Myanmar’s Digital Slavery: How Scam Factories Operate

Civil war-torn Myanmar has become one of the world’s largest centers of digital crime. Over the past few years, hundreds of thousands of foreigners who responded to advertisements for high-paying jobs have been kidnapped and forced into fraudulent call centers.

Such scam complexes are proliferating at breakneck speed along the Thai border and generate tens of billions of dollars annually for their organizers.

Why are such schemes flourishing, is it possible to fight them, who is behind it, and what role do cryptocurrencies play? CoinPaper investigates.

Historical Background

Myanmar (known as Burma until 1989) gained independence from Britain in 1948. Immediately after, a protracted civil war began between the official government, the communist opposition, and allied ethnic groups. The democratization outlined in the 2008 Constitution allowed the first free elections to be held in 2015. The country was led by Aung San Suu Kyi, a dissident and Nobel Peace Prize winner.

She was ousted in 2021 after another military coup, which sparked mass protests and triggered a new round of civil war that continues today.

Myanmar is currently led by the State Administrative Council. Its chairman and de facto leader, albeit with limited powers, is Min Aung Hlaing. Alongside the official government, various armed ethnic groups control parts of the country.

Global powers are also redistributing spheres of influence. In 2013, Chinese President Xi Jinping announced the large-scale “One Belt, One Road” investment program to integrate the Chinese economy into the global market. Myanmar became one of the target states. However, alongside infrastructure development in this impoverished country, opportunities for illicit activities also flourished.

In Karen State, near the Thai border, new towns have sprung up over the years, designed to become gambling hubs for Chinese customers. Gambling is banned in mainland China and most Southeast Asian countries, but in war-torn Myanmar, no one is watching. In reality, casinos are used as a front for all sorts of criminal activities. While in 2023 the total number of people living there was 120,000, current estimates range from 150,000 to 200,000.

Crime Statistics

Transnational organized crime in Southeast Asia is growing faster than ever before. In Myanmar, the lack of official control and the patronage of armed ethnic groups have created conditions for the drug trade to flourish. According to a report by UNODC, Myanmar was a major producer of opium and heroin as of December 2024.

Cybercrime, money laundering, underground banking, and human trafficking have also reached industrial proportions. Along the Thai-Myanmar border, about 60 complexes have appeared, each housing fraudulent call centers. Construction of the first and largest scam factory—KK Park—lasted from 2019 to 2020.

In late 2020 and early 2021, kidnapped citizens from various countries began to be brought to these complexes and forced to work in scam schemes. The factories are constantly expanding, with new facilities being built at each one. While in 2023 the number of people living there was 120,000, now estimates range from 150,000 to 200,000.

How Slavery Works

Foreigners are lured through social media by job offers from supposed Thai companies in IT, logistics, hospitality, education, digital marketing, or online sales. Ads usually contain brief details about the job and inflated salaries; checking such a company online often shows apparent legitimacy.

Large scam companies may even organize several interviews with an HR manager, direct supervisor, and regional manager, as well as an English proficiency test.

The applicant is paid for the ticket to Bangkok, sometimes even receives a visa, or is promised reimbursement upon arrival. From the airport, the foreigner is taken to Maesot, a city in northwestern Thailand, and then transported to Myanmar across the Moei River. The fraudulent complexes are visible from the shore and are surrounded by antennas that interfere with GPS signals.

On arrival, disoriented people are robbed of their passports and phones and are given instructions about the scam operations they must perform. The most popular schemes are “pig butchering” and its variant, the “romantic” scam. The task is to build trust with potential victims and convince them to invest in fake cryptocurrency projects. In their work, unwitting scammers use generative AI technologies and data bought on the darknet for authentication.

According to UNODC estimates, “pig butchering” schemes in Southeast Asia now generate more revenue than the drug trade. KK Park alone generates tens of millions of dollars a month.

Other cyberattacks include real estate and online shopping fraud, hacking into financial services, and other potentially lucrative targets. The scammers often target Western countries and have to work from nightfall, 17–18 hours a day. Everyone has a profit margin: one former employee was told $5,000 a week, another $10,000 a month.

Those who fail to meet quotas or refuse to work face physical punishment, including torture and isolation in a dark room without food. Some are even resold to other scam centers. Most centers do not accept ransom; in others, the rates vary: KK Park—$1,500–3,000, Apollo—$4,000–6,000. However, even paying this amount does not guarantee the victim’s freedom.

According to human rights activists, each factory has a managing director, most often ethnic Chinese, though some centers are co-owned by Thais. The premises of each complex are rented by 30 to 40 different companies with their own hierarchy: bosses, supervisors, team leaders, and smaller teams of subordinates. In total, each complex houses 50 to 250 people.

The victims of such criminal schemes are residents of Southeast Asia (China, Taiwan, Indonesia, and others), Africa (mainly Kenya and Nigeria), and increasingly, citizens of Western and, more rarely, post-Soviet countries.

According to UNODC, fraud complexes within Myanmar collectively generate about $40 billion in profits per year.

Who’s Behind It

Multiple sources confirm that the network is run by Chinese criminal masterminds behind gambling zone projects on the Myanmar-Thailand border.

According to the BBC, one likely beneficiary is Chinese businessman She Zhijiang, head of Hong Kong-based Yatai International Holding Group and a major investor in the “resort town” of Shwe Kokko in Karen State, Myanmar.

The $15 billion project was to build casinos, luxury hotels, and entertainment complexes, in cooperation with the Karen State Border Guard Forces (BGF), former rebels who have been granted legal status.

Despite the project founders’ efforts to distance themselves from scam centers, locals told BBC reporters that scam companies are located in buildings across Shwe Kokko.

In 2020, Beijing denied any connection between the project and the “One Belt, One Road” program after reports of potential illegal activity and supported an investigation into possible irregularities.

In 2022, She Zhijiang was arrested in Bangkok on charges of running illegal online casinos. He calls the case politically motivated. Yatai International Holdings Group denies involvement in any criminal activity, including human trafficking.

Another figure mentioned as possibly involved in organizing the fraud complexes is Wan Kuok Koi, nicknamed “Broken Tooth,” a Macau-based criminal mastermind. He is a major investor in the Saixigang and Huangya Special Economic Zones near Myawaddy.

Broken Tooth rose to power in the 1980s–1990s as a member of the 14K Triad, one of Hong Kong’s biggest gangs. After a failed assassination attempt on a prosecutor in 1998, he was arrested. Released in 2012, he rebranded as a patriotic businessman supporting the Chinese Communist Party.

Wan Kuok Koi invests in casinos and real estate across Asia and cryptocurrencies—even creating his own coins, Dragon Coin and Hong (Triad) Coin. In 2018, he founded the World Hongmen History and Culture Association.

In 2020, it, along with two other organizations—Dongmei Group and the Palau-China Hongmen Cultural Association—was included on a U.S. sanctions list for promoting organized crime, including through cryptocurrencies.

It is unclear how much the sanctions have affected Wan’s business. Recent reports indicate that the network of his affiliated companies continues to expand from Southeast Asia to Africa, the Middle East, and North America.

Thailand’s Public Prosecutor’s Office is working with the Department of Special Investigation to gather evidence in a case involving human trafficking and fraudulent call centers, which will allow an arrest warrant to be issued for three Myanmar military officers. They include the previously mentioned Karen National Army (KNA) Colonel Soe Chit Thu, Lieutenant Colonel Mot Ton, and Major Tin Win.

Experts noted their deep business ties to Chinese gangs and immunity through significant influence in the region.

In May 2025, KNA, Soe Chit Thu, and his two sons So Htoo Ee Moo and So Chit Chit were placed on a US sanctions list on charges of organizing large-scale cyber fraud, human trafficking, and smuggling.

How the Funds Are Laundered

Reuters journalists tracked the movement of funds of several victims of “pig butchering.” All invested in a fake crypto site and unwittingly transferred funds to the attackers’ wallet. After a series of transactions, the assets went to wallets where KK Park accumulates fraud proceeds, then by several direct transfers to other accounts. One address on the cryptocurrency exchange Binance received about $9.1 million from February to October 2022. Journalists established that the wallet was registered by a Chinese businessman from Bangkok, Wang Yi Cheng.

