The Leaked Chats
A whistleblower inside a Northern Laos scam compound leaked three months of internal WhatsApp group chats to WIRED—4,200 pages of messages revealing how these operations actually run. The Boshang compound's records show workers stealing $2.2 million across 11 weeks, while bosses imposed constant fines to deepen their debt bondage.
The chats document a bizarre mix: motivational corporate speak ("every day brings a new opportunity") followed hours later by threats ("don't resist the company's rules... otherwise you can't survive here"). Workers responded with thumbs-up emojis. This is organised crime wearing a corporate mask.
The Mechanics
Pig butchering operations—named for how scammers "fatten up" victims before the kill—have industrialised romance and crypto investment fraud. Workers in these compounds, often trafficked from poor regions with fake job offers, run 15-hour shifts building trust via dating apps and social media, then luring victims into fake crypto platforms.
The leaked documents show the system: workers paid $500/month base salary, told they can leave after paying $5,400 to "buy out" their contract. In practice, constant fines for missed quotas make that impossible. No explicit locks needed when debt does the job.
The whistleblower, Mohammad Muzahir, an Indian national, contacted WIRED while still captive. His leaks included training guides, scam scripts, operational flowcharts, and the WhatsApp logs. He's since escaped.
Why Enterprise Tech Leaders Should Care
These aren't small-time operations. Hundreds of thousands of forced laborers across Southeast Asia power what researchers now call "the most lucrative form of cybercrime in the world"—tens of billions stolen annually. The compounds target everyone, including executives. The fake apps mimic legitimate platforms. Victim losses routinely hit six or seven figures.
More immediately: if your employees are transferring large sums to crypto exchanges for "investment opportunities" someone slid into their DMs about, you have a problem. The social engineering is sophisticated. The scale is industrial.
Harvard's Jacob Sims, who reviewed the chats, notes the combination of manipulation and coercion creates the "key reason why these compounds are so profitable." Santa Clara County prosecutor Erin West puts it more directly: "It's a slave colony that's trying to pretend it's a company."
The fine print: this is organised crime with corporate structure, backed by special economic zones in countries with limited law enforcement. The workers are victims. The targets are global. And the money keeps flowing.