Heading north in the dark, the only way Gavesh could try to track his progress through the Thai countryside was by watching the road signs zip by. The Jeep's three occupants-Gavesh, a driver, and a young Chinese woman-had no languages in common, so they drove for hours in nervous silence as they wove their way...

This is today's edition ofThe Download,our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what's going on in the world of technology. Inside a romance scam compound-and how people get tricked into being there Gavesh's journey had started, seemingly innocently, with a job ad on Facebook promising work he desperately needed. Instead, he found himself...