Have you ever received a call from a stranger regarding student loans you do not owe, an unpaid parking ticket for a car that you don't own?

Well, I certainly have, and I've wondered where those calls come from.

Today, we are going to take you there.

Picture a compound in Southeast Asia, maybe Cambodia or Myanmar, surrounded by lush jungle.

It looks fairly ordinary. Apartment complexes, streets, shops all recently built, some have constructed,

but look closer. And you'd see bars on the windows, armed security standing guard,

generators humming. This whole place is hiding a dark secret, an entire industry of scams,

human trafficking, corruption, and money laundering.

And it's not the only place like this. From the BBC, I'm Asma Khalid in Washington, D.C.

And today on The Global Story, an inside look at the highly lucrative scam factories of Southeast Asia and how they're making money by duping people

around the world.

Before we dive into today's episode, I just want to shout out one of our listeners who

reached out to us named Hans. Hans wrote us a message suggesting that we make an episode

about scam centers in Southeast Asia. In that message, Hans wrote us a message suggesting that we make an episode about scam centers in Southeast Asia.

In that message, Hans wrote us that an interesting perspective would be the views of the victims,

both people who've lost their money in one of these scam operations, but also one of the people who've been trafficked to perform the work.

And Hans asked how are victims

coping and how are the perpetrators brought to justice? And then wrote this line that has stuck

with me saying, I am writing this as a victim myself. Now Hans, we had in fact already been

planning to make an episode on this. We, in fact, had recorded this recently,

and we're just waiting for the right moment to run it amidst all the craziness happening in the

world. But then we heard from you and realized that there are probably loads of other listeners

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