<p>Scamming attempts might seem to just come out of nowhere to suddenly appear in your WhatsApp, but a special economic zone in Laos has emerged as a hotbed of cryptocurrency schemes—where victims of human trafficking are trapped and forced to attempt more crime.</p><br><p>Guest: <a href="https://www.wired.com/author/andy-greenberg/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Andy Greenberg</a>, senior writer for WIRED.</p><br><p>Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of our show page. Sign up now at<a href="http://slate.com/whatnextplus" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"> slate.com/whatnextplus</a> to get access wherever you listen.</p><br><p>Podcast production by Evan Campbell, and Patrick Fort.</p><hr><p style='color:grey; font-size:0.75em;'> Hosted on Acast. See <a style='color:grey;' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer' href='https://acast.com/privacy'>acast.com/privacy</a> for more information.</p>