Myanmar declares a 'zero tolerance' policy for cyberscams. But the fraud goes on

The Associated Press found that at least two scam compounds in the area continued to use Starlink to get online even after SpaceX announced it had cut off service. And there are other signs the scam industry is adapting fast: The physical damage to KK Park sent thousands of workers scattering to other scam companies in Myanmar and abroad, interviews with current and former scam center workers show. Telegram is popping with job ads for newly displaced workers. And work has continued uninterrupted at other scam centers in Myanmar, where people trafficked from around the world still wait to be rescued.

“Even if you destroy buildings, if you haven’t arrested the heads of the transnational syndicates behind this, seized their wealth and put them in jail, it’s not a real crackdown yet,” said Jay Kritiya, the coordinator of the Civil Society Network for Human Trafficking Victim Assistance.

A turning point?

Myanmar state media announced the raid on KK Park on Oct. 20, which was followed by a weekslong demolition campaign. In November, Myanmar’s military rulers pledged to “eradicate scam activities from their roots.” State media broadcast images of wreckage and soldiers standing with dozens of seized Starlink terminals. They then went after Shwe Kokko, another notorious compound that’s been in the crosshairs of U.S. authorities. SpaceX announced it cut off access to more than 2,500 Starlink units in Myanmar, where they have been widely used by scammers to get online. And Meta said this month it had taken down 2,000 Facebook accounts used by scammers in Myanmar.

It looked as if growing American pressure on foreign scam centers through sanctions, prosecutions and a new, high-level Scam Center Strike Force, was having swift impact as Myanmar prepares for national elections, which have been widely criticized as a sham effort to legitimize the army’s 2021 seizure of power.

Myanmar has said the demolition at KK Park — and raids at additional scam sites — are meant to ensure that criminal activity never returns. This month the government created a high-level task force to enact what it calls a “zero tolerance” policy against scams. The state-run Global New Light of Myanmar on Dec. 15 devoted five full pages to coverage of a press conference showcasing what it described as the government’s aggressive efforts to stop fraud, and characterized cyberscams as the work of foreign criminal networks that have taken root in lawless borderlands controlled by insurgents.

Government officials said that by Dec. 13, 413 buildings in KK Park had been “demolished” and the remaining 222 would be cleared as well. Detailed visual analysis of the first wave of demolition, which the government says is complete, shows that 31 structures were flattened. At least 78 more were partially damaged, according to the Center for Information Resilience (CIR), a London-based nonprofit focused on exposing human rights violations.

More than half the buildings were damaged by heavy machinery, which often left roofs, ceilings and layers between floors intact, said Guy Fusfus, an investigator at Myanmar Witness, a CIR project. “There may be an intention to reconstruct and reuse these buildings,” he said in an email.

New satellite imagery shows that most buildings in KK Park appeared wholly or partially intact on Dec. 4, even as demolition had spread to other sections of the compound. Once home to thousands of workers, many victims of human trafficking, the streets of KK Park appeared empty. Where all those people went — and what that portends for the future of a criminal industry the FBI says cost Americans more than $16 billion last year — remain open questions.

“This isn’t just breaking windows and moving on. You can’t come in and restart operations here at the same scale as before,” said Eric Heintz, a global analyst at the International Justice Mission, a Washington, D.C.-based NGO, who reviewed satellite images of the damage. “But we don’t know if that activity is just going to be displaced to other locations.”

Myanmar’s track record of lasting enforcement is poor. Raids in response to Chinese pressure earlier this year failed to contain the growth of scam compounds, according to C4ADS, a U.S.-based nonprofit that takes a data-driven approach to conflict analysis. Over 7,000 scam center workers were released as part of that purge, according to the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime, but the scams kept on running.

C4ADS examined satellite imagery of 21 known scam compounds in Myawaddy Township and found that 14 of them — including KK Park — had shown construction or expansion since January. Some solar panels also appeared — a step toward energy independence that could blunt the impact of crackdowns from neighboring Thailand, which has occasionally cut off power.

“This continued growth of scam compounds is emblematic of the junta’s inability to rein in the industry within Myanmar,” said Michael Di Girolamo, a C4ADS analyst focused on cybercrime.

