For Xu Bochun, left down and nearly out in Shanghai by pandemic layoffs, a month’s work as a movie extra in balmy southwest China sounded like easy money.

       It turned out to be anything but.

       Armed men kidnapped the aspiring actor, then 37, last year after he showed up for what proved to be a fake part and marched him at knifepoint through jungle and across the border into northern Myanmar. There, he was beaten and sold to a criminal group running cyber scams, targeting victims with fake investment schemes and online romance. He was forced to spend three months duping people out of their money until his family paid a ransom for his release in October.