We start our story with Small Q, a young Ugandan rapper and singer who thought he was traveling to Thailand for a dream job. However, everything changed the moment he stepped off the plane. In this episode, we follow Q's abduction to illustrate how nearly half a million people have been sold into slavery to run scams.Please help Small Q rebuild his life by donating to his GoFundMe hereThis is a What It Was Like SpecialProduced by SuperrealHosted by Julian Morgans @julianmorgansFind us on TikTok: @whatitwaslikepodcastFind us on YouTube: @whatitwaslikepodcast Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Chapter 1: What is the focus of this podcast episode?
Hey, Julian Morgans here. I'm the host of Scammerland, but I'm also the host of a weekly show called What It Was Like. And the basic idea is that every episode I talk to someone who has lived through an extreme event. So think cults, serial killers, ghost stories, Princess Diana's paparazzi, Kurt Cobain's manager. And in all cases, you'll find out what it was like to be there.
In fact, Scammerland actually began as an episode on what it was like. So if you're enjoying this, you're probably going to love our other show. That's What It Was Like on Apple, Spotify and YouTube. Hey, I'm Julian Morgans and this is Scammerland. This is the show about the modern state of scamming because it's changed.
All right, right now in 2025, if someone hits you up on Telegram or WhatsApp and they're getting a little chatty and you don't know them, the chances are that you're talking to someone living in slavery. You're probably talking to someone who's one of about 400,000 people living in a high security compound somewhere in Southeast Asia and being forced to scam the world.
These compounds, they're run by Chinese organized crime, and they're like these huge black boxes that absorb money and human lives. And in this show, we're going to take you inside these compounds. Welcome to Scammerland. So about a year ago, we ran a two-part episode on Scammer Farms on our weekly podcast, What It Was Like. And I think they were some of our most impactful episodes yet.
We got loads of DMs and emails from people being like, what? I didn't know anything about this. Tell me more. So that's what this is. This is a multi-part series to really unpack the topic. But how did I find my way to this story? Where did this all start? Well, it started about a year ago when I got a message on WhatsApp from a number that I didn't know. It started out pretty innocently.
Of course, it was a scam. I knew it was a scam. Someone just wrote to me and they said, hey, do I know you? Like I said, I've got this podcast. I've got to feed it content every week. So... I don't know. I kind of thought, all right, look, I'll engage. Maybe there's a story in this. So I was like, hey, what's up? Who are you?
And this person, whoever they were, they claimed to be this rich Eastern European lady who seemed really keen to tell me how she got rich. And she sent me a photo of herself like hanging out next to a Lamborghini. And I was like, hey, nice Lambo. Okay. tell me how you got rich. And then she's like, crypto, I'll teach you. And then I was like, all right.
And then honestly, she started telling me about Ethereum and coin wallets. And I, at that point, I got kind of bored and told her to get a real job. All pretty normal, all pretty standard, but then I got a response that stopped me cold. And it was just one word, and it said, help. And I was like, what? And I was looking at this, and I was like, help. That seems off-brand.
I was in the middle of texting back, hey, what do you mean, when this person just blocked me, and their half of the conversation just froze. And that single word, help, sent me down a rabbit hole.
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Chapter 2: Who is Small Q and what was his dream job?
That's right. You know, getting to a point to leave the carrier behind, you know, the music carrier, like I sold everything from the shop And other properties, I wouldn't say here, man, but everything that I owned by that time, I had to sell it for this opportunity.
He said goodbye to his family and he boarded the plane and he arrived in Bangkok at 2 p.m. on the 21st of November, 2023.
I was told to wait at gate 8. There came out a big guy, was kind of Asian. So he came out and be like, oh, yeah, it's you. Let's go to the hotel. You're going to meet your bosses the next day. So me, in my own understanding, I was like, maybe the hotel is just near the airport.
Q followed this guy through the airport, not saying anything. And then they went through customs and found themselves outside in the tropical sun when a car pulled up to meet them.
So I got into the car, actually into the front seat, passenger seat. and we drove off from the airport. After some hours, I was curious about us not getting to the destination and I started asking him some questions.
but suddenly he didn't know English well. Every time the queue tried to get some answers, the guy driving, he'd say a couple of words in Thai into his iPhone translator, which parroted back, don't worry, we're about to reach our destination.
Yeah, so continuing the journey, now it's around 6 p.m., imagine. We left the airport around 2.30. I got scared, man. I tried to pull the door. It was kind of locked. The door was locked. That's a bad moment.
At this point, they're speeding down an unmade road. Around them is a mix of forest and fields. And then they pull up at what looks like a warehouse among the trees. And Q peers through the windscreen to see several guys approaching.
