There are usually no international flights from the airport in Maysot, a town located on the border with Thailand's Myanmar. However, recently, hundreds of people here have boarded a direct flight back to China. They were rescued from Myanmar, where they were caught up in the tragedy of the 21st century. This is an online scam factory that forced tens of millions of dollars of work from victims around the world.
The chartered flight was part of a multinational effort working at a fraud center, following the trafficking of Chinese actors last month. Rescue missions coordinated by Thai, Myanmar and Chinese officials were sold as a physical blow to this glyft industry.
But even as the planes were heading north, construction workers at these fraud centers (blocks of modern towers in front of the Thai side of the frontier) continued to weld and hammer at night, bravely constructing new warehouses specialized for crime. Contained in a room with a window, the con man covered up his money from a lonely heart and avid investors in the US, China and other eager investors.
After the 2021 military coup in Myanmar and the subsequent civil war, the border with Thailand exploded into one of the most lawless and lucrative places on the planet. Chinese detective syndicates are moving, dealing with competitive facilities, turning rainforests into high-rise settlements dedicated to online fraud.
The Thai government was unable to force intervene, and Chinese gangs and militia commanders in Myanmar smuggled tens of thousands of people for labor in these crime hubs, according to the UN. Thailand also provided electricity and internet to the fraud centre, serving as construction materials, torture tools and even the odd Lamborghini conduit.
This month's raid was the latest attack on fraud centres, which has led to thousands of people scammers becoming con artists. Often, tempted by a good paying job in IT, false promises of engineering or customer service, citizens of at least 40 countries are forced to engage in encryption, online dating cheating, tiktok shopping, Whatsapp Real Estate Dodges, Instagram Deep Fakes, Facebook Trickery by Chinese criminals.
The con artists trapped in these compounds are Chinese, Chinese, beat-hit, electric shocks and tied up for hours in poses that mimic the crucifixion, said witnesses and victims of abuse. Another form of torture is raw gravel until the knees and hands bleed.
Unfinished business
Marking last week's successful rescue efforts, Chinese, Thai and Myanmar officials held hands and celebrated what they called the unified destruction of crime across borders. The attacks in Cambodia, another hotbed of cybercrime, also freed others.
“Several fraud sites have been eradicated and a large group of suspects have been arrested,” said Guo Jiakun, a spokesman for China's Foreign Ministry, on Friday, “a strong measure taken to dismantle fraud gangs and protect the lives and property of citizens from China and other countries.”
However, interviews with around 20 people have shown that such self-collections are premature. Some people are working or currently working at fraud centres.
Thousands of individuals believed to have been rescued from fraudulent warehouses this month are still left behind between the hell of forced labor in Myanmar and the promise of freedom in Thailand. Tens of thousands more remain incarcerated at the fraudulent factory.
“Business is normal,” said Mami, a Myanmar citizen who struggles with one of the online crime hubs. She spoke on the phone and said she worked voluntarily, like many Myanmar citizens there.
And none of the key players coordinating this international criminal network across dozens of countries have been removed in the current campaign. The arrest of the Chinese-born Kingpin, who is currently in a Thai prison fighting extradition to China, did not delay construction in the fraudulent town accused of running.
“Efforts to human trafficking and online fraud businesses require more than reactive law enforcement,” writes Kapi, founding director of the Salwin Public Policy Institute, which focuses on the area where fraud centres are spreading on February 21.
On Saturday evening, when Thai police set a checkpoint near the border with Myanmar, a trafficker said a group of Chinese fraudsters had moved via Thailand to one large cybercriminal compound as Myanmar roads still haven't connected criminal settlements. According to human traffickers, the con artists splattered across the river.
Naw Pann said other nighttime border crossings and those identified only by a portion of her name for her safety are continuing despite the halt of human trafficking from Thailand to Myanmar. She doesn't speak mandarins or other foreign languages, so she tells the victim she doesn't move when she tries to hold her index finger up into her mouth. She said some of those in recent days have face and bandage wounds on her legs, she said.
“I sympathize with them,” she said. “But I can't do anything to help them.”
Ko Min, a member of Myanmar's armed group, said he is making a bet on one of the biggest crime cities. The room was filled with a line of workers sitting in front of a desktop computer, he said. They knew they wouldn't see him or the abuser, he said.
“I will never forget the fear of the people in my room,” he said. “It was like seeing an animal being tortured.”
Visit to Beijing
In January, the open secret of the scam lies in this line of breadth – very visible, very electric – shaking the public consciousness with the loss of Chinese actor Wang Xing. He was soon freed from Myanmar's fraud parks, but public rage permeated in China, and Chinese tourists removed their vacation in Thailand.
Earlier this month, Thai Prime Minister Paetong Tarun Sinawatra visited Beijing, where she promised Chinese leader Xi Jinping, which her government cracked down on. Before her trip, Thailand announced that it had cut off electricity to the other side of the border, which it had done temporarily in 2023. China's Deputy Minister of Public Security has come to inspect the border zone.
A leader of Myanmar's ethnic minority militia who controlled an area near the Thai border and attempted to deny negligence in leasing land to Chinese companies. These armed groups have helped those fighting the junta provide the horror-making muscles to the hub of fraud, said witnesses and trafficked employees. Militias are also involved in other illegal transactions, from drugs and gems to wildlife and timber.
The general said San Aung, chief of staff for the rebel group Democrat Karen Benevolent Army, had only noticed a fraud center operating on the territory after some nasty photos were circulated online this year. However, he warned against believing all images of fraud center workers showing signs of physical abuse.
“They hurt themselves and blamed their employers for torture,” the general said San Aung. “If the employer tortured them, it's unclear how they were able to take and share photos of their injuries.”
Even if another militia spokesman knew that something illicit was happening, they were forced to remain silent by greater forces that benefited from criminal conduct.
“We weren't making these attacks due to pressure from China,” said Lt. Col. Naing Zau of Karen Border Patrol, who holds more grass along the border. “We acted because we reported that foreigners were being detained and abused against their will.”
Torture room
Since February 20th, hundreds of Chinese people have been airlifted to their homes who have been released from fraud centres. China's state media was labelled as the first batch crime suspect. Many Africans, as well as 260, arrived in Thailand in mid-February, awaiting repatriation. But around 7,000 people taken from criminal compounds across Myanmar's borders are stuck in purgatory, evacuated in hangars on militia territory and awaiting permission to enter Thailand, aid groups say.
“We are seeing a humanitarian crisis, people run out of food and diseases break out,” said Amy Miller, Southeast Asia's Mercy International Director, who supports trafficked individuals who are forced to work at fraud centres. “In one location there are two toilets for 400 people.”
Thai authorities say foreign embassies need to support repatriation efforts. While most of the marginalized people in Myanmar are Chinese, Miller said there are victims of 27 countries, including Zimbabwe, Liberia and Malawi. Many African countries do not have embassies in Thailand.
Fischer, a 27-year-old Ethiopian identified by his nickname, was trafficked to a fraud centre in Myanmar's borderland. In the torture chamber he was tied up and beaten. The electric shock rewound his body.
In mid-February, Fisher was rescued and moved to Thailand.
“It was like a nightmare,” he said of the eight-month ordeal. “But I woke up and it was real.”
Selam Gebrekidan contributed to the report from Hong Kong, while Li contributed to the research from Beijing.
