Warning: This story contains details about sexual assault.
May, a single mother-of-five, felt overwhelmed when her husband suddenly died two years ago.
"When debts piled up, I had to sell our livestock and apply for any job I could find," said May, who is using a pseudonym due to security concerns.
May is an ethnic H'mong woman who lives in one of Vietnam's northern remote mountain villages, one of the poorest regions in the country.
The region is a prime target for criminal networks looking to exploit isolated communities.
When May was at her most vulnerable, she came across an ad for a factory job in another city.
But her neighbours were wary and referred May to Blue Dragon, a non-profit dedicated to rescuing human trafficking victims.
"I began noticing abnormal signs in job [offers] that seemed too good to be true — highly attractive, well-paid for special skills or reference checks," said Blue Dragon's Thuc, who is also using a pseudonym.
An anti-trafficking board, formed by local teachers, police officers, and activists, advised May not to apply.
Thuc, one of the board members, invited May to a workshop on trafficking risks — and through case studies, May learned how traffickers operate.
May believes the intervention saved her from being baited to a scam compound.
She also received a cow from Blue Dragon to help restart her family farm.
"This helps families escape difficulties sustainably, benefiting both individual families and the entire community," Thuc said.
Blue Dragon's local livelihoods and education programs have also helped survivors of human trafficking reintegrate into their communities.
'We had to spam victims and act friendly'
Scam compounds have become a growing problem across South-East Asia.
Victims trafficked to the compounds are forced to lure others into fraudulent schemes such as investing in fake cryptocurrency investments through romance scams.
Romance scams are typically carried out on social media platforms or dating apps, with fraudsters asking for money after developing an online relationship with the victim.
According to a recent ACCC report, Targeting Scams, about $210 million was lost to romance scams in Australia in 2022.
Blue Dragon said it was increasingly concerned about the rising number of women trafficked into these kinds of operations.
It said many rescued victims were also at risk of being re-trafficked due to a lack of comprehensive support systems in their home countries.
While May was fortunate enough to be alerted early, many others, like 31-year-old Felicia, a singer and model from the Philippines, were not as lucky.
A widow with two young children, Felicia was lured with the promise of a high-paying marketing job in June last year.
She said she was intrigued after someone who purported to be a fan contacted her on Facebook with a job in Laos that offered 40,000 pesos ($1,100) per month.
Felicia, whose name was also changed to protect her privacy, said she wanted to work again after processing the death of her husband.
She said she was smuggled into Myanmar from the Philippines through three different countries.She said some women who joined her journey from Manila accepted similar job offers and they travelled by cargo ships, taxis, and speedboats among other forms of transport to get to their destination.
Eventually, Felicia was dropped off at KK Park, a scam compound in Myanmar.
Thai authorities estimate there are about 40 such compounds along the border, with some 300,000 people involved in scamming operations.
She said initially her employers seemed welcoming, but the true nature of the job soon became apparent.
"I was told to create different Facebook accounts and add pictures [of strangers] … to make them seem real so Meta wouldn't block them," she said.
"We had to spam clients [victims] with messages, act friendly, make calls with them, and then secure at least two clients who were open to cryptocurrency."
A Meta spokesperson told the ABC their "policies prohibit content that leads to human exploitation, including content that promotes misleading or fraudulent job listings".
They said between June and September 2024, they removed 1.1 billion fake accounts and 349 million "pieces of spam content" from Facebook.
Back at the compound, Felicia said her boss instructed her to impersonate a rich, successful businesswoman.
She was also shown how to use AI-powered face-swapping software when making video calls to victims.
Things worsened when she was asked by her supervisor to wear lingerie during calls with some of the victims.
He told her it was "like modelling swimwear".
The pressure escalated when a manager insisted that she change in front of him, despite her protests.
"I didn't want to do it and said I was uncomfortable, and kept saying no, but I was told it was just a changing space," she said.
When Felicia started to get changed, she was sexually assaulted.
'The predatory behaviour has escalated'
Late last year, Felicia found a way to make contact with her sister, who sought help from the Philippines consulate.
Police were called to the building, but as they were searching the premise, Felicia said her boss moved her along with other victims to a new compound.
Eventually, an officer guarding the property took a bribe to help her flee to Thailand.
Felicia reconnected with her family and stayed at a hostel run by Global Alms, an Australian anti-trafficking NGO.
Mechelle Moore, CEO of Global Alms, said her organisation regularly received distress calls from victims through their 24-hour hotline and referral programs, and worked alongside Thai police to coordinate rescues.
"There are gaps in the system," she said.
"The social welfare department only operates from 9am to 5pm, and they don't have a dedicated after-hours response team."
She said the patterns of abuse have changed over the past four years.
"Previously, there was an unspoken rule in some compounds — no sexual assault," she said.
"But now, the predatory behaviour has escalated.
"Men and women are raped daily by certain Chinese crime bosses, but beyond that, men also roam the halls, looking for women to assault."
Ling Li is a human trafficking expert with 10 years experience and has assisted 200 victims in the last three years, either personally or by referring them to police.
She said victims were often trafficked from Africa to Asia and sold between different organisations running scam operations.
"Once victims arrive, if they fail to meet targets, in many cases they're forced into a kind of sexual slavery. If they can't perform well, their managers rape them," she said.
Benedikt Hofmann, the deputy regional representative for South-East Asia and the Pacific at the UN Office of Drugs and Crime, said authorities often struggled to differentiate victims from perpetrators in the scam centres.
"Another challenge is that when victims sign 'employment' contracts with a company, these contracts are then used to justify why this is not a case of trafficking," Mr Hofmann said.
Traffickers often issued fake "employment contracts" to deceive both the victim and authorities, further complicating the matter, he added.
'Systemic issue requires immediate intervention'
Victim-survivors continue to face challenges even after they have been rescued.
Without passports or a valid visa, experts say many victims are treated as illegal migrants by local law enforcement agencies, and forced to navigate a complex legal system that often fails to recognise their victimhood.
Ms Li said very few chose to report sexual assault.
She said male police officers were regularly sent to interview alleged victims of sexual assault and often "asked for details about how they were raped" which made them "feel ashamed".
"This is a systemic issue that requires immediate intervention from governments, NGOs, and local communities to prevent further exploitation," she said.
NGOs like Blue Dragon are helping to fill the support gap.
Blue Dragon said they have been receiving an increasing number of calls from family members of victims who had been trafficked to one of the compounds.
Among them was Chu, who had been looking for his 20-year-old Vietnamese daughter Ly for more than a year.
Ly, who has also requested to use a pseudonym, was trafficked to a compound after she befriended a woman on Facebook who offered her a restaurant job in Bangkok.
She said she was beaten with power cables and metal rods, deprived of food, and threatened with being resold into sexual exploitation because she couldn't meet targets.
Eventually her captors considered her too unprofitable and her father was allowed to pay for her freedom.
Ly is currently receiving psychological and career support through Blue Dragon.
"Ly was rescued from living hell and is receiving treatment for depression, and with the support of Blue Dragon, she is preparing to enrol in a vocational training course," Chu said.
"Even now, several months later, I wake up in the middle of the night and can't believe that my child is actually safe."
