Escaping Scam City tells the gripping true story of Micah and Ava, a young couple desperate for work in the wake of the COVID-19 economic fallout. When they come across a Facebook ad promising well-paid customer service jobs in Cambodia, they believe they’ve found a lifeline. But what begins as hope quickly spirals into horror.
Instead of entering an office building, they are taken to a heavily guarded compound. Their passports and phones are confiscated. The windows of their room are barred. Under constant threat of violence, torture, and psychological abuse, Micah and Ava are forced into the dark world of cybercrime—specifically, the rising scam known as “pig butchering.”
Each day, they must trick Western victims into falling in love and convince them to invest their savings in fake cryptocurrency schemes. Failure to meet their quotas means brutal consequences.
Micah and Ava’s story is a desperate fight for survival—and a chilling window into Southeast Asia’s fastest-growing criminal underworld.
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EPISODE 06: Stars, Stripes & Scams
Micah is finally free, but Ava is still trapped. When dramatically she does get released, instead of finding a joyful reunion, she’s handcuffed and charged as a criminal. Both Micah and Ava realize that though they’ve escaped Sihanoukville, there’s a long journey ahead to rebuilding their lives.
PLUS: What’s the connection between recent U.S. funding cuts, Chinese crime syndicates, and your bank account? And with hundreds of thousands of people still trapped in scam compounds, what can you, the listener, do to help?
EPISODE 01: I’M COMING FOR YOU
Young couple Micah and Ava apply for what they think is a dream job in Cambodia. Ava arrives first and realises it’s in fact a scamming factory, targeting people overseas like you and me. She warns Micah not to come, but he decides to follow her in – and hopefully get them both out.
PLUS: We speak to leading experts on the highly sophisticated recruitment strategies employed to trick hundreds of thousands of people like Micah and Ava into this exploding criminal industry.
EPISODE 02: THE FOURTH FLOOR
Trapped with Ava in a heavily guarded compound, Micah learns that escaping won’t be as easy as he thought. He forms a daring plan, but when he sees other workers brutally punished and beaten, knows he’s taking a major risk. Even still, he acts.
PLUS: We fly to Sihanoukville, Cambodia, to follow Micah’s footsteps and see for ourselves that scam factories are operating out in the open, and unchecked.
EPISODE 03: SELLING A DREAM
Conditions in the compound worsen as the scammers are forced to extract more money from victims. An emotional encounter with a victim leaves Ava shaken and depressed. Micah’s escape plan backfires terribly: he’s been caught.
PLUS: We speak to an American who lost his life savings, and break down just how “pigbutchering” scams work – and why they’re so effective.
EPISODE 04: The City Of Falling Men
Micah is sold to another scam center, bigger and more brutal than the last. Tasers. Darkrooms. So-called “suicides,” and co-workers who simply disappear. He’s close to giving up, when he stumbles upon a person on the internet, who might be his last hope of escape.
PLUS: We ask transnational crime expert - and show producer - Jacob “Jake” Sims (an American) why governments in Southeast Asia aren’t doing much to stop forced scamming.
EPISODE 05: THE RESCUE
We discover that the person Micah reached out to for help was none other than our producer Jake. The wheels for rescue are put into motion but the scam boss discovers that Micah has been asking for help, and calls him in to face the consequences.
PLUS: Americans lost $12.5 billion in 2024 alone to online scams. How is the government responding? The answer might surprise you.