In the wake of the rescue of two Japanese teens who had been lured into working for scam syndicates in Myanmar, concerns are growing that more youths may be drawn into the fraudulent schemes operated by shady overseas groups.

Japanese police learned in interviews with the high school boys upon their return to Japan that they had been told the work would be easy and they would be well compensated, including having their travel costs covered.

Confined in locked compounds in civil war-ravaged Myanmar, the two said they were forced, along with people from other countries, to make calls attempting to scam people out of their money. If they refused to work, they would be beaten, starved or even subjected to electric shocks.

In mid-February, Thai authorities successively took protective custody of the boys, aged 16 and 17, near the Myanmar border with Thailand. The boys hail from Aichi Prefecture in central Japan and Miyagi Prefecture in northeastern Japan.

A Chinese criminal organization is believed to have established a stronghold in eastern Myanmar near the Thai border. It is believed that about 10,000 foreign nationals were detained and forced to work in the schemes.

In January and February, more than 7,000 people were put in protective custody by the ethnic minority armed groups who have effectively taken control of the region in eastern Myanmar, where criminal syndicates have poured in.

According to Japanese investigators, the boy from Aichi who attends a correspondence high school was approached by a broker last November about a job overseas in which he could use his "special skills" to make easy money.

He met with the man from the criminal group several times and received instructions on how to obtain a passport, doing so without his parents' consent. The group paid for his air travel expenses and he went to Myanmar via Thailand in December.

At the center, he received instructions from Chinese nationals and engaged in a special scam in which he was paid to impersonate a police officer. The boy said he had a daily quota, and if he did not follow orders, he was tased.

He managed to contact his family early this year to tell them he was in Myanmar and plead for their help.

According to a Japanese government official, the boy from Miyagi was promised by a person he met in an online gaming chatroom that he could receive "food, clothing and shelter in an easy job."

Troubled by problems at home, he is believed to have left Japan for Thailand with an airline ticket procured by the crime group and smuggled into Myanmar. He said he worked under the surveillance of guards with machine guns.

According to the National Police Agency, as a result of efforts to persuade those offered "illegal part-time jobs" to not take part in crimes but instead to consult the police, there were 248 cases of protective custody by the NPA in four months from Oct 18, 2024.

Ten cases were related to overseas travel, and more than half involved people in their teens to 20s. Last month, the whereabouts of about 20 Japanese nationals believed to have been caught up in cyber scam schemes were reported to be unknown.

A senior Aichi prefectural police official pointed out that the crime syndicates are "not under a single huge organization, but a network of small groups divided into different departments, such as recruiters and money launderers."

Another police official admitted, "It is not easy to get cooperation from overseas police," stressing the dangers of Japanese nationals traveling abroad on a whim. "It can be difficult to locate people if we lose track of them overseas."