The New York Times this week published the harrowing account of a man who thought he was applying for a translator job at an e-commerce company in Thailand, but was instead abducted and sold to a Chinese gang who forced him to work for a scam operation in Myanmar.
The Times, which withheld Neo Lu’s real name at his request for safety reasons, revealed identifying information about Lu to the public — and potentially the Chinese gangsters who took him hostage — by publishing what appears to be his passport number.
“Mr. Lu, who goes by the nickname Neo for the character in the Matrix movies, spoke to The New York Times on the condition that his full name not be used, for fear of retribution from the criminals,” reporter Isabelle Qian wrote in the Times story.
According to the account in the newspaper, Lu had provided the Times with photos of his time at the scam work camp, as well as copies of his travel documents to verify the authenticity of his situation. While the Times published several of photos of the camp, the paper also published a photo of a visa page that appears to be from Lu’s passport, publicly revealing his passport number.
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