Southeast Asia Electric Fraud and Human Trafficking Industry: Crypto Assets Secured Platform for Strong Pressure Vehicle Transactions

Cryptocurrency transaction guarantee platforms have become a hotbed of human trafficking in Southeast Asia, and this article exposes the trading of electric slave labor in the name of “overseas labor”, and analyzes its capital flow and crime scale through cryptocurrencies. (Synopsis: Chinese actor Wang Xing went to Thailand to “turn piglets into Myanmar”, is there a cryptocurrency transaction record?) (Background supplement: On-chain tracking Myanmar scam KK Park: only two addresses, received nearly $100 million in cryptocurrency) The cryptocurrency transaction guarantee platform is a matching and intermediary platform that mainly provides transaction guarantee services for Southeast Asian black and gray industries, and its service objects cover illegal activities related entities such as money laundering, payment, file search, smuggling, and gaming, and has become a powerful tool for cybercrime groups. In addition to these types of conventional crimes, there are also some transaction guarantee platforms that carry out human trafficking activities in the name of “overseas labor services”. This article aims to disclose the development trend of this anti-human criminal industry, and investigate its business scale and capital pollution based on cryptocurrency analysis. Southeast Asia Wire Fraud Slave Labor Trading Southeast Asia wire fraud groups need to recruit employees of the corresponding nationality according to the target group of the fraud. Taking the (Pig"Butchering Scam)" scam targeting the Chinese community as an example, every year a large number of young Chinese cross the border through legal or illegal channels to work in wire fraud parks. A public group merchant shares how to deceive/kidnap young Chinese men Such young people are often tricked and forced into Southeast Asia, and by the time they realize they have been sold as slave laborers in the electric fraud industrial park, it is often too late to escape. Prices for people of different ages ( units USDT) Usually only young men aged 20-30 are the most popular “commodity” and can be sold at a higher price, while those under 20 years old and over 35 years old are considered “scraps”, either the price is lower or more rigorous assessment is required. Women are almost outside the scope of the deal. The kidnapping of actor Wang Xing, who had caused huge public opinion in mainland China earlier, was trafficked to the electric fraud park through this channel. Strong pressure vehicle transaction guarantee service In the conventional black and gray material transaction. The business logic of the transaction guarantee platform is similar to that of e-commerce platforms such as Amazon and Taobao, merchants need to pay a deposit to the platform before they can conduct business, and the total amount of business carried out at the same time cannot exceed the maximum deposit. If the merchant is unable to provide a valid service or product due to its own reasons, the buyer will have the right to apply for platform arbitration and even obtain compensation from the deposit. Through this model, the transaction guarantee platform builds trust between the parties to the illegal transaction. Pilot Guarantee Group Forced Pressure Car Guarantee Transaction Rules In terms of human trafficking. The basic pattern is also the same, when trading with humans as the subject matter, such merchants are called “labor transaction guarantee merchants”. However, due to the fact that involuntary victims may jump out of the car at any time ( literally ), call the police, refuse to cooperate, and some merchants will intimidate, coerce, beat and other behaviors during transportation, and the guarantee merchants that provide such additional services are called “forced car transaction guarantee merchants”. Strong pressure, a black word in the industry, refers to kidnapping here. Huiwang Group’s Tudou Guarantee emphasizes the “bottom line” Due to the worldwide crackdown on transnational human trafficking crimes, most secured trading platforms refuse to provide transaction guarantee services for illegal transactions such as human trafficking. Even Tudou Guarantee (Tudou Guarantee), an absolute head guarantee trading platform under Cambodia Huiwang Group, emphasizes the “bottom line of mankind” and claims that it will not participate, which shows the high degree of malignancy of such businesses. Espier Guarantee Group Pledge Address Analysis Espier Guarantee is the only one of the top ten transaction guarantee platforms in Southeast Asia that operates the “overseas labor” public group (Public Group) and special group (Private group) business, and is clearly indicated as " “Forced Pressure Car Trading” provides guarantee services. Espier Guarantee Channel Official Announcement The pinned announcement of its official Telegram channel mentioned that Espier Guarantee’s “high-pressure vehicle guarantee merchants” are required to submit deposits through special group pledge addresses, indicating that the counterparties to the public addresses are affiliated with Southeast Asian transnational human trafficking industry-related entities. Thanks to this, Bitrace’s investigators were able to conduct blockchain analysis. Data from Bitrace Pro Survey Tool Espier Guarantee’s latest group of bet addresses was activated on February 23, 2025, and in less than 5 months since then, a total of 100,748,05.56 USDT, worth more than $100 million, has flowed. It is worth noting that this batch of funds is only a deposit submitted to the special group address by merchants under Pilot Guarantee who only operate the “forced car guarantee” business, and within the scope of the deposit, the merchant can repeat the business, and the real amount of funds related to transnational human trafficking in Southeast Asia far exceeds this number. Analysis of the Contamination of Slave Labor Funds Through the analysis of counterparties to the addresses of the Pilot Guarantee Group, Bitrace investigators attempted to assess the exploitation of centralized trading platforms. Data from Bitrace Pro Survey Tool In terms of funding sources, the two exchanges transferred a total of 72,418 USDT to the audit subjects in 18 transactions, which means that the Espier Guarantor merchants directly used the exchange address to pay deposits to the Espier Guarantee, which were used to guarantee their human trafficking business; In the direction of fund withdrawal, the 262 user addresses of the four exchanges received 414 transactions totaling 1,689,730 USDT from the audit subjects, which means that the Pilot guarantee merchant directly transferred the deposit returned by the platform to the exchange account after stopping business. Image taken from Bitrace Pro Survey Tool All four exchanges have Chinese backgrounds and their main user groups are Chinese-speaking users, which is consistent with the business of Espier Guarantee Group merchants mainly selling Chinese people to Southeast Asia wire fraud parks. Among them, OKX, as the world’s leading cryptocurrency centralized exchange, bore the brunt of this process, being heavily used for deposit payment and criminal fund storage, and 17.3% of the deposit address of the Pilot Guarantee Group pointed to 236 OKX user addresses. Secured Funds Threats Illegal transaction guarantee platforms are often combined with anonymous social software as well as on-chain money laundering, thus posing a constant and covert financial threat to crypto institutions. Taking the most commonly used social software Telegram APP as an example, although a large number of public group merchants will disclose their business content and business addresses on the channel, the real dangerous illegal transactions are often hidden in non-public special groups or VIP groups, which are difficult to detect; In addition to the relatively stable rotation of business addresses maintained by the head transaction guarantee platform, other small and medium-sized guarantee platforms have a large number of mixed business addresses, irregular replacement and overlapping business functions, which requires the rapid perception of risk control personnel. Therefore, not only cryptocurrency illegal transaction guarantee platforms, but also funds related to organized crimes such as online gambling, money laundering, and fraud will also pose a financial threat to centralized entities such as exchanges. Conclusion The crackdown on transnational human trafficking criminal entities in Southeast Asia not only relies on the enforcement activities of law enforcement agencies in various countries and regions around the world, but also requires the spontaneous cooperation of operators of crypto industry infrastructure - CEX, OTC, Crypto Payment, etc. Bitrace has been working closely with law enforcement agencies and regulatory authorities in many parts of Asia for a long time, and has been deeply involved in more than 1,000 virtual …