Bangkok: Myanmar’s military government extended its crackdown on online scam activities to a second major location, detaining hundreds of foreigners and seizing thousands of mobile phones used to carry out the fraud, state media reported Wednesday.
Myanmar is notorious for hosting cyberscam operations responsible for bilking people all over the world, which usually involve gaining victims’ confidence online with romantic ploys and bogus investment schemes. Authorities raided a major scam centre in mid-October called KK Park on the outskirts of Myawaddy, a major trading town on the border with Thailand.
On Tuesday, the army raided a scam compound in the town of Shwe Kokko, also near Myawaddy, military spokesman Maj. Gen Zaw Min Tun said in a statement published Wednesday in Myanma Alinn and other state newspapers.
He said authorities detained 346 foreigners and confiscated nearly 10,000 mobile phones along with other related equipment, while blocking people who were trying flee across the border. The UN Office on Drugs and Crime has estimated that hundreds of industrial-scale scam centres based primarily in Southeast Asia generate just under USD 40 billion in annual profits.
Following the raid on KK Park last month, more 1,500 people from about two dozen nations who had worked there crossed into Thailand, and Zaw Min Tun said the site’s buildings have been demolished, including by controlled explosions.