At a scam compound in Myanmar, Filipina worker Pieta had just days to romance strangers online and trick them into investing in a fake business -- failing which she would be beaten or tortured with electric shocks.

Pieta was one of 260 people -- many visibly injured or bruised -- rescued from an illicit centre along the Myanmar border this week and handed over to Thailand, following a series of crackdowns on the illegal operations.

Scam compounds have mushroomed in Myanmar's borderlands and are staffed by foreigners, sometimes trafficked and forced to work, swindling people around the world in an industry analysts say is worth billions of dollars.

Pieta, a pseudonym to protect her identity, thought she was accepting a job in Thailand that paid $1,500 a month when she left the Philippines six months ago.

Instead, she was forced to work gruelling shifts for no pay at the compound in Kyauk Khet, a village in Myanmar's Karen state, scamming people in Europe and living in constant fear of punishment.

"If we didn't reach the target, we were beaten up... (or given) electric shocks," she told AFP from a holding centre in Phop Phra, about 30 kilometres (19 miles) south of........

© International Business Times