Escape from Bamban: One man’s scam farm nightmare in the Philippines

Back in February, Dylan went to the Philippines for what he thought would be a great Chinese Lunar New Year vacation. Then he found himself held hostage in a gang-run scamming compound. Here’s one man’s story about getting out and what the Philippines is doing to shut these operations down.

The World

Last month, the social media giant Meta broke its silence for the first time about what it was doing to fight the multibillion-dollar online scamming crisis in Southeast Asia.

This year alone, the company says it has taken down over 2 million accounts linked to scam centers in Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia, the UAE and the Philippines. 

The company said that for more than two years it has been focused on collaborating with global law enforcement and other tech companies to combat the organized crime syndicates behind this activity. 

Dina Temple-Raston, host and managing editor of the Recorded Future News podcast “Click Here” takes us inside one of those scamming compounds.

Click on the player above to hear the story.

An earlier version of this story appeared on the “CLICK HERE” podcast from Recorded Future News and PRX.

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