Scam centers are large compounds of fraud and criminal activities which are often disguised as business parks or towns around the country. In Myanmar, they are usually located in border towns near Thailand, especially around Myawaddy-Mae Sot and Shwe Kokko.
According to the 2023 United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights report, an estimated 120,000 people across Myanmar were held in situations where they are forced to work on online scams. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime estimates that these activities bring in nearly US$40 billion a year for criminal gangs.
According to the United States Institute of Peace (USIP), the origins of the scam operations in the Myanmar region date back to loosely regulated casinos and online gambling ventures in the 1990s. These early gambling hubs along the borders became infrastructure for later fraud operations. The operations gathered pace in the 2000s as internet connectivity improved and criminal networks began shifting from gambling profits to online fraud schemes.
Around 2017, the most notable scam center in Shwe Kokko was registered by the Hong Kong-based Yatai International Holdings Group and local armed group partners. The centers shifted from gambling to intensive scam hubs especially during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. The site began to be repurposed for online scamming, money-laundering, crypto fraud and related activities.
Following the 2021 military coup in Myanmar, the country's civil war created fertile conditions for organized crime, leading to the scam centers becoming hubs for cyber scam and fraud operations. Due to the civil war, local armed groups, militias and border forces sometimes reportedly tolerated scam operations in exchange for revenue or local control.
The scam centers lure basic job-seekers with fake offers of high-paying, legitimate work in digital marketing, IT, customer support or cryptocurrency trading. For such recruitments advertisements are usually posted on social media platforms, job sites or messaging apps. This led to many victims come from China, Southeast Asia, South Asia, Africa and beyond. They are then taken to scam compounds and pressured to work in fraud operations. Once accepted, victims are often transported to border cities like Mae Sot (Thailand) and from there smuggled or guided into Myanmar scam compounds such as in Myawaddy, Shwe Kokko or others.
Citizens and nationals from many countries were recruited to the scam centers with majority being from China. Other nationals included Ethiopia, Kenya, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Brazil, Nepal, Vietnam and Thailand.
The main hubs of the scam centers are mainly focused around the following regions below.
Victims are forced to work long hours for up to 17 hours a day to produce scams such as romance fraud, fake investment pitches, crypto scams and online gambling frauds. Food was limited and poor and medical care was nonexistent. Victims were reportedly tortured physically with beatings and electric shocks when they refuse to work, miss targets or tried to escape. Many nationals from Bangladesh, Nepal and Pakistan were tortured among reported, including more from China, Brazil, Cambodia, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, India, Laos, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria and Tanzania. Beatings were done with PVC pipes, ropes, charging cables or sticks, which left serious bruises and injuries on the victims. According to a man from India reported, 800 people were given to share only 10 toilets.
People who were able to escape reported psychological distress such as fear, anxiety, nightmares and long-term trauma. Many victims were reported having suicidal thoughts and deep shame from being forced into illegal acts.
In 2025, the Myanmar military launched multiple high-profile raids on scam sites. KK Park was raided and partially cleared, with thousands of workers freed and satellite terminals seized with more than 600 buildings being demolished and releasing 2000 people. In centers around Shwe Kokko, nearly 350 operators and workers were arrested. Over 10,000 foreign nationals alleged to be involved were reportedly detained.
On September 8, 2025, the United States Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned 19 entities and individuals connected to cyber-scam centres in Shwe Kokko and surrounding areas of Myanmar for their roles in fraud, human trafficking and online scams that defrauded Americans and others worldwide. In October 2025, the U.K. and U.S. governments coordinated sanctions on a transnational fraud network in Myanmar and elsewhere.
China has been a major driver against scam centres in Myanmar and played role in executing operators of these centres due to the fact that many Chinese citizens have been trafficked in or targeted by scams Thailand has removed electricity flow and internet access to border regions housing scam centres.
The Myanmar military announced raids on scam hubs mainly on KK Park and Shwe Kokko, framed as responses to external diplomatic pressure especially from China and the U.S.