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| - Misleading: This video does not show scam victims in Myanmar; it was taken in Taiwan
In late 2022, a short video clip of people, mostly men, sitting and lying down in a pile surfaced on an obscure YouTube channel. They appear to be crammed next to each other; some of them look blindfolded and handcuffed.
The brief description of the video reads: “This is the tragic situation where fraudsters in Myanmar imprison the people they deceive.” It has over 60,000 views and 5,000 likes as of this writing.
About half a year later, in July 2023, a screenshot of this footage was featured in an “exclusive” news article by the South China Morning Post about cybercrime operations in Myanmar, a hotbed of organized cyber crimes in recent years.
The SCMP story about criminal gangs operating scam centers in Myanmar included many photos and screenshots, one of which shows an identical image that appeared in the YouTube video.
The caption in the article reads: “A screengrab from footage shared with This Week in Asia by victims and anti-trafficking activists shows Myanmar scam-centre “workers” forced to sleep in a pile in a crowded room.”
However, this video has nothing to do with human trafficking in Myanmar. It was taken in New Taipei City in Taiwan in 2022.
Tracing the original video
In the comment section of the YouTube clip, some users said the video is actually from the Tamsui District of New Taipei City, Taiwan.
Using these comments as hints, Annie Lab looked for news stories about cyber crimes in Taiwan for cross-verification.
We then found a related news story by Sanlih Entertainment Television News (SETN) published on Nov. 9, 2022, about people being “imprisoned” at work in Taiwan. The coverage featured the video footage in question.
The SETN report said, when translated to English, “New Taipei City police recently cracked the ‘Taiwan version of Cambodia’ fraud case, busting two centers run by the fraudsters, and rescued a total of 58 victims.”
The same police arrest was also reported by TVBS on Nov. 8, 2022, with the same details. The SETN article has a screenshot identical to the one used in the SCMP article.
Both TVBS and SETN credited the video to a Facebook group called “爆料公社,” which can be roughly translated as “Bean Spillers’ Club.” We can confirm that a screenshot of the clip shown in SETN’s article had been posted to a private group with the same name, “爆料公社” on Nov. 8.
In our investigation, we also found news broadcast by CTV News posted on YouTube, showing Taiwanese police officers breaking into an apartment room and busting the cyber scam operation — the same room the SCMP described as a place to keep the victims hostage in Myanmar.
We also compared the layout of the room and the furniture visible in both videos. Almost everything seemed to be a match, right from the curtains to the cupboard beside the wooden table with the TV, as well as the mattress on the floor and couch.
We can also hear someone speaking in Chinese with a Taiwan accent in the CTV news report. The back of the police jacket visible in the CTV video also has Chinese characters.
With this evidence, Annie Lab concluded that the screenshot of a video that purportedly shows human trafficking victims in Myanmar featured in the SCMP article actually shows people in a tightly packed room in Taiwan.
We became skeptical about the claim first because the viral video on YouTube had a scene where we could see a paper cup on the floor with what appeared to be a McDonald’s restaurant logo. The fast food chain does not have any shops or a franchise in Myanmar.
This has also helped us determine that the video was very unlikely taken in Myanmar.
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