Myanmar’s military says it wants to stamp out the scam. Is this really how it was done?

Late in the afternoon, the tranquility on the Moi River that separates Thailand from Myanmar was shattered by three thunderous explosions. A Karen family bathing and playing in the water rushed to the river bank in panic, with a plume of black smoke rising from the trees behind them.

Conflict sparked by Myanmar’s military coup nearly five years ago has returned to the border.

But this time the fighting is linked to fraud rings run by Chinese crime syndicates that have proliferated in Karen state in the past two years.

Gen. Zaw Myint Tun, spokesman for Myanmar’s military junta, said: “We are working hard to completely eradicate online fraud activities from the root.”

But there are good reasons to be skeptical of the military’s claims.

Now, for the first time, Myanmar’s long-running civil war and fraud crisis are intertwined.

The junta this year fought back, reinforced with new conscription, after rebel groups lost control of large swathes of the country. and new equipment such as drones from Russia and China. In Karen state, it pushed back the forces of its main rival, the Karen National Union, which it has been fighting for eighty years and has been one of the coup’s staunchest opponents.

At the end of October, the army raided KK Park, one of the largest and most notorious fraud compounds in Karen State, and deported thousands of foreigners who had been committing online fraud there, some voluntarily and some after being deceived or trafficked and forced to work. The Army has released video of soldiers confiscating thousands of phones, computers and satellite dishes from Elon Musk’s Starlink service. They began demolishing the building with explosives.

This is an amazing transformation. For years, Myanmar’s military rulers turned a blind eye to a multi-billion-dollar scam that spread rapidly along the Thai border. Local warlords allied with the military have been the main protectors and business partners of Chinese scam bosses and have become very wealthy. Some of the money found its way into the coffers of the ruling general. The junta has tried to blame the scams on the Karen National Union, but this is unfounded; unlike other Karen armed groups, the KNU has distanced itself from the business.

Global romance scam victims lose billionsPeople are being scammed into get-rich-quick cryptocurrency schemes, and senior citizens are investing their retirement savings in fake funds, many of which originate from these centres. Southeast Asia has experienced the darkest aspects of the industry, with online fraud schemes linked to human trafficking, money laundering and widespread human rights abuses.

There is growing international concern and increased coordination among law enforcement agencies in an attempt to combat this scourge. The United States has established a multi-agency anti-fraud task force. China is one of Myanmar’s junta’s closest allies and has been urging it to take more action for years. Thousands of Chinese citizens fall victim to online fraud They were trafficked and held in a yard for ransom.

Judging from Myanmar state media reports on the military’s operations at KK Park, it appears that this pressure is finally taking effect.

However, the demolition of KK Park, while spectacular, does not appear to have damaged the fraud infrastructure there. Military operations are focused only on this compound – there are dozens of others. It did hit the scam city of Rikoko, but only entered a few buildings and demolished only one so far.

Thousands of foreign fraudsters are leaving KK Park and Shwe Kokko, crossing the Moei River towards Thailand. Although transportation is difficult and expensive, many people have dispersed to different locations. Just booking a car now costs 5,000 yuan, equivalent to about $700 (£520). It is speculated that the main scam bosses have moved their operations to the more remote and less visible border areas of southern Myanmar.

But in a small town called Minletpan, a group of fraudsters were trapped in two compounds, Shunda and Baoli, last month. These were built along the river in the past two years. Their area is controlled by the DKBA, a militia allied to the military junta.

According to a spokesman for the Karen National Union, their fighters found themselves shot from behind by the DKBA while fighting the army in Minletpan on November 21. They turned around and drove out the DKBA, but then unexpectedly found themselves in control of two fraud centers and the thousands of foreigners who worked there.

The Karen National Union announced that it wanted to lead by example, inviting journalists and international law enforcement agencies to visit the captured compound. It released photos and documents to expose how the racket operated, rather than destroying evidence as the military did at KK Park.

It sent hundreds of workers across the river to Thailand, but about 1,000 workers, mostly Chinese nationals, refused to leave, possibly because they feared prosecution if they returned to China.

But apart from a handful of journalists, international interest in its prize never materialized, and junta forces began shelling the area in an attempt to retake the compound – or so we heard from the Thai side. Many of the remaining impostors have now fled elsewhere in Myanmar, but hundreds of them remain camped out under flimsy tarps on the riverbanks, as well as hundreds of locals, all hoping to avoid an exchange of gunfire.

All this drama boils down to one thing: Military junta’s plan to hold elections later this month comes under criticism. A civil war triggered by the coup is raging in the country. The military regime is loathed by most Myanmar people and is considered a pariah internationally.

The generals are looking for an exit that will give them a semblance of legitimacy and win over some of their many opponents. They have chosen an election in which the main opposition groups either cannot or will not participate, and much of the country is in severe unrest and voting is not possible at all.

The military has therefore made it a priority to regain as much territory as possible from the rebels before the elections. It has also tried to clean up its image with a high-profile crackdown on scamming compounds. This is particularly important for China, its most powerful international ally.

When we reached the border we saw dust rising over KK Park and more buildings being demolished. Some of the largest buildings were buckled and buckled, with windows shattered. Others have walls being demolished by excavators.

But many buildings in the distance remain intact. Some roofs have distinct white squares on them that are almost certainly Starlink satellite dishes, suggesting some scam activity may still be going on there.

Drive an hour and a half south of Thailand and you’ll reach a quiet crossing called Wa Le (Walai in Burmese). The river here is very narrow, nothing more than a creek. You pass through the iron gate, cross a small blue wooden bridge, and arrive in Myanmar. What greets you is the flag of the Karen National Union.

But while the territory around Valais is fiercely contested, with the Karen National Union seizing several military bases earlier this year, the crossing is controlled by the DKBA.

On the Thai side, huge signs warn people of the risk of being lured into working in scam centres. However, just a few meters away, a walled compound was built along the river, covered with barbed wire. This was called Hengsheng 3; we could hear the generator running and the security guard talking on the other side of the wall.

There are iron bars on the windows and a Starlink antenna on the roof. Monitoring teams have discovered this and several other new compounds around Valli. More criminal groups have moved south to Payathonzu, near the Santaguan border crossing.

Whatever the future holds for high-profile fraud syndicates such as KK Park and Shwe Kokko – it’s too early to tell whether they have actually been shut down – scams are still thriving in Myanmar.