Southeast Asia's Electric Fraud and Human Trafficking Industry: Encryption "Pressure Car" Transaction Guarantee Platform, Exposing USDT Trading of Slaves Details

The crypto assets trading guarantee platform was originally intended to provide trust assurance as an intermediary service for both parties in a transaction. However, in the gray areas of Southeast Asia, some platforms have become breeding grounds for black and gray industries, and even accomplices in human trafficking. These platforms primarily provide transaction guarantee services for illegal activities such as money laundering, payments, file checking, smuggling, and gambling, and have become powerful tools for cybercrime groups. Even more shocking is that, beyond these conventional crime types, some transaction guarantee platforms also conduct anti-human trafficking activities under the guise of "overseas labor services." This article aims to expose the development trends of this industry and analyze its business scale and financial pollution based on crypto assets, allowing the public to understand this outrageous criminal chain.

1. Southeast Asia Human Trafficking in Online Fraud: The Erosion of Humanity

Southeast Asian telecom fraud groups need to recruit employees of corresponding nationalities based on the target group of the fraud. Taking the "Pig Butchering Scam (" targeting the Chinese community as an example, a large number of young Chinese cross the border every year through legal or illegal channels to work in telecom fraud parks. These young people are often deceived and forced into Southeast Asia, and by the time they realize they have been sold into the telecom fraud industrial park as slave labor, it is often too late for them to escape.

It is chilling that human trafficking is openly priced in this industry, with USDT (Tether) as the primary payment tool. Typically, young males aged 20 to 30 are the most popular "products", able to sell for higher prices, while those under 20 or over 35 are considered "scraps", either priced lower or requiring stricter assessments. Females are almost entirely outside of the trading range.

2. "Strong Pressure Vehicle" Trading Guarantee Service: The Distortion of Trust Mechanisms

In terms of regular black and gray product transactions, the business logic of the transaction guarantee platform is similar to that of e-commerce platforms. Merchants need to pay a deposit to the platform before they can start their business, and the total amount of business conducted at the same time cannot exceed the deposit limit. If a merchant is unable to provide effective services or products due to their own reasons, the buyer has the right to apply for arbitration from the platform and even claim compensation from the deposit. Through this model, the transaction guarantee platform establishes trust between the two parties in illegal transactions.

However, in the case of human trafficking, the basic pattern is also consistent. When humans are the target of trade, these merchants are referred to as "labor transaction guarantee merchants." However, since involuntary victims may jump out of the vehicle (in the literal sense), call the police, or refuse to cooperate at any time, some merchants may resort to intimidation, coercion, and beating during the transportation process. Merchants providing such additional services are known as "strong pressure vehicle transaction guarantee merchants." "Strong pressure" refers to kidnapping in industry slang.

Due to the global crackdown by law enforcement agencies on transnational human trafficking crimes, the vast majority of guarantee trading platforms have refused to provide transaction guarantee services for illegal human trafficking transactions. Even the leading guarantee trading platform Tudou Guarantee under the Cambodia Huichuang Group emphasizes the "human bottom line," claiming not to participate, highlighting the severe nature of such business.

3. Navigation Guarantee Team: Disclosure of Crypto Assets Fund Flows

Pilot Guarantee is the only one among the top ten trading guarantee platforms in Southeast Asia that operates "Overseas Labor" public group )Public Group( and private group )Private group(, and explicitly states that it provides guarantee services for "Pressure Car Transactions." The pinned announcement on its official Telegram channel mentions that the "Pressure Car Guarantee Merchants" under Pilot Guarantee need to submit deposits through the private group address, which indicates that the counterparties of the disclosed addresses are all affiliated with entities related to the transnational human trafficking industry in Southeast Asia.

Thanks to this, Bitrace's investigators were able to conduct blockchain analysis. The latest escrow address of the leading guarantee was activated on February 23, 2025, and within less than 5 months after that, a total of 10,074,805.56 USDT flowed in, worth over 10 million dollars. It is worth noting that this batch of funds is merely the deposits submitted to the escrow address by merchants operating solely in the "strong pressure vehicle guarantee" business under the leading guarantee. Within the deposit range, merchants can repeatedly conduct business, and the actual amount of funds related to transnational human trafficking in Southeast Asia far exceeds this figure.

Through the analysis of the counterparties of the Navigational Guarantee Special Group address, Bitrace investigators attempted to assess the situation of the centralized trading platform being exploited. In terms of funding sources, two exchanges transferred a total of 18 transactions amounting to 72,418 USDT to the audit subject. The implication of these transactions is that the Navigational Guarantee merchants directly used the exchange address to pay deposits to the Navigational Guarantee, and these deposits were used to secure their human trafficking business. In terms of fund withdrawals, 262 user addresses from four exchanges received a total of 414 transactions amounting to 1,689,730 USDT from the audit subject. The implication of these transactions is that after ceasing operations, the Navigational Guarantee merchants directly transferred the deposits returned from the platform into their exchange accounts.

IV. Challenges of Guarantee Fund Threats and Combating Crime

Illegal transaction guarantee platforms are often combined with anonymous social software and on-chain Money Laundering, thus posing a continuous and covert financial threat to Crypto Assets institutions. Taking the most commonly used social software, the Telegram APP, as an example, although many public group merchants openly share their business content and addresses in channels, the truly dangerous illegal transactions are often hidden in non-public specialized groups or VIP groups, making them difficult to detect. The frequent change of business addresses also poses a challenge for continuous monitoring; apart from the leading transaction guarantee platforms that tend to maintain a relatively stable rotation of business addresses, many small and medium-sized guarantee platforms exist with a large number of mixed business addresses, irregular replacements, and overlapping business functions, which demands a quick perception from risk management personnel.

As a result, not only do the illegal transaction guarantee platforms for Crypto Assets pose a financial threat to centralized entities such as exchanges, but also the funds related to organized crimes such as online gambling, Money Laundering, and fraud.

Conclusion:

The fight against transnational human trafficking crimes in Southeast Asia relies not only on the law enforcement activities of various countries and regions but also requires the voluntary cooperation of operators in the encryption industry infrastructure—CEX, OTC, Crypto Payment, etc. This battle against crime requires multi-party collaboration to effectively curb these inhumane acts.