Criminal organisations, involved in cyber frauds and scams, have mushroomed all along the Moei River on Myanmar’s boundary with Thailand. Reportedly run by alliances of Chinese criminals and a local paramilitary group, they are beyond the reach of law enforcement, civil society, and media.

This fraud industry became notorious last year, after reports of extensive human trafficking, forced labour, and regularized torture surfaced. Tens of thousands of workers globally have been trafficked into this industry, which began to take hold around 2019 and accelerated after Myanmar’s 2021 military coup. Lured in by promises of legal employment, a few victims have now come forward to share their grim tales.

Two such individuals, Jane and Max from the Philippines, recently shared with the media their six-month ordeal. They came to Myanmar independently, in December and January last year, after responding to ads for high-paying jobs in Thailand.

Jane was under the impression that she was applying for a job at Amazon. She had previously worked for the firm in the Philippines. She received communication through what seemed to be official Amazon email addresses and her recruiter handled her flight reservations to Bangkok.

From the airport, however, she was driven 500 kilometres northwest to Mae Sot and ferried across the narrow Moei River into Myanmar. There, she was forced to scam Europeans and North Americans from a compound controlled by Chinese criminals. Max was too traumatised to even recall his nightmare.

Abuse and death

The situation inside these compounds is dire. Reportedly, the administrators at these centres seize the victims ’phones upon arrival and clean work devices before anyone leaves. Some leaked videos depict people subjected to electric shocks and beatings.

Victims are shackled, blindfolded, and compelled to sleep in cramped conditions. They are punished for not meeting the high quotas set by their overseers or merely for requesting to return home. Many have apparently died due to the torture and rumours of organ harvesting continue to circulate. Captured on a phone camera, these videos haven’t been verified though.

Grace Mata, a 22-year-old Kenyan woman, was trafficked to KK Park in the Myawaddy region in July 2022. Four months later, she fell critically ill and was admitted to a hospital at the Thailand border in an unconscious condition. She died two weeks later. According to an anti-trafficking NGO official, Mata underwent a botched surgery at a hospital within KK Park, probably conducted to harvest her organs.

Even assisting these victims is complicated. Most of these workers initially enter Thailand as tourists before being taken to Myanmar, only returning to their entry point long after their visas have expired. Consequently, they face overstay charges. Registering under Thailand's National Referral Mechanism for trafficking victims also results in lengthy investigations. Most choose to go home without filing a formal complaint. The most viable escape route for them often involves paying huge sums, leaving them heavily indebted.

River of sorrow

The “company” Jane and Max “worked” for is among more than a dozen thriving along a 40-kilometre section of the Moei River in the Myawaddy township, forming part of a vast Chinese-led scam network.

For instance, a facility termed “Family Park”, located across the Moei River in Myawaddy, is reportedly the operational base for what is euphemistically referred to as a “Chinese online gambling company”. According to three Indonesian men who were trapped there for five months, the compound houses nearly 2,000 scam workers.

And Family Park is just a small player in Myawaddy’s network of scam centres. Further downstream, the notorious two-part KK Park Zone complex has seen rapid growth since late 2019. It was in a four-storey building in KK I that Jane and Max were working.

According to them, teams of up to 15 people worked 12- to 14-hour shifts in this compound to meet targets of US$25,000 a day. There were at least 300 other people in their office apart from them. Jane said the teams would generally engage in the notorious “pig butchering” scam, in which they posed as a love interest to lure the target into a fraudulent investment scheme.

Also, 25 kilometres upstream lies Shwe Kokko, believed to be the origin point of Myanmar's scam trade. Shwe Kokko is in territory controlled by the Kayin Border Guard Force, a paramilitary group nominally under the command of the Myanmar military.

Once a small village, Shwe Kokko has grown exponentially since early 2017, when a massive development project, spearheaded by Hong Kong-registered Yatai International Holdings Group and Chit Linn Myaing Co Ltd—the Border Guards ’holding company—began construction. Yatai IHG has denied any links to KK Park.

The scam industry is estimated to be worth billions and countless have fallen into this trap, drawn from Malaysia, Taiwan, Indonesia, India, Kenya, and Nepal.

Jason Tower, the United States Institute of Peace's Myanmar country director, described this violent, illegal industry as the “United Nations of scamming”, as its victims are trafficked from various countries.

According to him, at least 20,000 people are trapped in Shwe Kokko and KK Park alone.

With 17 more such compounds scattered along the river, each capable of housing a few thousand people, the exact number of people ensnared in these scam operations is hard to estimate. Some compounds are facing increased scrutiny. But others remain largely unnoticed. Moreover, victims often remain unaware of their actual location until it's too late, making it harder to escape the criminal gangs and their military collaborators.

For example, Dongmei Zone – originally named the Saixigang Industrial Zone Project, is owned by Macau triad Wan Kuok-koi, better known as “Broken Tooth”, who was convicted for illegal gambling in 1999 and served 14 years in prison. “Gate 25”, a compound just north of Myawaddy town, has also flown under the radar. Its true name is not known.

Alarm bells ringing

International pressure is now mounting to tackle these scam operations. Interpol issued its inaugural global warning regarding fraud fuelled by human trafficking in June this year, concurrent with the US State Department's Trafficking in Persons 2023 report emphasising Thailand's rising significance as a transit country for trafficking people to Myanmar for cyber scam activities.

Also, in May, China's Foreign Minister Qin Gang urged Myanmar to suppress cybercrime in its border regions. In early June, Thailand cut off electricity to areas including Shwe Kokko and KK Park. But until something substantial is done, the scams will keep spewing out from Myanmar, as ranks of young people from across the world continue to cross the Moei.

Mark Gainer is a pseudonym for a writer who covers Myanmar and Asia.