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Thailand to Cut Power to Myanmar Scam Hubs
- gnabgib 2y agoThat happened 17 days ago (24 points, 5 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42962545 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42962545
- walterbell 2y agoFeb 20, https://apnews.com/article/myanmar-online-scam-centers-myawaddy-trafficking-china-thailand-9fce90b60eb8cf5a42569f0e7ec865f6 https://apnews.com/article/myanmar-online-scam-centers-myawa... > An airlift carrying more than 1,000 Chinese nationals who had worked at online scam centers in eastern Myanmar began Thursday.. Thailand, China and Myanmar have coordinated efforts over the past month to shut down the scam centers that bilked victims around the world out of billions of dollars through false romantic ploys, bogus investment pitches and illegal gambling schemes. Thai officials said recently that as many as 10,000 people may be repatriated from Myanmar.. Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra on a visit to Beijing earlier this month told Chinese leader Xi Jinping that Thailand would crack down on the scam networks. Just ahead of her visit, Thailand cut off electricity, internet and gas supplies to several areas in Myanmar.. An earlier crackdown on scam centers in Myanmar happened in late 2023.. Ethnic guerrilla groups with close ties to Beijing shut down many operations https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43149372 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43149372 > This all happened because they kidnapped a Chinese actor, maybe fake casting call ads are not the wisest idea - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearance_of_Wang_Xing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearance_of_Wang_Xing On January 3, 2025, Wang Xing (stage name "Xingxing"), a Chinese actor, was deceived into a scam center in Myanmar by a fraud group under the pretext of "going to Thailand for filming work". After Wang Xing lost contact, his girlfriend Jiajia posted a message for help through social media and actively contacted relevant authorities. This incident attracted the attention of the Chinese film industry. Many actors posted about this matter, prompting the Chinese Embassy in Thailand, the Chinese Consulate General in Chiang Mai and the Thai police to intervene in the investigation and search and rescue. From the AP link above, on Myanmar organized crime advertising Thailand as work location: > Thailand wants to cooperate with China since reports about scam workers being trafficked through Thailand have circulated widely on Chinese social media. The Thai government and others fear it will discourage the lucrative market of inbound Chinese tourists.
- Mistletoe 2y agoIcarus always flies too close to the sun.
- mvdtnz 2y agoThese illegal scam prisons are run by Chinese nationals and almost certainly backed by CCP. It's very cute for the Chinese government to pretend they don't have a direct hand in this scourge.
- walterbell 2y agoFrom the AP article: > about 200 Chinese citizens “suspected of involvement in fraud” were flown to an airport in the city of Nanjing, China’s official Xinhua news agency said.
- mvdtnz 2y agoExactly what I'm talking about. CCP are now pretending they didn't know / fund these people from the beginning.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- xwolfi 2y agoIt's complicated, the CCP is big, like China is. You simplify it into a monolithic structure, but's it's very much not one, there are factions, geographical divisions, conflicting interests, etc. You're probably right some people inside the CCP protect those scam bosses, I would not bet an arm that Xi is encouraging it.
- nicoburns 2y agoWhat motivation would the CCP have to back this?
- bronson 2y ago
- PicassoCTs 2y agoWho would have guessed - that this is what the singularity boiled down to- AI scaming and hacking humans - which thus regresses into tribal factions. What a letdown! Gut Ding will Kurzweil haben.
- Neonlicht 2y agoI wonder if things deteriorate into a failed state China will intervene. They did that in the 1970s with Cambodia. But who knows America and India will probably go ape shit.
- odiroot 2y ago> They did that in the 1970s with Cambodia. You mean the Third Indochina War? It wasn't really about Cambodia being a failed state but a far consequence of a Sino-Soviet split.
- alephnerd 2y agoThat overstates the Soviet aspect and severely understates the Vietnamese aspect. For Vietnam, Cambodia is their near abroad. Saigon is barely 20 miles away from Cambodia, and the Mekong is the lifeblood of Southern Vietnam, and Cambodian factions (the same ones the Chinese backed in the 1970s) had supported anti-Vietnamese insurgencies in Gia Lai. Cambodia and Laos became a buffer state for China+Thailand and Vietnam the same way Myanmar has become one for China, Thailand, and India.
- bilbo0s 2y agoI'd bet any money that while China might not go in overtly, they'd be the main silent-backers of Thai forces that could go in overtly with fewer objections from abroad. (Or, maybe it'd be more accurate to say that, the Thais wouldn't care as much about the objections from abroad as the Chinese would?) It could even be that everyone is misjudging the asians entirely? And it's bad enough that at even the slightest provocation from the warlords, we'll see Thai and Chinese troops flood in. Consequences be damned. This would be the worst outcome for the rest of the world, but probably the best outcome for the people currently being terrorized and held hostage by these thugs. I just hope it doesn't get to that point.
