Hello fediverse friends.
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Hello fediverse friends.
For The Globe and Mail newspaper, I've spent the last four months hearing from survivors of Myanmar's infamous scam compounds. Run by Chinese criminal syndicates with the collaboration of at least one Burmese pro-junta militia, the camps are staffed by trafficking victims, including a growing number of Africans who are beaten, electrocuted and raped if they don't meet scamming targets. They aren't paid for their efforts.
My story is published.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/world/article-africans-scam-camps-myanmar-scamming-rings-asia/
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Hello fediverse friends.
For The Globe and Mail newspaper, I've spent the last four months hearing from survivors of Myanmar's infamous scam compounds. Run by Chinese criminal syndicates with the collaboration of at least one Burmese pro-junta militia, the camps are staffed by trafficking victims, including a growing number of Africans who are beaten, electrocuted and raped if they don't meet scamming targets. They aren't paid for their efforts.
My story is published.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/world/article-africans-scam-camps-myanmar-scamming-rings-asia/
Since 2021, a coup induced civil war, and the pandemic have created a booming scamming industry based out of Myanmar. Hundreds of scam compounds have since sprouted up, typically along the Burmese-Thai border. They target westerners with cryptocurrency and romance scams. But they are staffed by trafficked people from across Asia and Africa, who travel to Thailand believing they will be hired at well paying tech jobs in Bangkok...before being driven across the border where their ordeal begins.
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Hello fediverse friends.
For The Globe and Mail newspaper, I've spent the last four months hearing from survivors of Myanmar's infamous scam compounds. Run by Chinese criminal syndicates with the collaboration of at least one Burmese pro-junta militia, the camps are staffed by trafficking victims, including a growing number of Africans who are beaten, electrocuted and raped if they don't meet scamming targets. They aren't paid for their efforts.
My story is published.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/world/article-africans-scam-camps-myanmar-scamming-rings-asia/
@ZekuZelalem
I love when you drop big stories like this.
Good work! -
Since 2021, a coup induced civil war, and the pandemic have created a booming scamming industry based out of Myanmar. Hundreds of scam compounds have since sprouted up, typically along the Burmese-Thai border. They target westerners with cryptocurrency and romance scams. But they are staffed by trafficked people from across Asia and Africa, who travel to Thailand believing they will be hired at well paying tech jobs in Bangkok...before being driven across the border where their ordeal begins.
Chinese scam camp operators in Myanmar have tortured and even murdered victims. But Meseret Mulu, a 27 year old Ethiopian woman, told me that at one point, the criminals brought in fighters from the DKBA (Democratic Karen Benevolent Army), a Burmese militia group allied with the junta...to come in and torture her, by stripping her naked and forcing her to spend hours in searing heat.
Warring factions take a cut to allow Chinese mafia gangs to open camps in their territory.
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Chinese scam camp operators in Myanmar have tortured and even murdered victims. But Meseret Mulu, a 27 year old Ethiopian woman, told me that at one point, the criminals brought in fighters from the DKBA (Democratic Karen Benevolent Army), a Burmese militia group allied with the junta...to come in and torture her, by stripping her naked and forcing her to spend hours in searing heat.
Warring factions take a cut to allow Chinese mafia gangs to open camps in their territory.
The criminals operate in Myanmar, because it's too dangerous for them to do so in China. Last month, 11 Chinese operators of Burmese scam camps were executed in China.
Thailand tries to curb activities, including by shutting off internet to border villages where the scam camps are located.
How have the criminals reconnected to the web in response to this? Via good old Elon Musk. Starlink is among the biggest internet providers to Southeast Asian scamming compounds.
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The criminals operate in Myanmar, because it's too dangerous for them to do so in China. Last month, 11 Chinese operators of Burmese scam camps were executed in China.
Thailand tries to curb activities, including by shutting off internet to border villages where the scam camps are located.
How have the criminals reconnected to the web in response to this? Via good old Elon Musk. Starlink is among the biggest internet providers to Southeast Asian scamming compounds.
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The criminals operate in Myanmar, because it's too dangerous for them to do so in China. Last month, 11 Chinese operators of Burmese scam camps were executed in China.
Thailand tries to curb activities, including by shutting off internet to border villages where the scam camps are located.
How have the criminals reconnected to the web in response to this? Via good old Elon Musk. Starlink is among the biggest internet providers to Southeast Asian scamming compounds.
India, the Philippines and China are prompt to repatriate their nationals. But African states do not do so. As such, Africans are becoming disproportionately targeted by Chinese criminal orgs knowing that little will be done to rescue them.
Africans who escape Myanmar can expect to spend lengthy stints in Thai immigration jail until they get the money for airfare/fines.
The UN itself is low on money, & issued a call last year for some $2.5M to fly home 1,000 survivors.
https://roasiapacific.iom.int/news/iom-urgently-seeks-usd-25-million-repatriate-victims-trafficking-forced-criminality-stranded-along-thai-myanmar-border -
India, the Philippines and China are prompt to repatriate their nationals. But African states do not do so. As such, Africans are becoming disproportionately targeted by Chinese criminal orgs knowing that little will be done to rescue them.
Africans who escape Myanmar can expect to spend lengthy stints in Thai immigration jail until they get the money for airfare/fines.
The UN itself is low on money, & issued a call last year for some $2.5M to fly home 1,000 survivors.
https://roasiapacific.iom.int/news/iom-urgently-seeks-usd-25-million-repatriate-victims-trafficking-forced-criminality-stranded-along-thai-myanmar-borderHere are some samples of AI generated ads used by criminals in Myanmar to prey on desperate, unemployed job seekers across Asia and Africa. "Typing speed" is a giveaway, they want people who can learn preprepared scam scripts with ease. The always pretend the job is in Thailand or Cambodia, knowing that nobody would agree to travel to war-torn Myanmar. The ordeal begins when they are picked up at airports in these countries...then driven into Myanmar. Meta and Telegram are part of the problem.
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