Want to Break the Scam Centers? Follow the Money

Mae Sot International Airport is finally living up to its name. As planes from China and India have come to pick up their respective citizens who have been extracted from scam centers across the border in Myanmar and repatriate them, it’s no longer just a fancy name for a sleepy provincial airport. Not only Indians and Chinese but also thousands of English-speaking people from all over the world have been trafficked to areas controlled by ethnic Karen armies in Myanmar that, in turn, are collaborating with Chinese organized crime groups.

Thousands, perhaps millions, of innocent victims have been defrauded of their savings. Even the FBI has been to Mae Sot to look into the scams, and the outcome appears to be the formation of a Scam Center Strike Force to protect American citizens against what the U.S. attorney general describes as “Southeast Asian cryptocurrency-related fraud and scams.” The Myanmar regime has bombed several of those centers, and Thai authorities are cracking down on clandestine activities on their side of the border, arresting and deporting people involved with the scams.