The traffickers spun stories that were unimaginable to their listeners, many who hailed from tiny Bangladeshi villages where almost no one earns more than a few dollars a day.
First, there would be the boat: A huge boat where people could spread out comfortably, where the food would be plentiful and delicious. They would be treated with decency while on board and at the end of a week or so they would be quietly dropped off in Malaysia and given high-paying jobs.
After that, they would have plenty of money to send home to their families. There would be enough for food and house payments and school fees for their children. Maybe, if they worked hard enough, there would be enough to build monuments to their success.
"Since my childhood I have dreamed of building a two-story mosque in my area," said Shafiq Mia, a 23-year-old who spent weeks on one of the traffickers' boats.
Instead they were taken to fetid ships so crowded they could not lie down without touching someone else. They spent weeks at sea. Some were dropped off to fend for themselves in the jungles of Thailand or in Burmese villages they still cannot name. Some never reached dry land at all, and found themselves shuttled from one creaky boat to another, bought and sold by traffickers looking to maximize their profits.
In the end, most were taken back to Bangladesh, dumped onto beaches from fishing boats, only after their families finally paid ransoms to the traffickers.
As a boat people crisis emerged in Southeast Asia in recent weeks, nearly all the focus has been on the Rohingya: the persecuted Muslim minority fleeing Myanmar.
But of the more than 3,000 people who have come ashore this month in Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand, about half were from Bangladesh, according to the UN refugee agency, mainly poor laborers seeking better jobs and a brighter future.
Bangladesh is no longer the economic sinkhole it was in the past. The textile industry has given it a huge boost. The economy is growing at more than 6 per cent and the UN's development report now ranks Bangladesh with countries like India and Egypt.
But poverty hangs on. GDP per capita is just over USD 1,000 a year. Work can be miserable in those textile factories, and many Bangladeshis find themselves only inching up the economic ladder. It's a situation that leaves many people, particularly young people, susceptible to the sales pitches of fast-talking traffickers paid a bonus for every person they lure on board.
