Charlie excels at her new job, which has devastating consequences for two women who pay the price. And one of them won’t let Charlie get away with it. If you or someone you know is struggling with mental health, here are some resources:The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline can be reached at 988. The National Alliance on Mental Illness is available at 1-800-950-6264.Be the first to know about Wondery’s newest podcasts, curated recommendations, and more! Sign up now at https://wondery.fm/wonderynewsletterFollow Scam Factory on the Wondery App or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to episodes early and ad-free on Wondery+. Join Wondery+ in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Start your free trial by visiting www.wondery.com/links/scam-factory/ now. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Chapter 1: What content warnings are included in this episode?
Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of Scam Factory early and ad free. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Just a note, this episode contains detailed descriptions of self-harm and references to suicide. If you or someone you know is struggling with mental health, we have included resources at the end of the episode and in our show notes.
A group of women were hunched over their phones in the office, giggling. The glare of the fluorescent lights buzzed while bad music blared in the background. In the weeks since Jella had arrived, having been coaxed across that bridge by Charlie and her recruiters, this had become her new norm.
Chapter 2: How did Jella become involved in the scam operation?
where she spent most hours of the day sitting in front of her computer, listening to her co-workers cackle.
Oh, look at this, like that. She was blushing. I can't bear to see it, that kinds of pictures with the nudity. Oh my God, this one is so big. This one is so dark, like that. This one is so small. They were showing each other dick pics. A lot of dick pics. Every day you see a lot of men's private thing.
Jella couldn't even bring herself to say the word penis out loud. But she didn't really have a choice, because looking at customers' dicks was her job now. Obviously, not the customer service representative role she had applied for.
We were going just to invite a customer through dating apps to have sex with the model. Oh, you wanna play? You wanna see me push it?
She was the catfishing model who would sext horny strangers and get them hot and bothered enough to take it to video chat.
Every day you will saw five, 15, 20 men private thing. I'm just telling, oh my God, Lord.
Good Lord. Not only did she hate doing this, She was also kind of bad at it.
That was so hard for me because I haven't seen any pornography or any videos about it in the Philippines.
She didn't have any practice with the dirty talk or any prep in general for all the eggplants coming her way. But none of that mattered to her bosses because she had a quota to meet. She had better turn some guys on. You need to have at least two clients a day to have a video call. Two clients a day who would agree to video chat.
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Chapter 3: What role does Charlie play in the scam operation?
From Wondery, I'm Denise Chan, and this is Scam Factory. This is episode three, The Butcher's Block. Busy shoppers pass by the windows of a Starbucks nestled inside a mall. Charlie watched them go in and out of the guest store across the way. But Charlie hadn't driven several hours just for some people watching in an iced caramel macchiato. She was here at Dev's request.
I have these two girls. They were offloaded twice.
Dev had two recruits who had been stopped at immigration twice already. He said that, can you help them to get out? Dev needed to get these recruits through immigration. And Charlie needed to stay in Dev's good graces. In the three months Charlie had been working for him, Dev had only kept upping the ante on the assignments he gave her. Now, Charlie had her own travel agency.
Dev had asked her to open it so he could save some money. He didn't want to use a third-party travel agency and pay their markups anymore. And she was making, well, mall calls. He asked me to meet them in person. Which is how she found herself sitting in front of a woman named Yuki and her friend. Yuki was in her early 30s and had two young children.
She and her friend had been looking for work abroad, where pay would be better than what they could find at home.
When I heard that the salary will be $1,000 to $1,200 USDT, I grabbed the opportunity since it's like double of the salary here in the Philippines.
Yuki couldn't pack her bags fast enough. But the first time they tried to leave the country for this job, they were stopped by immigration. They tried again, but they were stopped that time too. That's when Dev introduced Yuki to his star employee. Dev gave me Charlie's information.
Because Dev is not in the Philippines, but Charlie is.
Charlie, an angel sent by Dev to help them get out of the Philippines and over to Thailand.
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Chapter 4: How did Yuki get recruited and what was her experience?
And then she said, why is it not call center agent? Charlie froze. I cannot tell them that, hey, don't go. It's not the call center job. I was thinking of my brothers that time. Her brothers, who were inside the compound, who would pay the price if she fucked this up. So, like, okay, just, I'm so sorry for this for now, but I'll make it up to you guys.
So I was like, if that's the job they told you, maybe that's the real job.
And Charlie doubled down on doing her job. She did some Googling and found a potential fix. If Yuki had a family member with good travel history, they could be a sponsor. Yuki's uncle agreed to help. And a couple days later, Charlie's solution worked. Yuki and her friend got through immigration.
Charlie, actually, I call her Ate.
Ate, because to Yuki, Charlie seemed like a big sister who was looking out for her.
So Ate Charlie is very kind. She helped us pass the immigration officers.
It's her doing. I really felt bad. I know that they will be shocked when they found out that it's a scamming job.
But still... Charlie didn't say anything to Yuki about where she was really headed. Not when Yuki texted her about the scary journey to a strange hotel or the terrifying boat ride across the river. It wasn't until Yuki reached out in a panic after she arrived and found out what her real job was that Charlie acknowledged it at all.
I asked her and she told me that I thought that you already knew because you're direct from Dev. And usually Dev is explaining everything to the people that is going to work there. So she expects that we already knew what work are we going to be in.
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Chapter 5: What are the emotional consequences for Yuki in the scam?
The student sent a photo of her bleeding wrist to Yuki.
I'm already like crying in there in front of my computer while the moment she sent me the picture of her wrist and I cannot handle that so I excuse myself.
Yuki raced outside the office to the smoking area to try and catch her breath. After a few minutes, Yuki's team leader came outside looking for her.
He told me that always remember that if you're not going to scam this one, somebody else will. So what do you want?
Yuki couldn't believe what he was telling her.
Am I really in this kind of place? Like, what if I'm that girl? What if I'm the one who went broke because I got scammed? What if that's her last resort already? What if nobody helps her? What if she will not going to finish her studies?
The team leader didn't seem to be tormented by any of these questions. He was more concerned by the amount of money on the line. That $12,000? He would likely get a cut of somewhere around 10% of that. He ordered Yuki back inside. When she sat down at her desk, Yuki saw that he had already responded to the student.
The boss told her that if you're going to cut yourself open, then I'm going to cut myself open too because you're well aware that I already invested a lot of money. My money is also inside your account, something like that.
Yuki's heart broke when she saw the university student's response.
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