‘Scam City is growing’: how Myanmar’s cyber fraud hubs outfox efforts to shut them down
Chinese actor’s rescue reveals how scam factories continue expanding unchecked, as rights groups urge China, Thailand to step up crackdown measures
Scam factories threaded along the Myanmar border with Thailand have been thrust back under the spotlight after the rescue of a Chinese actor who says he was duped by a fake casting call into travelling to one of the world’s largest cyber fraud hubs.
Myanmar’s Myawaddy area, opposite Thailand’s Mae Sot border town, is a notorious epicentre of scams run by mainly Chinese crime gangs using an army of workers – many of them trafficked – to con tens of billions of dollars each year from victims across the globe.
Reaching their targets by phone or social media, victims are pulled into a shadow world of deceit and fraud, offering everything from bogus romance to get-rich-quick schemes, all unlocked at the price of a bank transfer or cryptocurrency payment.
The businesses operate from compounds beyond the reach of conventional law enforcement agencies, despite being separated from Thailand by just a thin stretch of the Moei River.
Instead, the Karen Border Guard Force – an armed ethnic group – runs the zone with impunity, under the protection of the Myanmar military. And it is expanding operations southwards along the Thai border.
Last week, Chinese TV actor Wang Xing, also known as Xingxing, was rescued a few days after going missing on arrival in Thailand.
