I wasn’t imagining they were actually locked up in the factory, but after reading one of the linked articles from the original article:

“On 28 February, the Vietnamese man escaped the facility by climbing up a wall, crossing a river, and seeking refuge at a farm. The farm owner then reported it to the police. There were signs of torture on the man, including scars and marks from electrocution, said Mr Casio, whose team visited the man early this month.”

that seems to be the case.

This reads wild to me. Imagine kidnapping someone, and then giving them internet access, and still you know no one will care if you ask for help online?

Seriously how do they prevent people from asking for help? What exactly do they do at the scam factory?

I imagine it is a sort of debt bondage situation, like in the fishing industry (we will fly you here, but oh, now you owe us 12 months salary for the food and travel and visa, and actually this is not the job we said it was. It has changed now sorry!). I’d love some more info on how this actually works in practice if someone has a good source.