While China, the West, and South Korea are cracking down on cyber scam empires, the Thai government is still looking the other way.
Early this year, Chinese authorities dismantled scam compounds in Myanmar’s Myawaddy and brought gang bosses to justice.
This month, Britain and the United States sanctioned Chinese-Cambodian tycoon Chen Zhi, mastermind of one of the world’s biggest online fraud networks in Cambodia. South Korea also issued a “code black” travel ban, sent a high-level response team and repatriated over 60 citizens from the scam compounds.
Last week, Myanmar’s military raided the notorious KK Park scam compound in Myawaddy, opposite Mae Sot in Tak province, which holds over 2,000 detainees at present.
The raid at KK was quite shocking. Early this year, China had moved to rescue its citizens from Myawaddy out of frustration with Thai inaction.
The Thai government promised to “cut power, internet and oil” to cripple the operations. But the delay enabled the scam city to adapt. With new power lines, satellite internet and fresh oil supplies from Thailand, the city was back in full swing when the Myanmar government started its crackdown on Tuesday.
Who profited from that delay? Everyone with a hand in the smuggling, bribes, and payoffs. Ironically, when the scam victims — Thais and foreign workers lured by fake job ads — escaped forced labour and torture, they were arrested for illegal border crossing.
Their testimonies, which could expose traffickers and recruiters, were ignored. Authorities insist they went willingly, turning victims into offenders and letting the real criminals walk free. This happens on both the Myanmar and Cambodia borders.
When embassies and civil society groups plead for help to speed up the transfer of victims rescued from scam compounds to return home, officials drag their feet. Among them are pregnant women, suicide survivors, and torture victims.
This bureaucratic red tape borders on complicity.
Without action, Thailand risks being seen as part of the global scam architecture. Look no further than Chen Zhi’s Prince Group that has opened a real estate business in Thailand, apart from Taiwan and Singapore. In Thailand, the group has dealings with politicians and real-estate firms, hobnobbing with the elite.
If Chen Zhi’s empire has roots here, what is the government going to do? Only last week, when news about scammer networks grew too big to ignore, did the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) start investigating Thai shareholders.
Expecting the government to dismantle these networks may be an insurmountable task especially when the warlords are in business with the powerful. But at the very least, the government can handle victims and forced labour more efficiently.
Hundreds of workers fled KK Park, a major online scam operation, when Myanmar’s military started its raid. They crossed the Moei River into Thailand.
Many are Thais. The government must deploy special troops to rescue them, instead leaving the task to local officials to handle. It must make use of their testimony to pursue traffickers, and stop punishing people who have already been through hell.
In mid-October, an anti-trafficking group wrote to the prime minister urging the government to speed up rescues from scam centres, classify them as human-trafficking victims, and allow international human-rights observers to monitor screening. It is a plea that remains unheard.
If Thailand continues to be a weak and inert link in this global scam chain, it will be branded as an accomplice and clean investors will steer clear.
Tourists will think twice, and the economy and the nation’s reputation will pay the price while the corrupt grow richer off the world’s misery.
Chinese tourist arrivals have plunged after reports of their nationals being kidnapped, tortured, and trafficked on Thai soil. Every foreign headline about Southeast Asian cybercrime chips away at Thailand’s reputation as a safe destination.
Worse, the result of state inaction is scam empires are making Thailand home. If these gangsters are not stopped, they will start expanding their investments, just like Chen Zhi did in Cambodia.
The cyber scam industry is no longer a border issue; it’s a national threat. It lays bare how deeply corruption has eaten into the system. And until the government acts, the scams will keep thriving in plain sight, under the bright light of official approval.