Thousands of individuals from at least 78 countries are being held in vast compounds in war-torn Myanmar, where they are forced by Chinese crime gangs to conduct online scams targeting people globally. These operations, often located near the Thai border, employ brutal methods including torture, beatings, and threats of violence to compel victims to defraud others through romance scams, cryptocurrency investments, property fraud, and online shopping schemes.
These scam factories, purpose-built over the last four years in lawless regions of Myanmar, are sophisticated criminal enterprises that operate like businesses. They feature key performance indicators, targets, and bonuses for successful scammers, but severe punishments for those who fail to meet daily quotas. Punishments reportedly include electric shocks, beatings with metal pipes, confinement in dark rooms, and being chained to cages with dangerous animals like tigers or lions. Some workers have also been subjected to mock executions and extreme physical abuse.
Many individuals are lured to these compounds with promises of well-paid office jobs and free accommodation in Thailand. After arriving, they are taken to Myanmar and forced to sign bogus contracts. They are then informed they must pay exorbitant sums to cover their travel, food, and accommodation costs if they wish to leave, effectively trapping them. Kidnapping is also a method used to populate these facilities. The scale of these operations is immense, with some compounds holding up to 5,000 people, and estimates suggest similar scams across Southeast Asia extort up to £60 billion annually.
Workers are trained to create fake social media identities, research potential targets, and engage them using detailed scripts. They are often instructed to target older, lonely individuals who are more susceptible to believing their schemes. Some workers have reported being forced to juggle dozens of fake social media accounts and use images of models or journalists to create alluring online profiles. When a target falls for the scam and begins sending money, their case is handed over to Chinese supervisors. The psychological toll is severe, with reports of victims of the scams committing suicide after losing significant amounts of money, a situation that some scam workers have reported their Chinese supervisors celebrating.
These criminal enterprises have adapted to attempts to curb their activities. When power and telecom cables connecting to Thailand were cut, the gangs switched to generators and satellite internet systems, including Elon Musk's Starlink. There are calls for satellite providers to shut down access to these operations.
International Justice Mission reported last year that some of these compounds may be involved in child sex-tortion, using children in online conversations to solicit nude images for blackmail. The scams themselves are increasingly sophisticated, utilizing artificial intelligence, deep fakes, and data gathered from social media platforms and the dark web.
Escape attempts and rescues are challenging. Thai activist groups, often working with local militias, assist those who manage to flee. However, critics note that Thai authorities sometimes fail to properly screen survivors, occasionally charging them with illegal entry and deporting them. Efforts to gather intelligence and expand global cooperation are crucial to combating these transnational criminal networks and the platforms that enable them.