This week, NüVoices co-hosts Chenni Xu and Megan Cattel speak to return guest Sue-Lin Wong about her current beat as South East Asia correspondent for The Economist and her investigative journalism into the world of scams that touches on human trafficking, money laundering and corruption.
In this episode, Sue-Lin discusses her inspiration for Scam Inc. following her award-winning podcast series The Prince, how she conducted the investigation, how scams affect victims, and how pervasive the multi-billion dollar scam industry is globally. The model is no longer a top-down hierarchy such as the traditional mafia network, but more like a gig economy where anyone can tap in and become a scam artist. What does this say about the structural problems in place in the formal economy in terms of inequality? Sue-Lin, Chenni and Megan discuss all these issues and more.
About our guest:
Sue-Lin Wong is the South East Asia correspondent for The Economist, having previously reported for the magazine in China. Her first podcast series, The Prince, won the Press Awards and the Webby Awards in 2023. It told the tale of China’s President Xi Jinping and his ascendency. More recently she has turned her attention to the world of online scamming and how it has become a massive global industry. The result, an eight-part series entitled Scam Inc., is now available wherever you listen to podcasts.
About our host:
Chenni Xu is NüVoices Chair and an independent communications consultant, previously having served as regional spokesperson for Ant Group.
Megan Cattel is a journalist and occasional co-host of the NüVoices podcast. She is currently Assistant Editor of Nieman Reports at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard.