Wake-up call: 2,000 people were rescued from the slavery of telephone scammers in Myanmar

About 2,000 people were released by the Myanmar armed forces from the illegal KK Park call center on the country's border with Thailand. Russians were also among those rescued. KK Park is one of at least 30 call centers in Myanmar's border regions, with 20 to 25 of our citizens still in them. Victims, under the pretext of working in IT and modeling, come to work in Southeast Asian countries, including Thailand, and from there are forcibly transported to Myanmar, where they are forced to extort money through calls and correspondence from strangers in the most severe conditions. How illegal business works and whether it is possible to get out of the captivity of scammers — in the material of Izvestia.

Release of Russians from a call center in Myanmar

More than 1.6 thousand men and 455 women were released by the Myanmar armed forces from the illegal KK Park call center on the border with Thailand. Russians were also among those forcibly detained. During the operation, the country's authorities also managed to arrest 98 guards, seize 30 Starlink satellite terminals and weapons.

The KK Park call center, according to the authorities, operated without licenses and was under the control of groups that claim power in the country. Over the past five years, KK Park has been involved in money laundering, human trafficking, and online fraud. Thousands of people from different countries were tricked into going there during this time under the pretext of highly paid work. In fact, they ended up in slavery.

KK Park is just one of at least 30 such call centers on the border, and the Myanmar military has yet to release tens of thousands of hostages. The Russian embassy believes that 20 to 25 Russians may be enslaved by the owners of illegal businesses.

"One of the serious security challenges in Myanmar remains the activity of transnational organized criminal groups in the field of online fraud and related other types of illegal activities, including financial fraud, human trafficking, and so on. In the areas bordering Thailand and China, criminal gangs are creating illegal call centers and online casinos, which fraudulently involve foreign citizens, including Russian citizens," the diplomatic mission said earlier.

On October 7, the Russian Embassy in Thailand announced the release from slavery in Myanmar of a Russian woman who was abducted in Bangkok. Fraudsters often conduct an online interview for a high-paying job, and then invite candidates to Bangkok, from where they are transported to Myanmar, bypassing the border posts. However, the kingdom's Foreign Ministry itself emphasizes: "Thailand remains a safe and hospitable place for Russians and other foreign visitors."

— The main reasons why the existence of such call centers has become possible are the weakness of law enforcement agencies, corruption, and political instability. Armed groups are taking advantage of the conflict conditions in Myanmar to create profitable business models along the Myanmar-Thailand border," Wai Yang Phe Naing, senior consultant and researcher at Green Growth Asia Consultant, tells Izvestia. — Fraudulent centers pose a serious and growing threat to the entire ASEAN region. It is imperative that the international community take bold and concerted action to address the root causes of these fraudulent centers. Otherwise, the regional problem risks escalating into a global crisis that could undermine world peace.

How illegal business works in Southeast Asia

Citizens of the CIS countries, who managed to get out of this captivity, tell: They were looking for jobs abroad, and they found vacancies mainly in IT companies or in the modeling industry on Telegram channels. Nothing in the ad caused concern — there was often a link to a decent company website and the contact details of the organization.

A citizen of Kazakhstan (the story is published by the local media, without naming the source) fell for an IT specialist vacancy and a salary of $ 4 thousand. He was met at Bangkok airport by an alleged representative of the company, taken to a hotel, and three days later he and six other Kazakh citizens aged 24-25 were put in a car and taken to the office. However, instead of an office, they were dropped off by a river on the border of Thailand and Myanmar. The group was transported to the other shore by boat, where armed men were waiting for them.

The destination was KK Park. There, the group's passports were immediately seized and they were photographed. "They immediately told us that we had been enslaved. It was impossible to refuse," says the victim.

There were also citizens of Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, the USA and South Africa in KK Park. They lived in rooms with bunk beds, the cafe signs were visible from the window, however, all this was a prop created in order to reassure those who found themselves in slavery. The hostages were immediately warned that if they tried to escape, they would be killed. If they do not comply with the orders, they will be deprived of food and sleep, and violence may be used. In particular, the prisoners were beaten with a taser, handcuffed to a chair, beaten with bamboo sticks, and cut in the eye area.

The main task of the prisoners was to fraudulently obtain money from the victims on the other end of the wire, in particular, by having affairs by correspondence. It was necessary to force the interlocutors to invest in cryptocurrency through fake exchanges, from each it was necessary to extort $ 200 thousand — $ 250 thousand. The monthly plan is $1.5 million. A working day could last up to 17 hours, for which it was necessary to negotiate with a dozen victims.

Those who coped with their duties were offered freedom after paying a ransom of up to $100,000. In case of refusal, they promised to send them to the so-called "black company", where the working conditions are even tougher, and there is practically no chance of getting out. Thus, Vera Kravtsova, a citizen of Belarus, who went to Thailand to work as a model, died. In early October, the girl's relatives received a message demanding to pay $ 500 thousand. Later, the criminals reported that Vera was already dead, and her body had been cremated.

Some foreign media sources claim that Chinese criminal authorities are behind the network of call centers. The BBC reports that one of them may be Chinese businessman She Zhijian, who heads the Hong Kong-based Yatai International Holding Group.

Reuters believes that one of the beneficiaries is a Chinese businessman from Bangkok, Wang Yi Cheng. From January 2021 to October 2022, about $87.5 million was credited to his account. Later, these funds went to 50 other addresses, including stock exchanges.