The guy went out of the car, was like, come out, come out. But, you know, speaking in his language, just showing me sign like this. I first stayed in the car for some few minutes. Then these guys were like, came to the car and opened it in a very, you know, hush way. Then they pulled me out. Like aggressively pulled you out.
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Chapter 3: How did Small Q end up in Thailand?
the ground i you know got a lot of you know ideas are like should i run but these guys have a gun should i bring out my phone they might take it so all i had to do was to chill for some hours that would be hard like trying to not panic while just staying still i think that'd be really hard Yeah, man, but as well, I was praying, man.
I was like, God, it's only you who can get me out of this situation right now.
Hey, we're going to take a quick ad break here. But when we're back, Q is taken to the scammer farm that's going to become his home. Hey, welcome back. So our guest Q has arrived in Thailand, but it all went south as soon as he got off the plane. And now he's surrounded by armed thugs kneeling outside a warehouse in a forest miles from anywhere.
After some time, around four hours, imagine in that same place. There are two cars that came along at a very, very high speed. They parked at this location. These guys grabbed my luggage. They put it in the back. Then they got me in the car forcefully again. Okay. Okay. sitting on either sides in the back, another two guys in front.
Then this guy, you know, got his gun from this side and put it in the car like this.
Like on the center console, like to make it clear that he had a gun.
Yeah. Then he put on loud music. It was Chinese music, based on the language I was hearing.
Like techno or like electronic music?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, electronic music. I was so scared. I don't know. I was like, these guys are putting on loud music to kill me in the car. What's happening now?
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Chapter 4: What happened to Small Q upon arriving in Thailand?
When we got into the gate, this is when I saw that there are more military guys inside here. It was, you know, having strong security. Cameras everywhere. And everyone was kind of busy. This was looking like a company. Everyone is, you know, trying to focus on his own business inside here.
Keeping their heads down. From the car, Q was forcibly dragged inside into a large room full of computer terminals. They took his phone and they took his passport and then they emptied his bag onto the ground and left him to pick up his things. No one looked at him. And then Q, he was told to sit and wait.
So after some hours, you know, man, I'm like, at least I can get a nap like for 20 minutes, you know, to keep my head sober. Yeah. But again, there came a security guy who was like, don't dose, don't sleep.
Why?
I wouldn't, you know, know why, man, because this guy was as well armed. So I was like, man, what's happening? I can't even get a nap. And so after some hours again, there's a guy who came, he came with a lady. This guy was speaking English. So he told me, you are here to scam. I was like, what? He told me, yes, you are here to scam.
What we tell you is what you have to do if you want to stay alive in this place. I was like, no, this is not what I was told to do. I want to get to my, are you guys my bosses? I want to get to my bosses to ask them where is the supermarket? How am I going to be paid? And this is not Bangkok. I need you guys to take me back to Bangkok. So they didn't reply anything. They just laughed.
So the next day they told me, pick up your bags, follow us. Getting outside, it was morning around nine. They got me inside the car and we were like, we are taking you to another place. We continued the journey, but now these guys were, yeah, deeper into Myanmar. So again, they were driving at a high speed. We got inside the mountain because the park that I've been in was called the mountain.
And now I'm in a military base. So I was so scared, my brother.
What's happened here is that Q has fallen out of the frying pan and into the fire. His bosses at the last scammer farm decided he was going to be trouble, so they've sold him off. And they've sold him to a place known as Taichung. And it's a deceptively beautiful area.
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Chapter 5: What is a scammer farm and how does it operate?
Because that was the road inside there. The Chinese first get something to eat. Then after run, we go after and get, you know, the rest of the food that has actually been used already. So it was kind of, you know, very bad. And this was the first time, you know, eating leftovers for someone.
Yeah, man. That's like, that smells of just straight up racism. Yeah.
That's right. So we entered this bad looking place. We got that food and this guy was telling me long stories. Man, I've seen people being cut off hand. I've seen people dying here. This place is so serious about this. This is a scamming place. You have to be so, you know, cautious about, you know, your life here. So what you can do is Just be humble. Just do what they tell you.
You're going to survive in this place. Man, this got me scared a lot. Yeah. We got those leftovers. Then we headed to the other containers that I put my bags. When you say a container, do you mean like a shipping container? Not a shipping one, but it's a metallic container, kind of a shelter.
Okay, like a shed. Yeah, that's right. Okay, and these were like dormitories or bedrooms?
Yeah, these were our dormitories, but these guys for them were staying in permanent buildings.
Okay.
So that was how the first day went. When I just put my head down like this, having a nap, It was so quick that I was told to race again just after some few hours because I thought maybe I'm going to race for 12 hours or 8 hours. But just after three hours, imagine, I was waking up and was like, time for working by these marital people.
God. Is that a regular workday? Like you had to work 20-hour workdays every day?
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