In October 2024, Giu, 22, from Bi village, Ia O commune, Gia Lai province had been tricked into going to Cambodia, which left his neighbors in shock. 

In February 2025, Ro Mah Hyiu (25, Giu’s brother) said in July 2024 Giu mentioned a friend calling him to Hanoi for work. Despite family questions, Giu didn’t reveal the friend’s name, job details, or location.

“After working a while, Giu called me to send money for a bus ticket home. A few days later, he called and said he was in HCMC, starting a job with a new acquaintance paying VND550,000 per day,” Hyiu recalled.

Recently, Ro Mah Psem said that after nearly five months of petitions, on June 17, 2025, Ro Mah Giu was returned home by Ia O commune police coordinating with Gia Lai Border Guard, amid overwhelming joy from family and neighbors. 

However, Giu remains haunted by the beatings and electric shocks in the scam den.

Punishments

Giu told reporters that when he arrived in HCMC, a man picked him up, saying he’d take him to a durian farm. But after nearly two hours, the car stopped roadside, not at the farm, and he began feeling anxious.

“That night, they switched me to another car and sped off. They gave me a pill to swallow, but I refused. They forced it into my mouth and held it shut. I passed out. When I woke up, I found myself in a bustling area, but they’d taken my phone,” Giu recalled.

On his first day in the Cambodian special zone, Giu was led to a room full of computers and phones, with about 20 people working. The door locked immediately.

“Later, they gave me a phone and fake Facebook accounts for scams. As an ethnic minority with poor communication and no skills, I couldn’t meet demands, so they beat and tormented me, either hand-beating and running laps, or electric shocks leaving me numb,” Giu recalled.

Because he couldn’t meet the work demands, Giu was repeatedly forced to call home and ask his family to pay ransom money. While he was with one company, they demanded VND120 million; after being sold to another company, the amount increased to VND150 million for his return to Vietnam.

Because his family was poor and couldn’t afford the ransom, from October 2024 until the day he was rescued, Giu was sold from company to company. The longest he stayed at one place was a month; at some, he was transferred after only a few days. 

Worried for his safety, in February 2025, his family submitted a plea for help to the authorities.

Desperate midnight pleas

Facing abuse and forced labor, Giu made several attempts to escape, but all failed. The area where he was held was surrounded by walls higher than the rooftops, with surveillance cameras installed everywhere, from the workroom to hallways, fences, and even bedrooms. In addition, there was a strict security team monitoring all movements.

Realizing escape was nearly impossible, Giu secretly used a phone to send his location to his elder brother, hoping authorities could rescue him. However, the attempt was discovered. Giu was locked in a closed room, brutally beaten, and had his meal card confiscated, leaving him hungry for several days.

In early May, inside the workroom where many phones were available, Giu stole one and hid it in the restroom. In the middle of the night, he used it to send a message via Facebook to a police officer in Ia O commune. About a month later, thanks to that information, rescue forces arrived.

Recalling the rescue, Giu said: “Suddenly, they called me up, cuffed me, and locked me in a warehouse, plugging in electricity for torture. Before I realized what happened, about 10 minutes later, they opened the door and handed me to the police.”

It was only after escaping the scam ring that he learned that the company owner had lied to the authorities when they first arrived, claiming there was no one named Ro Mah Giu. At the same time, they secretly moved him into a secluded warehouse where he was tortured for alerting the police. It was only when the authorities demanded to search the premises that they finally brought him out.

Tran Hoan