Missing Chinese Actor Found In Myanmar Says He Was Forced To Undergo Scam Training, Make Fraud Phone Calls

Chinese actor Wang Xing, 31, was rescued on Tuesday (Jan 7), four days after he was reported to have gone missing near the Myanmar-Thailand border. Thai authorities found him in Myawaddy, a town in Myanmar where many cyber scam organisations hold their operations.

Wang Xing, who had previously briefly spoken to the Thai media about the ordeal, was recently interviewed on a flight home to China.

The interviewer asked him: “After you passed the river [that separates Myanmar and Thailand], did you know [you had exited Thailand]?”

Speaking in fluent English, Wang Xing replied: “I didn’t know until the soldiers pushed me into [another] car. Then I knew, wow, maybe I’m not in Thailand, maybe I’m in another country.”

When asked if there were many people in the building he was made to work in, Wang Xing said: “Yes, I think so.”

He said he was held in “the second building”, with “about 50” other people, and added that he was locked within the premises and couldn’t get out.

“The third building is huge, they have [people] from different countries in that area,” he added.

The actor revealed in an earlier interview in Bangkok that he was “asked to practice typing”, and that he believes he was forced to work at a scam compound.

Wang Xing elaborated on the situation in his recent recount, saying that he was “forced to undergo two to three days of scam training”, which included the typing of text and making of fraudulent phone calls.

He was terrified during the process, and panic-stricken by the thought that he would have to scam his fellow Chinese people if he did not get rescued.

Thankfully, Wang Xing was not physically harmed during his time in captivity.

The interviewer then asked about his shaved head. Wang Xing said: “Everyone needs to cut their hair. Somebody did it, I can’t do that by myself, it’s my hair.”

On the day of his capture, Wang Xing was picked up at Suvarnabhumi Airport and taken to a car. He was made to believe that the vehicle was arranged by the “entertainment company” he was working with. He was then made to alight and board another car at an area bordering Myanmar, and though he realised something was off, he “did not dare to resist out of fear”.

Thai police have since found the driver that picked Wang Xing up from the airport. The driver of the Hilux Revo sedan received instructions from “a male soldier” and was told to send the actor to a supermarket in Mae Sot.

Sleuthy netizens have also set up a group chat in which they identified the organisation that specialises in scamming actors, including Wang Xing.

Their information lined up with initial reports that stated the syndicate was led by a Chinese national who goes by the nickname “Golden Tiger”.

According to them, the organisation is being dissolved, and the registered name of their labour operations group, Apollo Glory, will also be changed.

“You have to take precautions, look out for your own safety, and stay vigilant,” emphasised Wang Xing at the end of his interview.