The Ca Mau Provincial People’s Court sentenced Le Ngoc Quy, 26, to 10 years on April 16 for human trafficking and four years for extortion, and ordered her to compensate victims nearly VND300 million (US$11,400).
Between November 2022 and October 2023, Quy used Facebook and Zalo accounts under the handles “Quy Lee” and “Cherry” to run a recruitment scheme built around the “light work, high pay” formula familiar from scam compound cases across the region. Her listings advertised online customer service and electronics assembly jobs in Thailand and Myanmar at around VND12 million ($455) a month, with travel costs covered by the employer.
Those who responded were coached through passport applications and flown out. On arrival, their documents were confiscated and they were handed to companies run by Chinese nationals; the fraud operations now documented along the Thailand-Myanmar border, where trafficked workers are forced to run investment and romance scams targeting victims in their home countries.
Le Ngoc Quy stands trial in Ca Mau Province on April 16, 2026. Photo by An Minh |
For Quy’s recruits, that meant building fake social media profiles, befriending Vietnamese strangers online, and funneling them into bogus investment apps and loyalty-point shopping scams engineered to drain their bank accounts. Each worker was assigned a monthly quota of at least VND70 million in stolen funds, above which they were allowed to keep 20% as commission.
Those who missed the target were forced to perform 100 jump squats a day, beaten, made to work until 2 or 3 a.m., and threatened with resale to another operation. Refusing to work carried its own price: VND80 million to VND175 million in “costs” the operators claimed for travel, food, and accommodation, a debt that grew with every day spent in the compound.
Investigators traced 17 of the 18 victims to forced labor assignments: two sent first to Thailand before being moved on to Myanmar, the remaining 15 delivered directly to Myanmar, with several shuttled between multiple companies. Some were eventually repatriated through official channels; others escaped on their own.
The 18th victim was handed over specifically for sexual exploitation. Around June 2023, Quy had promised her $500-a-month bar work in Myanmar. Once she arrived, her documents were taken and she was placed under close watch. Her family transferred more than VND178 million at Quy’s demand to recover her papers and keep her from being sold onward, then paid more still to arrange her return. She crossed back into Vietnam in August 2023.
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