A crackdown has been underway in Cambodia and Myanmar, targeting the notorious slavery and scam centres in the two Southeast Asian nations. Myanmar’s ruling military junta has raided an infamous scam compound known as KK Park. Cambodia was forced to extradite dozens of people to South Korea, in the aftermath of a murder.
The body of a 22-year-old South Korean student was discovered in Cambodia in August. His name was Park Minho. Park had been lured to Cambodia with false promises of a lucrative job. Once he arrived, he was kidnapped and trafficked into one of Cambodia’s cybercrime compounds. Park’s body was reportedly discovered in a pickup truck. It was bruised and bloodied. Cambodian authorities later confirmed that he died of “severe torture”. The news sent shockwaves across South Korea.
Public outrage forced the South Korean government to crack down hard. Seoul issued multiple travel advisories, and an outright “code black” travel ban to parts of Cambodia. South Korea also suspended a UN-backed water management project in Cambodia to ramp up the pressure. South Korean investigators and lawmakers have descended upon Phnom Penh to tighten the screws.
This pressure led to the arrest and extradition of 64 South Korean nationals on October 17. They arrived in Incheon in handcuffs. The South Korean police seek to formally arrest at least 59 of them, over their suspected links to Cambodian scam centres.
South Korea’s National Intelligence Service says that between 1,000 and 2,000 of its citizens are currently involved in Cambodian scam operations. The agency also said that about 200,000 people, from all over the world, are estimated to be working at the more than 50 scam centres all over Cambodia. This includes perpetrators and people who have been trafficked and forced to work there.
Over the past few years, tens of thousands of people have been lured to Southeast Asia under false pretexts. Trafficking victims are known to hail from China, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, India, Bangladesh, Nepal, and as far afield as Ethiopia and Kenya. Once they enter Cambodia, they are taken to one of the dozens of scam centres located throughout the country.
Inside, the trafficking victims are forced to scam people all over the world. Primarily people in the US, but also, people from Europe and China. If the kidnapping victims resist, they are beaten and tortured. The people doing the torturing, the so-called “bosses” overseeing the whole operation, usually have links to organised crime syndicates. Chinese Triads in particular have been known to run these scam centres.
The centres are also said to buy and sell trafficking victims depending on their requirements. Some victims are released for a ransom. Human trafficking. Forced labour. Torture. And the buying and selling of people. It’s the definition of slavery. And it’s rampant.
These modern-day slaves are forced to scam innocent people across the world and steal billions of dollars every year. The UN estimates that Southeast Asian scam centres stole up to $37 billion in 2023 alone.
Southeast Asia’s scam centres are known for two major cons: Romance scams and “Pig-butchering” investment schemes.
Romance scams are where the scam centre workers connect with their victims online, and pretend to form a romantic relationship. There are scripts, and personas that have been created to help the scammers forge bonds with their victims. Usually, this ends with the scammer pretending to need financial help, and the victim sending their romantic interest all their life savings.
“Pig-butchering” is an investment scam. Scammers connect with their victims. Build a measure of trust. Then they start asking for money to invest in lucrative, often cryptocurrency-backed investments. The scammers lure their victims in by giving back good returns on initial investments. “Fattening up the pig for slaughter”, to use the euphemism. Then, once the victims have full faith in the scammer, they are asked for a large sum of money. Once it’s transferred, the scammer disappears; the proverbial “butchering”.
Southeast Asian scam centres have been public knowledge for years. Yet rarely do their host nations do anything about it. There’s said to be a tacit understanding between the scam compound bosses and the local regimes. But once in a while, external pressure forces nations to crackdowns. All across the region.
The crackdown in Cambodia isn’t the only positive development in recent days. To the east, a major operation is taking place in Myanmar. At the notorious scam compound called KK Park.
Myanmar’s ruling military junta raided KK Park a few days ago. They arrested over 2,000 people, and enabled hundreds of kidnapping victims to escape. Videos of trafficking victims fleeing the compound and crossing into neighbouring Thailand have been doing the rounds.