Analysts say that some of the same people who led the raid on KK Park have profited from scams over the years. KK Park, like most scam compounds along the Thai border, operates under the protection of the Karen Border Guard Force — also known as the Karen National Army — an armed militia made up of ethnic Karen people who live in eastern Myanmar that is affiliated with the Myanmar military, according to U.S. and European government sanctions notices.

Jason Tower, a senior expert at the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, said the action at KK Park was a way for Myanmar’s military leadership to relieve pressure, primarily from the U.S. and China, and continue to host highly lucrative criminal activity. “There’s no real political will to crack down,” he said.

A month after KK Park was raided, another scam center fell, far from the glare of government propaganda. On Nov. 21, forces of the Karen National Union, a rebel group opposed to Myanmar’s military leadership, stormed a scam compound called Shunda Park in an area controlled by a pro-government militia.

“This looks much more like a real crackdown on crime,” Tower said.

While Myanmar state television broadcast images of a steamroller crushing rows of scammers’ computers, the Karen National Union gathered 604 mobile phones, bank cards, computers and other evidence from Shunda and handed them over to Thai authorities for investigation.

“The Myanmar military just destroys everything,” KNU spokesperson Padoh Saw Taw Nee told AP. “It’s clear they don’t want people to know who is controlling it.”

Requests for comment to a Myanmar military government spokesman went unanswered. But the Global New Light of Myanmar called claims that evidence was being destroyed “astonishing.” All evidence was properly collected, the paper said, and would be “released as appropriate in future public statements.”

Where did all the people go?

Since the raid on KK Park, the Thai military said around 1,500 people who worked there have made it out through official channels in Thailand — a fraction of the total workforce, estimated to be in the tens of thousands.

The whereabouts of the rest are unknown. Some followed company bosses to other locations, four workers who fled KK Park told AP. They spoke on condition of anonymity, fearing for their safety.

One Filipino worker said he and 20 others who jumped the fence at KK Park were picked up by government-allied forces and made it to Thailand. But five Ethiopians on his team stayed behind. “They wanted to go to another company,” he explained. He said he overheard his boss, who was Chinese, talk about relocating the operation to Cambodia.

Another Filipina worker said her company relocated dozens of staff, computers and Wi-Fi equipment to a nearby compound called Huanya, to get the business targeting older American men with a gold investment scam back up and running as quickly as possible.

Telegram is awash with recruitment offers for displaced workers. One company seeking staff to target U.S. “clients” appeared to offer the option of working remotely from the town of Myawaddy. “No daily attendance or registration required,” the notice read.

A company seeking staff for “finding and chatting” with cryptocurrency clients said it would arrange direct flights from Yangon in Myanmar to Phnom Penh, Cambodia’s capital, for those with passports and “safe transportation by car” for those without. “Come quickly,” the announcement urged.

Still trapped, still using Starlink

More than 200 African workers from KK Park went to the nearby Apollo scam compound, according to a foreign woman trapped there.

Another 100 or so moved to a compound known as Hengsheng Park 4, according to an employee who says his bosses won’t let him leave even if he pays a ransom. He said KK workers stayed for a week and then moved on. “I heard that most of them went to Cambodia, Mauritius and Africa,” he said.

He said his company still uses Starlink to get online — three units stopped working after SpaceX announced the ban, but a fourth still functions.

Starlink is also still up and running at the Deko Park compound, 35 miles (56 kilometers) south of KK Park, according to a worker trapped there.

The Associated Press is withholding the names of all three for safety reasons. AP asked SpaceX for comment and provided the locations of both compounds, but the company did not reply.

The Myanmar government’s pledges to wipe out scams haven’t helped the man at Deko Park, whose legs bloomed with bruises from a beating, photos show. He sends pleas almost daily: “Is there any latest news?” he wrote in a recent text message to a woman who is trying to help him escape. “I really want to go.”

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This story is part of an ongoing collaboration between The Associated Press and FRONTLINE (PBS) that includes an upcoming documentary.

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Associated Press reporter Huizhong Wu contributed from Bangkok, Thailand.

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Contact AP’s global investigative team at Investigative@ap.org or https://www.ap.org/tips/.