SELAM GEBREKIDAN<\/strong> I started looking into money laundering broadly about nine months ago. Joy and I wanted to understand how the criminal underworld works.<\/p>\nWe had received tips that the city of Sihanoukville, Cambodia, like a number of other casino hubs in that region, was a hot spot for scamming and money laundering, especially after the pandemic. When I visited, I was struck by the number of unfinished buildings on every street. The upper floors in these empty buildings had fluorescent lights on, all night long. I kept thinking: Who is up there? And what are they doing?<\/p>\n
It took us a while to gain people\u2019s trust, but then, in January, we got a break. A number of criminals agreed to talk to us.<\/p>\n
How did you gain people\u2019s trust?<\/strong><\/p>\nJOY DONG <\/strong>We found someone who was willing to make introductions in the local scammer community, which was incredibly helpful. We shared meals with money launderers and scammers. I have a feeling that they\u2019re quite lonely and want to show off what they\u2019re doing to outsiders who won\u2019t judge them. It\u2019s like they\u2019re boasting to a friend about how much money they make and how smart they are.<\/p>\nDid you conduct most of your interviews in person?<\/strong><\/p>\nGEBREKIDAN<\/strong> We had at least one in-person meeting with everyone; no one is going to talk to you on the phone about these things, usually. They were almost all at restaurants. We basically got a tour of different Chinese cuisines \u2014 Fujian to Hunan to Sichuan.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
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One night after dinner, we watched a nine-minute fireworks show on the beach. It was right before the lunar New Year and it looked very expensive. Later, we learned that the scammers light fireworks to celebrate their biggest swindles. We were shocked because every time the fireworks go off, someone has likely lost their life savings on the other end.<\/p>\n
How did you balance writing a compelling narrative with the fact that these are criminals victimizing people?<\/strong><\/p>\nGEBREKIDAN<\/strong> We spoke to victims who wanted to understand: How did they move my money so quickly? Why can\u2019t I get it back? So we started trying to answer those questions first.<\/p>\nSome readers wrote to us after the story came out, talking about how they lost faith in the world and the psychological crisis they experienced after they were targeted. Like, who can I trust? Can I even trust myself to make the right decisions anymore? We were trying to show people that there is a whole system that is designed to make you feel totally helpless.<\/p>\n
What was your biggest challenge?<\/strong><\/p>\nDONG<\/strong> After we found the Telegram channels where anonymous users advertise money laundering services, we began trying to decode the messages. Everything\u2019s in Chinese, but some of the lingo didn\u2019t make sense. So we asked some former scammers, and they explained it to us. Then we got a cache of files \u2014 a kind of money-laundering handbook \u2014 from whistle-blowers, which had a dictionary of scammer language that we followed to decipher more messages.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n