[HN Gopher] Thailand to Cut Power to Myanmar Scam Hubs
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Thailand to Cut Power to Myanmar Scam Hubs
Author : walterbell
Score : 151 points
Date : 2025-02-23 03:22 UTC (19 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (bangkoklocal.info)
(TXT) w3m dump (bangkoklocal.info)
| gnabgib wrote:
| That happened 17 days ago (24 points, 5 comments)
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42962545
| walterbell wrote:
| Feb 20, 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
|
| _> 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_
| 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 wrote:
| Icarus always flies too close to the sun.
| mvdtnz wrote:
| These 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 wrote:
| From 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 wrote:
| Exactly what I'm talking about. CCP are now pretending
| they didn't know / fund these people from the beginning.
| PicassoCTs wrote:
| Who 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.
| pixl97 wrote:
| I mean isn't that what a lot of cyberpunk predicted?
| Neonlicht wrote:
| I 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.
| bilbo0s wrote:
| I'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 wrote:
| > 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.
| throaway1989 wrote:
| If China does anything it will be in support of the Tatmadaw,
| either overtly or covertly.
| alephnerd wrote:
| The Tatmadaw isn't a unified force either anymore.
|
| It's got it's own factions, and mid-level leadership
| (especially the farther out you get from Naypyidaw) allies
| with China, Thailand, or India.
| throaway1989 wrote:
| That's interesting, do you have any links to the
| different factions in the Tat right now?
| alephnerd wrote:
| Sadly, not off the top of my head.
|
| (Edit: here you go. An overview from 2021 by the Tea
| Circle group formerly at St Anthony's College, Oxford but
| now at UToronto Munk -
| https://teacircleoxford.com/politics/peering-under-the-
| hood-...)
|
| A lot of this came up in a meetup I participated in a
| couple years ago at HKS.
|
| But at a high level, you'll see Chinese weapon sales [0]
| happen at the same time as Indian weapon sales [1] to the
| Tatmadaw, despite both China and India directly competing
| with each other.
|
| Sadly, Myanmar was always a basket case because the
| British ignored it when it was British India and later
| British Burma, so outside the Bamar core, the state never
| truly existed on the ground.
|
| And after the 2020 China-India standoff, Myanmar became
| even more of a conflict zone because at it's shortest
| it's a 40 mile buffer zone between Assam and Yunnan.
|
| [0] - https://www.reuters.com/world/un-expert-says-
| russia-china-se...
|
| [1] - https://amp.dw.com/en/how-india-is-supporting-
| myanmars-milit...
| csomar wrote:
| Thailand is not invading Myanmar for China, they are pretty
| conservative when it comes to such politics.
| walterbell wrote:
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43150897
|
| _> 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.. 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._
| odiroot wrote:
| > 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 wrote:
| That 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.
| thuanao wrote:
| Deteriorate? Myanmar has been a failed state for 60 years. To
| give you an idea of what I mean, their current and previous
| dictators consult witch doctors for their decisions, and the
| largest city of 5 million doesn't have continuous electricity.
| One of the _many_ ongoing wars in Myanmar, The Karen conflict,
| is one of the longest-running armed conflicts in the world.
| Myanmar has been a total mess since end of WWII.
| throw__away7391 wrote:
| Meh, witch doctors or pastors, pick your poison.
| alephnerd wrote:
| Don't worry.
|
| Plenty of the rebel groups consult with Southern Baptist
| pastors - especially in Chin State and Saigang.
| alephnerd wrote:
| > I wonder if things deteriorate into a failed state
|
| Myanmar is basically a Southeast Asian version of Congo.
|
| All the neighboring countries (China, India, Thailand) have
| already de facto intervened by maintaining relations with and
| arming regional warlords, and "their" guys in the Tatmadaw.
|
| For example,
|
| - China and the MDNAA [0] and the Wa State [1], and their
| "Goma" is Muse and Mongla
|
| - India and the ethnic Chin opposition [2][3] and the Arakan
| Army [4] (the guys who did the Rohingya Genocide - they flipped
| from China to India in 23-24), and their "Goma" is Tamu and
| Sittwe.
|
| - Thailand's Military Government's continued support of the
| Myanmar Tatmadaw [5], and their "Goma" is Myawaddy,
| Payathonzhu, Shwekoko (the city mentioned above), and Mawdaung.
|
| China, India, and Thailand are all enabling the worst actors in
| Myanmar's civil war, and it's the civilians that lose.
|
| > They did that in the 1970s with Cambodia
|
| Which sparked a regional war with Vietnam in 1979, and multiple
| coups and counter-coups by Chinese and Vietnamese backed
| factions in Cambodia and Laos.
|
| If Cambodia and Laos was chaotic, Myanmar will be 1,000 times
| worse, because several ethnic groups in Myanmar have large
| (1mil+) populations in both China and India, so the risk of
| regional contagion is massive, and has already started in
| Manipur [6].
|
| [0] - https://www.usip.org/publications/2024/08/myanmars-junta-
| los...
|
| [1] - https://www.irrawaddy.com/news/ethnic-issues/wa-state-
| aims-t...
|
| [2] - https://www.bnionline.net/en/news/chinland-council-and-
| chin-...
|
| [3] - https://theprint.in/india/chin-rebel-leader-lauds-indias-
| hel...
|
| [4] - https://thediplomat.com/2024/03/is-india-finally-waking-
| up-t...
|
| [5] -
| https://r2pasiapacific.org/files/8231/2022_Thai_response_mya...
|
| [6] - https://www.reuters.com/world/india/fighters-myanmar-
| civil-w...
| aaron695 wrote:
| Old 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
| pca006132 wrote:
| Tbh 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 wrote:
| it'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
| walterbell wrote:
| _> 100K of its citizens getting trafficked_
|
| Is there public data on their demographics, e.g.
| occupation, income, age, credit score, region of China?
| prododev wrote:
| Good 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 wrote:
| What a horrible fate to be abducted to one of these hellholes.
| codelion wrote:
| it'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.
| FabHK wrote:
| The 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 wrote:
| Is it this one? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUg-cLVhv-4
| FabHK wrote:
| Yes:
|
| https://www.economist.com/audio/podcasts/scam-inc
| immibis wrote:
| 3 is "doing anything the government doesn't like", which
| includes, for example, buying drugs, or funding protests
| against mass murder.
| mvdtnz wrote:
| Yes, it's true that crime is a third major category of use
| cases.
| int0x29 wrote:
| It'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 wrote:
| I 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.
| DecentShoes wrote:
| Dark web vendors do not take any form of payment other than
| cryptocurrency.
| maleldil wrote:
| You don't need dark web vendors. Normal web has plenty.
| Spivak wrote:
| Well yeah, vegetarians only accept food without meat.
| You've already limited yourself to a subset of dealers
| who are privacy and tech nerds, of course they only take
| crypto.
|
| You _can_ use crypto to buy drugs on the "dark web" but
| like all crypto things it's not a system for the masses.
| I had to explain E2EE one of my friends who thought
| Snapchat was better than iMessage for buying drugs
| because it "deletes" the message. There's no universe
| she's gonna figure out crypto.
| jnsaff2 wrote:
| Number Go Up book also has couple of chapters on those and how
| they are tied into the whole crypto business[0].
|
| [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number_Go_Up
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