- petesergeant 2y ago> the Thais wouldn't care as much about the objections from abroad as the Chinese That is absolutely not how Thailand works. If Thailand does anything, it’ll be exclusively on the Thai side of the border.
- aaron695 2y agoOld news, they turned on diesel generators and Starlink and shifted around. They obviously would have taken a hit and Thailand has already shut down cell towers on the Cambodia border near Poi Pet where they moved some operations. They should have been reading HN and how solar is cheaper than anything else, silly criminals doing real world stuff. This all happened because they kidnapped a Chinese actor, maybe fake casting call ads are not the wisest idea - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearance_of_Wang_Xing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearance_of_Wang_Xing
- pca006132 2y agoTbh I feel like the people didn't care much about it because the people who got kidnapped there were mostly attracted by job offers that were known to be shady (quick money), so there wasn't much discussion around this. The actor getting kidnapped is different: People suddenly found that you can be kidnapped even when the offer seems legit and only staying in Thailand. This forced the government (both China and Thailand) to take action to address the concerns. But I think this will come back again. This kidnapping thing is not new, and it caught media attention a few years ago as well, they just go silent for a period of time and continue their operation later.
- bobthepanda 2y agoit's very odd that China doesn't really care about an estimated 100K of its citizens getting trafficked in this manner. It's such an open secret that there was a $500MM box office movie about it last year, and media censorship is so heavy in China that I wonder what admitting this even means. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_More_Bets https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_More_Bets
- walterbell 2y ago> 100K of its citizens getting trafficked Is there public data on their demographics, e.g. occupation, income, age, credit score, region of China?
- which 2y ago
- prododev 2y agoGood luck to the people being held prisoner in these hubs. Hopefully they can escape the abuse and violence, and not just be trafficked to another hub.
- MrBuddyCasino 2y agoWhat a horrible fate to be abducted to one of these hellholes.
- codelion 2y agoit's a grim situation... i hope there are resources available to help those who manage to escape, and that more is done to prevent these hubs from operating in the first place.
- scottmcdoge 2y ago[dead]
- FabHK 2y agoThe Economist has an excellent and heartbreaking podcast about this scam industry that they estimate at $500bn annually, but it's available to subscribers only I believe. Crypto use cases: 1. Financing North Korea's nuclear missile program 2. Harrowing scams
- walterbell 2y agoIs it this one? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUg-cLVhv-4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUg-cLVhv-4
- FabHK 2y agoYes: https://www.economist.com/audio/podcasts/scam-inc https://www.economist.com/audio/podcasts/scam-inc
- immibis 2y ago3 is "doing anything the government doesn't like", which includes, for example, buying drugs, or funding protests against mass murder.
- mvdtnz 2y agoYes, it's true that crime is a third major category of use cases.
- int0x29 2y agoIt's much better at scamming and funding weapons programs than protest or disobedience because crypto transactions are non reversable but tend to leave a lot of tracks behind. If persons involved are anywhere that they can be arrested or intimidated they will be.
- Spivak 2y agoI swear, have y'all bought drugs? You don't need crypto to do it, dealers take Venmo. Hell, the lady I get very much not legal shrooms from has a Shopify site. I get a receipt in my email, a tracking number, and she asks to rate her shop 5 stars. Saying that this is a use-case for crypto implies a level of drug enforcement that simply doesn't exist.
- inetknght 2y agoI've been calling for services to be cut to internet fraudsters until their governments enforce reasonable laws. This is a good thing.
- cryptoegorophy 2y agoSimilar thing happens in Ukraine when Russia bombs electric stations in certain cities, all of a sudden amount of scam calls to Russia drop to nearly 0.
- londons_explore 2y agoI see a problem with this plan... Scammers just require a laptop and an internet connection. 1 little honda generator and 1 star link connection could keep 100 scammers scamming 24x7 with very little fuel use. Little generators are already commonplace in Myanmar. Can't comment on starlink connections, but I assume people will find a way... Cutting off the grid electricity might prevent electricity theft for bitcoin mining, but it's going to do nothing against scammers.
- tartoran 2y agoYes but this is a strong signal, locals of that area no longer have electricity. A few actions like this and scammers become undesirable unless they share more and more of their profits which at some point become untenable.