Originally published 2022-02-22.
In February 2022 a Chinese man surnamed Li told volunteers and reporters that he had been trafficked into Cambodia, forced to work for an online scam gang and repeatedly drained of blood so his captors could sell it. The story spread worldwide under the label "blood slave". Less than two weeks later, Cambodian police said in a preliminary report that the account was fabricated to cover his illegal entry into the country. The full truth has never been settled in public, but the case still tells us a lot about fake job adverts, scam compounds and how fast a shocking story can travel.
What Li said happened to him
According to Sixth Tone, the Shanghai-based outlet that reported the case on 18 February 2022, Li had worked as a security guard in Beijing. In May 2021 he answered an online advert for a nightclub security job posted on 58.com, one of China's biggest classified and recruitment sites. He said he was abducted when he turned up for the interview.
Li said he was taken to the Chinatown area of Sihanoukville, the coastal city that had filled with Chinese-run casinos and online gambling businesses, and made to work for a scam operation. He described being passed between three different groups. The last one, which held him from September 2021, kept him in a guarded room, beat him and, he said, took his blood in large amounts seven times so it could be sold.
Some foreign tabloids that picked up the story added striking details, such as a fixed monthly volume of blood, a sale price of around 18,500 US dollars between gangs and blood being drawn from his head. These details did not appear in the Sixth Tone report we checked, so they are best treated as unconfirmed.
Li said he escaped with help from someone inside the compound. Volunteers learned about him on the night of 10 February 2022, and on 11 February he was admitted to the Bethune China Cambodia First Hospital in Phnom Penh. The hospital's dean, Zhu Minxue, said Li was badly in need of blood when he arrived.
How officials and 58.com first responded
On 16 February the Chinese Embassy in Cambodia said Li had been coerced and smuggled into the country and that police from both countries were investigating. The embassy also repeated a warning it had given many times before: Chinese citizens looking for work in Cambodia should use formal recruitment channels and ignore adverts promising unusually high pay.
The case put heavy pressure on 58.com. The company expressed sympathy, said it would cooperate with the authorities and promised to tighten checks on job listings. It also said an internal search had not found the advert Li described. On Chinese social media, thousands of users shared their own complaints about misleading listings on the platform, and the company's statement was widely viewed. Business magazine Caixin noted that whether the platform bore any legal responsibility remained an open question.
Cambodian police: "fabricated"
The story changed sharply at the end of the month. On 27 February 2022 Cambodian police released a preliminary finding that Li and three other people had made up the "blood slave" account. According to the police summary reported by Sixth Tone and Caixin, Li had entered Cambodia illegally and later went to a local social organisation for help because he was ill, with Caixin citing a poor liver condition.
Three people were detained for allegedly helping to build the story. One, according to a statement from the China-Cambodia Volunteer Team, was Chen Baorong, a Chinese businessman and member of that volunteer group. The Chinese Embassy then posted a new notice urging its citizens in Cambodia not to invent rumours and to respect the laws of both countries.
Not every detail lines up neatly. The hospital dean confirmed that Li really was severely short of blood when admitted and was still being treated after the police announcement. Anaemia can have many causes, and no medical finding was published that proved or disproved deliberate blood extraction. What can be said fairly is this: the dramatic version first reported was disputed by the police of the country where it allegedly happened, and no court case confirming it has been reported.
The real problem behind the headlines: scam compounds
Even if this particular account was false, the setting it described is real. Since the late 2010s, parts of Cambodia, especially the special economic zone around Sihanoukville, have hosted compounds where people are held to run online fraud, from fake investment schemes to romance scams. A 2023 report by the UN human rights office estimated that around 100,000 people in Cambodia were being held in such operations, and a later UN figure put it at 100,000 to 150,000.
Survivors and rights groups describe confiscated passports and phones, constant surveillance, debt bondage, fines, beatings and electric shocks, and being sold or transferred between compounds. Amnesty International has linked at least 22 compounds in and around Sihanoukville to deprivation of liberty, and in many cases to trafficking, forced labour and torture. Many victims come from China and other Southeast Asian countries, and recruitment very often begins with exactly the kind of advert Li described: a well-paid, easy-sounding job abroad.
Cambodian police carried out several raids on scam compounds during 2022, but analysts have called enforcement patchy, with some sites reopening after raids. That background helps explain why Li's story was believed so quickly: it fitted a pattern people had already heard about.
How to spot a dangerous job offer abroad
Whatever happened to Li, the warning from the embassy is sound advice for anyone considering work overseas. Trafficking for scam work usually starts with a normal-looking advert. A few checks reduce the risk a great deal:
- Be wary of pay that is far above normal for the role, especially for jobs needing no experience or language skills.
- Verify the employer independently. Look up the company registration, a physical address and reviews from sources the recruiter did not send you.
- Never travel on a tourist visa for a job, and be suspicious if a recruiter asks you to cross a border informally or pays for your ticket with no contract.
- Keep your passport and phone. No legitimate employer needs to hold them.
- Tell family where you are going, share the address and agree regular check-in times.
- Know who to call. Save the number of your country's embassy and local emergency services before you leave.
Job platforms also carry responsibility. Recruitment sites can verify employers, flag listings for overseas work and remove accounts that recruit for countries with known scam hubs. The criticism 58.com faced in 2022 was part of a wider push in China to make platforms check who is posting.
Why the story spread so far
The phrase "blood slave" was made for headlines. It combined fear of organ and blood trafficking with a real and growing crisis in Southeast Asia. Within days the story had been repeated by outlets in many countries, often with extra details that are hard to trace back to a primary source. Far fewer reported the police finding that followed.
For readers, the lesson is simple: an early report of a crime is a claim, not a verdict. It is worth asking who the source is, whether officials or courts have confirmed it, and whether there is a later update. In this case the update matters as much as the original account, and both deserve to be read together. At the same time, doubts about one story should not make anyone dismiss the many documented cases of people trapped in scam compounds.
Sources: Sixth Tone: Chinese "Blood Slave" Rescued in Cambodia; Sixth Tone: Cambodia Says Chinese "Blood Slave" Story Doesn't Hold Water; Caixin Global: false job ad and recruitment platforms; Caixin Global: case was made up, authorities say; Wikipedia: Scam centers in Cambodia. The story was first widely reported in English by the Daily Mail.
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