Between January 2021 and October 2022, his account processed about $87.5 million in transactions, which subsequently flowed to 50 other addresses, including exchange addresses.

At the time, Wang was vice president of the Thai-Asia Economic Exchange Trade Association, located in a building on the outskirts of Bangkok, which also housed the office of the Hongmen Overseas Cultural Exchange Center.

In February 2023, both offices were searched by Thai regulators, suggesting they were fronts for organized crime and linked to Wan Kuok Koi’s group.

In addition to shell companies, illegal funds are laundered through investments in casinos, special economic zones, the real sector, and real estate in Southeast Asian countries, primarily Cambodia and Laos.

Blockchain payment applications, proprietary cryptocurrencies, and an extensive network of unlicensed over-the-counter exchanges also come into play.

In April 2025, Thai authorities conducted a series of large-scale raids on the offices of such companies, uncovering more than 1,000 unauthorized transactions totaling over 425 million USDT. Investigators traced the transfers to drug trafficking and cyber fraud networks.

Cryptocurrency Regulation in Myanmar

The Central Bank of Myanmar does not recognize cryptocurrency as legal tender; financial institutions and individuals are prohibited from transacting with it. Owning or trading digital assets can result in jail time or fines, so transactions are largely conducted informally.

In December 2021, the opposition National Unity Government, made up of supporters of the ousted Aung San Suu Kyi, recognized USDT as the official currency. It also considered launching a CBDC and creating a neobank based on the Polygon platform.

Opposition from Authorities and Human Rights Organizations

The Thai city of Maesot is home to the office of Global Alms, a human rights organization dedicated to rescuing abductees.

Volunteers Judah and Michelle undertake liberation operations when victims are being transported between fraud complexes. The route is always through Thailand because it is faster and safer.

Victims themselves contact the human rights defenders, who are able to track their geolocation. They follow the kidnappers’ car and signal the most convenient moment to escape. Not every such escape is successful.

Sometimes, groups of forced laborers organize their own escape from the scam centers.

Criminals are taking advantage of Myanmar’s difficult political situation. The government does not accept responsibility because the compounds are located in territories controlled by ethnic groups, who in turn do not consider it necessary to stop what brings them a steady income. At every stage of human trafficking, these armed groups receive a share of the profits.

The Thai authorities have taken decisive action to shut down the complexes in recent years. In February 2025, they once again cut electricity supplies to several border towns, cut off telecommunications, and tightened banking and visa policies.

This led the owners of the scam factories to release some 8,000 people. However, Thai authorities were unable to organize the victims’ prompt return home. They were placed in makeshift camps in Myanmar while waiting for paperwork to be processed.

Those released complained of poor food supplies and sanitary conditions, with beds on the floor and toilet samples showing the presence of tuberculosis.

Thai authorities may not always recognize victims as victims of trafficking; some are accused of violating immigration laws and transferred to official detention centers.

China, whose citizens make up the bulk of the victims, has been proactive. Beijing has demanded that Thai and Myanmar authorities grant senior police officers access to fraudulent compounds in the border area. Thanks to close ties with the political leadership of the self-proclaimed Wa state, the PRC has managed to stop the sprawl of the centers in that area by releasing the people held there.

Similar scam centers operate in Laos, Cambodia, Malaysia, and the Philippines, but the presence of legitimate governments and a relatively stable political environment make the fight more effective.

Conclusions

Authorities in the states surrounding Myanmar are actively fighting a network of rogue complexes that are depriving hundreds of thousands of people worldwide of their freedom, but the standoff is complicated by the decentralized nature of the crime.

According to the latest data from UNODC, criminal syndicates are expanding operations deep into the most remote, vulnerable, and unprepared parts of the region—and beyond—as public awareness and law enforcement resistance increase.

The groups’ success is fueled by laundering vast amounts of illicit proceeds through cryptocurrencies and underground banking, which then find their way into banking systems around the world. They are becoming more powerful and influential. The efforts of law enforcement, however, so far only touch the tip of the iceberg.