Myanmar’s military regime extended its crackdown on online scam activities to a second major location, detaining hundreds of foreigners and seizing thousands of mobile phones used to carry out the fraud, regime media reported Wednesday.
Myanmar is notorious for hosting cyberscam operations responsible for bilking people all over the world, which usually involve gaining victims’ confidence online with romantic ploys and bogus investment schemes. Authorities raided a major scam center in mid-October called KK Park on the outskirts of Myawaddy Township in Karen State, located along the border with Thailand.
On Tuesday, the pro-regime forces raided a scam compound in the town of Shwe Kokko, located 16 miles (25 km) north of Myawaddy, regime spokesman Zaw Min Tun said in a statement published on Wednesday.
He said authorities detained 346 foreigners and confiscated nearly 10,000 mobile phones along with other related equipment, while blocking people who were trying flee and escape across the border into Thailand.
The U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has estimated that hundreds of industrial-scale scam centers based primarily in Southeast Asia generate just under $40 billion USD in annual profits.
Myanmar’s military reports that it began its crackdown on cross-border online scams and illegal gambling in early September. Following the raid on KK Park last month, more 1,500 people from about two dozen nations who had worked there crossed into Thailand, and Zaw Min Tun said the site’s buildings have been demolished, including by controlled explosions.
The entire area is only loosely under the control of regime forces, and also comes under the influence of ethnic Karen militias.
The Karen State Border Guard Force (BGF) works alongside the military under its chain of command.
Meanwhile, the Karen National Union (KNU), Myanmar’s oldest ethnic armed group, is fighting against the military in a nationwide uprising against the regime that began after the 2021 coup.
The BGF has claimed credit for taking part in the crackdown, though it is widely believed to have earlier at least provided protection for scam operations at Shwe Kokko. It had carried out similar raids there earlier this year, and photos published Wednesday show its members assisting in the latest operation.
The regime in Naypyidaw has claimed the KNU is linked to the scam centers on the basis of reported real estate deals.
Both the BGF and the KNU have denied involvement in the scam operations.
Zaw Min Tun’s statement on Wednesday appeared to be aimed at addressing skepticism voiced on social media and by the military’s critics who suspect the crackdown is superficial and that the raid on KK Park compound was staged.
He stressed that the army was “working to completely eradicate scam activities from their roots.”
However, critics say that masterminds of the scam operations continue to operate elsewhere.
Zaw Min Tun highlighted China’s cooperation in fighting Myanmar’s border-based scam operations. Beijing is an ally of Naypyidaw, which is ostracized by many Western nations for ousting the democratically-elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in 2021 and reportedly perpetrating human rights abuses against it opponents.
AP
