Myanmar's military has raided a major online scam centre, detaining more than 2,100 people and seizing Starlink satellite internet terminals, according to reports. The operation targets the multibillion-dollar fraud industry that has proliferated in Southeast Asia, with Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos becoming havens for criminal networks.
Scam centres are compounds often linked to transnational organised crime, involved in online fraud, human trafficking, slavery and money laundering. Lawless border areas have seen operations more than double along the Thai-Myanmar border since the junta seized power in 2021, satellite imagery shows.
The United Nations estimates that at least 120,000 people in Myanmar and 100,000 in Cambodia have been trafficked and forced to work in these compounds. Victims are lured with false promises of office jobs and then coerced into scamming people globally via social media and messaging apps, with reports of beatings and electric shocks.
Thailand has also launched a crackdown by cutting off electricity, fuel and internet to scam centres. The UN Office on Drugs and Crime describes Southeast Asia as “ground zero for the global scamming industry,” with victims from Africa, Asia, the Middle East and South America.