As fortunate as their escape is, it’s a drop in the ocean. Myanmar is said to have over 100,000 trafficking victims. They are thought to be held at the dozens of scam centres all over the country. Again, this is public information. But despite this, Myanmar's junta rarely steps in to rescue the victims. Once again, there are allegations of collusion.
You know that Myanmar has been in a state of civil war for the past four years. The military junta and various armed rebel groups have been vying for control of territory. But even amid this maze of combatants, Myanmar’s scam centres are still thriving. Reports say it’s because both the junta and some armed groups turn a blind eye in exchange for a cut. As a result, Myanmar's scam centres have been blossoming.
The recently raided compound, KK Park, has expanded over the last few months. New buildings and roads have sprung up, probably to house more trafficking victims. And all this has happened despite KK Park being known as a major scam centre.
Every few months, external pressure forces the junta to conduct a token crackdown on the scam compounds. The October raid was mostly for appearances, because the junta only raided one major compound out of the dozens in the vicinity. And after the raid, the military claimed to have seized just 30 Starlink receivers from KK Park, despite dozens known to be in use at the compound.
The Starlink satellite internet service, provided by Elon Musk’s company SpaceX, has become the most used internet service in Myanmar. This is despite Starlink not having an official presence in the country. Scam centre operators have smuggled thousands of Starlink receivers into the country to keep their compounds connected to the internet.
It’s so widespread that the US Congress is investigating Starlink over this. And the pressure is having an impact. On October 22, SpaceX announced that it had disabled over 2,500 Starlink terminals in Myanmar. This was after the Congress probe made headlines, and the junta raid yielded the measly 30 devices. We’ll have to wait and see if this has a meaningful impact on the scam operations.
But perhaps the biggest impact of the recent international pressure on the scam operations is the resignation of Thailand’s Deputy Finance Minister, Vorapak Tanyawong.
Cambodia and Myanmar are two well-known host countries for Southeast Asian scam centres. Laos is another country reported to house scam compounds; allegedly, in the Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone.
Stradling all three problem countries, you have the Kingdom of Thailand. While there aren’t major reports of scam centres in Thailand itself, the country is slowly becoming infamous as an abduction hub. Numerous people have been kidnapped in Thailand and then trafficked to the scam centres across its borders.
Thailand’s tourist friendly reputation took a huge hit back in 2023, thanks to the Chinese blockbuster film “No More Bets”. The film highlighted the kidnapping and scam centre rings in Southeast Asia, and spooked Chinese travellers.
Earlier this year, a Chinese actor, Wang Xing, was abducted in Thailand and taken to Myanmar before he was rescued. The actor was lured to Thailand with the fake offer of a movie role. He was then kidnapped and trafficked to a scam centre called Apollo Park. While Wang Xing was rescued in a few days, the incident once again raised concerns about Thailand’s safety. There were also questions about how scam centre traffickers managed to operate with such impunity in Thailand.
An investigative reporting group called “Whale Hunting” says that it’s because Thai officials in the highest offices are hand in glove with the scamming rings. The group has alleged that the wife of Thailand’s Deputy Finance Minister Vorapak Tanyawong received about $3 million dollars in cryptocurrency from a criminal network. A network that the minister had been tasked with investigating, for its alleged ties to Cambodian scam centres.
The Thai minister has denied the allegations and sued the investigative group. But he has also resigned from his post, apparently to focus on the legal battle ahead.
Currently, there’s no conclusive evidence that Thai politicians are working with the scam and slavery rings of Southeast Asia. But their prevalence in the neighbourhood is tightening the screws on Thailand as well.
Will this force Bangkok to crack down on the kidnappings at home? Will it lead to more joint, cross-border operations and the crushing of the scam centres? Or will things just go back to business as usual when public scrutiny dies down again? We’ll have to wait and watch.
