in Burma, cyber scam centers exploit workers with the complicity of local militias

Since the Covid-19 pandemic, online scam centers have proliferated in Southeast Asia. These complexes promise attractive salaries to thousands of workers who find themselves trapped in inhumane conditions.

A vast cyber scam industry. In Southeast Asia, online scam centers, most run by Chinese mafias, have proliferated since the pandemic. Thousands of men and women are hired and exploited to defraud Internet users online. And it pays off big: more than 40 billion dollars per year, according to the UN. Washington says it has launched a special cell and sanctioned one of the network heads in Cambodia in recent weeks. Along with China, the United States is also putting pressure on the junta in power in Burma, where dozens of scam factories operate with the complicity of local militias. On site, the scale of the phenomenon is clearly visible, particularly on the border with Thailand, around the twin border towns of Mae Sot (Thai side) and Myawaddy (Burmese side).

On the bank opposite the house of a resident, who lives on the banks of a river on the Thailand side, there is, on the Burmese side, a vast residential area with an ordinary appearance.. “It’s Chinatown, it’s a bit like China, huh?”she says, laughing. Everyone knows it: on the Burmese side, Chinese mafias operate a vast complex of cyber-scams, with the complicity of local ethnic militias. “In the evening, we can clearly see the lights on opposite, their karaoke… But since last month, it’s over”, continues this resident. In mid-October, the Burmese regime destroyed part of the place. We see gutted roofs and facades, but in reality, only part of the complex was destroyed. The area had been evacuated beforehand, allowing those responsible to disappear.

Deedee, a nickname, knows these cyber scam centers well. This 26-year-old Burmese, with the face of an angel, worked there. He tells us about his experience over ginger tea in a café in Mae Sot, Thailand. For a year and a half, he had a mission behind his computer: to defraud Internet users. “We led the targets to download a fake cryptocurrency application and the money paid went directly to our scam company,” he explains.

Deedee was scamming 12 hours a day with just one day off a month, alongside 800 other colleagues. “Some are responsible for creating fake profiles, others publish fake payment receipts or create fake groups of fans of financial advice,” he adds. Deedee’s salary, 850 euros per month, represents a fortune in Burma. It was the only way, he said, to pay for his sick grandmother’s care..

“It’s not fun at all as a job. It’s not good what we do, scamming. It’s heavy. I made up stories to escape mentally.”

Deedee, former worker in a scam center

at franceinfo

In recent months, many young Burmese people are doing like him, also a means of escaping conscription in a country at war. To find a job in fraud, nothing is easier than getting hired, there are dozens of fraud factories along the border, on the Burmese side. Some resorts are the size of a city, others are smaller. From Thailand, we can hear the electricity generators. We also see buildings surrounded by barbed wire and guards armed with assault rifles.

China, India, the Philippines, Ethiopia and Kazakhstan… Behind these walls, there are workers from more than 70 countries. Many are going through hell. “Certainly, there are more and more volunteers in these centers, but there are also many victims of human trafficking”explains Amy Miller, head of the American NGO Acts of Mercy in Mae Sot. These victims think they will get a well-paid job in Bangkok, but are taken illegally to Burma where the trap closes. ‘”They are beaten, tortured and locked up to work 18 hours a day”, she says. In the humanitarian worker’s phone, there are dozens of unbearable photos and videos, showing swollen faces, torture with electric batons and stories of rape.

“It’s horrible. Some of the fraud factories have torture rooms they call dark rooms.”

Amy Miller, head of the NGO Acts of Mercy in Mae Sot

at franceinfo

With her NGO, Amy Miller has been helping to repatriate these foreigners via Bangkok for two years. A long process, because it is necessary to reach agreement between Burma, Thailand and the country of origin of the victim of human trafficking. The Burmese junta has been carrying out raids for a month, but, like many in Mae Sot, Amy Miller remains skeptical. “It’s a spectacle to show the rest of the world that they are taking action, she decides. But most likely, the workers have been transferred to other centers or are waiting somewhere for the news to calm down and come back later.”

In 2025, the Burmese junta claims to have arrested more than 9,000 foreign cyber-crooks when, according to the UN, more than 100,000 small-time scammers are working in Burma, along the border with Thailand.