INDONESIA (TR) – Two Japanese women held captive at a fraud base in Surabaya have revealed they were threatened with organ harvesting by a Chinese ringleader after being lured overseas, reports the Yomiuri Shimbun (May 20).
The women, one in her 30s and the other in her 40s from the Kanto region, were taken into protective custody when local police raided the residential property. Authorities confirmed the pair had not participated in any fraudulent activities and have no connection to four other Japanese nationals detained during the investigation.
Speaking to reporters from a local police station on Tuesday, the women detailed how a deceptive online recruitment scheme turned into a nightmare.
The woman in her 30s applied for a hospitality job via social media and was instructed to go to Narita Airport on April 18. Her initial destination was supposed to be Vietnam.
“The destination was changed to Thailand mid-way, and finally became Indonesia,” she explained.
The woman in her 40s applied for a different job online but was subjected to the same bait-and-switch itinerary. “Even though I felt suspicious, I was robbed of my ability to make a sound judgment by the constant stream of messages arriving one after another,” she recalled.
The overseas syndicate was orchestrating a tokushu sagi (specialized fraud) scheme targeting victims back in Japan.
Upon arriving at an airport near Jakarta on April 19, the pair were met by a Chinese woman acting as a guide. They were then put on a domestic flight to Surabaya, driven to the house and locked inside a second-floor room.
It was there that a Chinese ringleader issued a chilling ultimatum: “Working here is your only choice. If you don’t like it, we’ll sell your organs.”
The captives were handed scripts and forced to practice impersonating Japanese delivery company workers for telephone scams. While they were spared from actually making any fraudulent calls, the danger was imminent.
“If the rescue had been delayed, we would have been forced to take part,” one of the women said.
