Chinese father seeks help after 15yo son's social-media activity traced to Cambodia

BEIJING, CHINA: A Chinese father has appealed online for help after his 15-year-old son went missing three months ago and the boy’s social-media location later showed Cambodia, the father said, alleging that handlers at a suspected scam compound are using the teenager’s account to extort him.

According to the boy’s father, Mr Guo, his son Wang Yukai disappeared after taking a flight to Nanning, Guangxi on 8 August 2025 and travelling on to Pingxiang the following day.

Mr Guo told reporters that the boy, who had recently dropped out of school, changed vehicles several times and last boarded an unlicensed private car — a “black car” — before losing contact.

Mr Guo said he filed a police report the next day and later travelled to Guangxi to assist investigators.

On 27 August 2025 he noticed that his son’s social-media account was suddenly geolocated to Cambodia, and no further direct messages from the boy were received.

Alleged extortion via the teenager’s account

Mr Guo told media that on 3 November 2025 his son’s short-video account posted a reply, but the respondent was not his son.

He said the message — which he believes came from personnel at a scam compound — demanded that he “bring three people over” if he wanted his son returned.

The caller allegedly added that, failing payment or compliance, the boy might be sold across the border into Myanmar, and threatened to “sell him to repay debts”.

Mr Guo and his wife, who work away from home, said they are desperate.

The mother posted a video pleading for help and appealed directly to the compound’s owner to spare their child.

Mr Guo said he had raised his son as a left-behind child with grandparents and had recently planned to have him join the family to learn a trade.

Authorities investigating as missing teen’s case echoes rise in trafficking linked to Southeast Asian scam rings

Mr Guo said police and investigators have been notified and are handling the case.

Local authorities have not released details publicly about the boy’s whereabouts or any arrests.

Media reports have linked such messages to organised scam compounds that traffic victims across Southeast Asia to force them into online fraud operations; however, police confirmation in this case is pending.

Human-trafficking and scam-compound networks often use coercion, false identities and social-media manipulation, victims’ relatives and experts say.

Mr Guo’s account joins a growing number of family appeals in recent months from mainland China about young people who vanished after responding to job or training offers near border regions.