is linked directly to the tourist police hotline and the emergency hotline.

On Friday, Chinese state media outlet Xinhua reported that both Chinese and Thai police arrested 12 suspects in relation with Wang’s case. China’s Ministry of Public Security confirmed that Wang’s case was part of a wider trafficking scheme organized by criminal gangs in Southeast Asia. Police urged citizens to be wary of suspicious job offers, particularly those that offer high pay that comes with free accommodation and travel. 

In June last year, Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs also warned Taiwanese to be wary of advertisements that offer high-paying jobs that even include food and accommodation in Southeast Asia. The ministry warned that taking up these jobs could potentially put oneself into danger and a loss of personal freedom.

Victims on both sides

Victims kidnapped through these job scams are often forced to conduct different frauds on other unsuspecting victims. 

Southeast Asian scam centers have fueled a rise in “pig butchering scams,” where a scammer starts an online relationship with a lonely individual. The perpetrator encourages the victim to transfer large amounts of money towards investments like cryptocurrency; once the scam is done, the scam artist absconds with the money.

Law enforcement agencies, including in the U.S., have warned that “pig-butchering” scams constitute a major form of cybercrime.

Southeast Asia—and particularly Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar—has become a hub for cybercrime activity. A United Nations report released last year claimed that Southeast Asian cybercrime groups earned $37 billion through criminal activity in 2023. 

It’s forcing some governments to take radical steps. Earlier this year, Singapore passed a first-of-its-kind law allowing the police to freeze the accounts of scam victims in order to prevent them from sending even more money to scammers. 

Yet those forced to work in scam centers can be just as much of a victim. Investigative reports from Western media outlets including The Guardian and the New York Times said the kidnapping victims can be physically abused, sold between gangs and moved from one scam operation to another, deprived of food, and threatened with sexual abuse.

The scam centers operated by these illegal gangs are often found in border towns in Cambodia or Myanmar, which tend to be more lawless parts of the countries. One United Nations report published in 2023 estimated that as many as 120,000 people have been trafficked into Myanmar and another 100,000 in Cambodia.