WIRED | A man trapped inside an industrial-scale scamming operation contacted journalist Andy Greenberg. The man, who called himself Red Bull (because of the energy drink on his desk), wanted to work with Greenberg to expose his captors’ crimes and connect with the FBI for help.

Red Bull had traveled from India to Laos after accepting an IT management job. Once there, he learned the job posting was fake. His Chinese bosses took his passport, gave him an employee ID with a Chinese name, and directed him to his new job: luring Indian-Americans into pig-butchering investment scams.

He lived in a dormitory and ate food from the cafeteria. Most of his small monthly salary went to pay daily fines for infractions, such as failing to meet quotas.

Greenberg reached out to Operation Shamrock’s Erin West to get her perspective and ask for advice on the initial communications from Red Bull.

“This is a major, major deal,” West said. “Here’s someone on the inside who’s willing to share this information and tell us everything about how this whole operation runs.”

Unfortunately, she also told Greenberg that, “If he thinks that the FBI and Interpol are going to march into Laos and take this place down, that’s never going to happen. The cavalry is not coming.”

It wouldn’t be safe to arrange a sting operation without risking his life. But if he wanted to continue to be a source and expose the operations, Greenberg was on board.

Red Bull and Greenberg spoke and communicated daily on encrypted channels, where Red Bull shared messages, chat logs, materials, and screenshots from his daily work. When using his phone while walking around the compound, he called Greenberg “Uncle” to avoid suspicion.

Read: The amount of information Red Bull shared is astounding. The full article is available with a subscription: He Leaked the Secrets of a Southeast Asian Scam Compound. Then He Had to Get Out Alive

Watch: “I Was Trapped in Chinese Mafia Crypto Slavery,” a video overview of Andy Greenberg’s reporting and the information the WIRED team uncovered by analyzing the files Mohammad Muzahir sent them.

Watch: “From Trafficking Victim to Cybercrime Whistleblower,” an on-demand webinar with Mohammad Muzahir a.k.a., “Red Bull,” Andy Greenberg, RSAC CEO Jen Easterly, and Huntress CEO and co-founder Kyle Hanslovan.