Despite a weeks-long multinational crackdown, scam centres along the Thai-Myanmar border are still operating with up to 100,000 people working there, according to the top police general leading Thailand’s operations against the fraud compounds.
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Thailand is fronting a regional effort to dismantle scam centres along its borders, which are part of a Southeast Asian network of illegal facilities that generate billions of US dollars every year, often using people trafficked there by criminal gangs, according to the United Nations.
Based on early assessments of some of the 5,000 people pulled out of sprawling scam hubs in Myanmar’s Myawaddy area, hundreds went there voluntarily, said Police General Thatchai Pitaneelaboot, calling for careful investigations among nationals of over a dozen countries to winnow out criminals.
“Many people use Thailand as a pathway to sneak themselves into Myawaddy to find work, and this is not just the call centre gangs but also online gambling work and other professions,” Thatchai said in an interview.
His comments run counter to widespread reports that scam centre workers in and around Myawaddy were victims, lured to go there by criminal bosses.
Jason Tower, an analyst with the US Institute of Peace and an expert on regional scam centres, said that many people who willingly travelled to areas such as Myawaddy were trapped in conducting scamming operations.
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“Many did go in willingly, only discovering that they had been trafficked later,” he said.
Several former scam workers describe being trapped in the compounds, where they were forced to trick strangers online into transferring large amounts of money, often pretending to be romantic interests.