A new battle is unfolding in South-East Asia — not on the front lines but in the digital shadows. Since a military takeover in February 2021, Myanmar has become a hotspot for cyber scams — sprawling criminal operations that have stolen billions from unsuspecting victims around the world. Now, the junta, long accused of benefiting from these illicit schemes, says that it’s cracking down on scamsters and claiming a big win against cybercrime. However, scepticism abounds: Is this crackdown the real deal or just another move in a complex game of power and control?
On 21st October, Myanmar’s junta raided one of the country’s most infamous cyber-scam centres near the Thailand border. More than 2,000 were arrested, including 445 women. Their nationalities were not immediately known. The State-owned “The Global New Light of Myanmar” said that the military had seized 30 sets of Starlink receivers and accessories. This seizure was crucial: Starlink is a service owned by U.S. billionaire Elon Musk’s SpaceX. It does not have a licence to operate in Myanmar. Yet, hundreds of these terminals have been smuggled across the porous Thai border, becoming a favoured tool for scam centres for the simple reason that Starlink’s satellites and ground-stations are powered independently; so the service itself remains available globally during local blackouts. Following the crackdown, Elon Musk’s SpaceX said that it has cut Starlink satellite communication links to more than 2,500 devices used by scamsters in Myanmar.
The immediate focal point of this shadow war is K.K. Park, located on the outskirts of Myawaddy. Myawaddy is a town in south-eastern Myanmar, in Kayin State, close to the border with Thailand. Separated from the Thai border town of Mae Sot by the Moei river, the town is the most important trading point between Myanmar and Thailand. The State-owned “The Global New Light of Myanmar” said that the junta had occupied 200 buildings and found nearly 2,200 workers at the site, while 15 Chinese scammers had been arrested for online gambling, online fraud and other criminal activities around K.K. Park.
For half a decade, K.K. Park has been synonymous with the worst elements of online fraud, human trafficking, and money-laundering. At the heart of this complex web of criminal activity is an armed group called the Democratic Karen Benevolent Army, which controls parts of the Karen State, bordering Thailand. This group was formerly a part of the Karen National Union. The Karen National Union is a political organisation with an armed wing, called the Karen National Liberation Army, which claims to represent the Karen people of Myanmar. It has been reported that such groups have long been complicit in the operations of these scam centres, profiting from them while turning a blind eye to the inhumane treatment of trafficked workers. But under international pressure, some of these groups have been forced to cooperate, albeit reluctantly.
A spokesperson for the Myanmar military government said that top leaders of the Karen National Union were involved in scam projects at K.K. Park when the raid took place. However, the Karen, who are part of the larger armed resistance movement in Myanmar’s civil war, denied any involvement in the scams.
A question remains though: How do they lure and entrap people from different parts of the world? This is how it works. These scams, often operating out of Cambodia, Thailand, Laos and Myanmar prey on people’s hopes and desperation by promising lucrative salaries and attractive benefits. What seems like a life-changing job-opportunity quickly turns into a nightmare. Many of the victims are approached online or through fake recruitment agencies with offers for high-paying roles in I.T., sales or customer service. These job offers seem legitimate, complete with professional emails, fake contracts and even paid travel expenses. Once lured, victims are first sent to countries neighbouring Myanmar such as Thailand before being trafficked across the border into Myanmar’s militia-controlled regions. Upon arrival, their passports and phones are confiscated, cutting off any chance of them reaching out for help. Inside heavily-guarded compounds, victims are forced into running sophisticated online scams under inhumane conditions — enduring beatings, starvation, and even torture, if they don’t meet demanding targets.\
These scams take many forms. One common method is the “pig butchering” scheme, where scammers build fake romantic or investment relationships over time to steal a person’s life savings. There are also romance scams that prey on personal connections to manipulate victims into sending money. In January this year, a Chinese actor Wang Xing was rescued from a cyber-scam compound in Myanmar, where he had been held captive. According to reports, he was lured by a fake acting job-offer — a tactic now commonly used by criminal networks operating in the region.
Wang Xing’s story is far from unique. Similar cases are being reported across the globe, including India. This year alone, more than 540 Indian nationals, who were tricked with fake job-offers and trafficked into cybercrime networks, have been rescued from South-East Asia. Indian authorities have warned that these fraudulent job scams are becoming increasingly sophisticated, often targeting young professionals and the unemployed through social-media and online ads. In March 2024, reports emerged that 5,000 Indians had been lured to Cambodia with fake job offers for data-entry work. Around the same time, the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre under the Ministry of Home Affairs found links to China while investigating cyber fraud. A new location at Hpa Lu area, south of Myawaddy town, is reported to have emerged recently where most of the Indian victims are being trafficked to from Thailand after being recruited from India as well as from countries such as Malaysia and the U.A.E. Three more Indian nationals were repatriated from Myawaddy in September, taking the total to 886 such individuals since July 2024.
Here are some more staggering statistics: The U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime estimated that cyber-scams in South-East Asia cost victims 37 billion dollars in 2023. The U.S. and the U.K. have sanctioned more than a hundred companies and individuals in South-East Asia linked to online scams. The U.S. Treasury Department said that online scams have cost more than 16 billion dollars in the U.S. in recent years, with scams originating in South-East Asia leading to losses amounting to 10 billion dollars in 2024 alone. In May, the U.S. Treasury Department designated the Karen National Army as a transnational criminal organisation and sanctioned three of its leaders.
The French news agency A.F.P reported that a committee comprising U.S. lawmakers has begun an investigation into Starlink’s involvement with these centres. While it can call Elon Musk to a hearing, it cannot compel him to testify though.
Thailand plays a complex and pivotal role in both spread and containment of scam-centres across South-East Asia. As a major regional economic hub with advanced digital infrastructure and strong cross-border connections, the country has become deeply intertwined with cyber-criminal operations, though it is not considered a primary hotspot like Myanmar, Cambodia or Laos. Its strategic location, sophisticated banking system and large migrant workforce make Thailand a crucial transit-point for these illicit networks. In recent months, Thai authorities have stepped up efforts to tackle this problem, especially in the lead-up to and following former Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra’s visit to Beijing in February this year. As part of a newly announced crackdown on Myanmar-based scam-operations, Thailand has since cut off electricity, internet services and fuel supplies to several known scam hubs, including the cluster of operations around Myawaddy. In the resulting crackdown, around 7,000 people were rescued from scam centres in and around Shwe Kokko, another known scamming zone to the north of Myawaddy. Myanmar’s military junta said that it is committed to shutting down scamming operations but its position remains ambiguous. Reports said that in addition to K.K. Park, there are at least 27 other suspected scam centres in the Myawaddy cluster, most of which are run by Chinese criminal syndicates under the protection of Karen militia groups allied to the junta. Myanmar’s military only raided K.K. Park while seemingly ignoring the other scam centres.
The raid on K.K. Park appears to be a targeted action designed for maximum political impact rather than a comprehensive anti-crime effort. The junta’s claim to shut down an infamous scam-centre is almost certainly directed at its main patron — China. Beijing has exerted immense pressure on Myanmar and Thailand to end illegal businesses run by Chinese syndicates that victimise Chinese nationals. These networks are part of Myanmar’s black-market economy, alongside drug-production and mining, which help fund factions in the ongoing civil conflict sparked by the 2021 coup. China has intensified its crackdown on these operations, arresting more than 57,000 Chinese nationals for cross-border fraud. Despite the pressure, new construction continues at scam compounds along the border areas.