The Netflix’s latest series — American Primeval, set in the 1850s in the American Wild West, depicts conflicts between Native Americans, settlers, Mormon militias, and the US government. It is gripping and raw because ‘anything goes.’ With little rule of law, no police force, no single legitimate authority, violence becomes the main currency.
Women get raped, men are shot and killed for a slight; robbery, theft, and murder are the norms.
You can do whatever you want so long as you have armed men to protect your interest.
We had the ‘Wild West’ in America then. Now we have the ‘Wild Mekong Subregion’ that is just as deadly.
Burma today is ravaged by a civil war. On one side is the Burmese junta (AKA Tatmadaw) that controls key cities (Naypyidaw, Yangon, and Mandalay). On the other side are the anti-junta armed militias and resistance group wanting to overthrow the junta government. Then there are half a dozen of armed ethnic groups fighting for autonomy such as the Kachin and the Shan.
Understand this simple fact: Wherever there is war, there is need for money. You need money to maintain troops and purchase food, weapons, equipment and supplies.
Obviously, the armed militias aren’t going to open a McDonald’s franchise or produce NVDIA chips to generate income there. Instead they have been relying on drug manufacturing to finance their army. In recent years, in addition to drug trafficking, another source of their income stems from cyber scams and financial crime.
“The big three”
Areas such as the golden triangle (where the borders of Thailand, Burma, and Laos meet) where the Burmese junta’s reach is minimal, with little rule of law, are places transnational organised criminals thrive.
The syndicates accordingly set up fraud factories (also known as scam call centers) where trafficked victims (mainly from Asia, especially Chinese) are forced to work in a slave-like condition to deceive and swindle victims’ life-savings.
Their primary trafficked targets are young educated males, with multilingual and computing skills in Asia. Their victims that fall prey to scams can be anyone really — from the US to EU and Asia, though tend to be in mainland China.
These fraud factories are mainly in Burma, Cambodia, and Laos — what I called the big three — conveniently set up near Thai borders.
The best portrayal of a fraud factory and cyber scam is found in the Chinese film — No More Bets. I highly recommend you watch it, as it is based on thousands of real testimonies from victims and perpetrators alike. Trafficked victims locked in compounds are forced to meet target sales, otherwise they get a beating. Arbitrary fines are imposed, deducted from their pay. Armed men guard the premise. The whole place is under surveillance. Those who unsuccessfully escaped are brutally punished, while others may be sold into prostitution and/or other scam centers.
(The ones skilled at conning victims earn large commissions, so I’ve heard. But whether they get their full share as promised, or use it to buy themselves freedom, or, God forbid, get promoted to management level, I don’t know.)
Cyber scams are a for-profit modern slavery enterprise, in other words.
Thailand’s role in Cyber Scam
How is the cyber scam linked to my country Thailand? Because of Thailand’s strategic lo the scammers have been using Thailand as a transit destination to pick up their unbeknownst would-be trafficked victims from mainland China, before moving them to the scam compounds scattered in the big three countries.
This makes sense. If you saw an online ad for a lucrative ‘operations management’ for $200,000 USD per year in Burma’s Yangon or Cambodia’s Phnom Penh, would you buy into it? I wouldn’t. However, if the position were in Bangkok, it has more credibility in the eyes of potential victims. And that is what the scammers are exploiting.
So, Thailand is dragged into this global cyber scam mess, thanks to its convenient location.
Nevertheless, let me be clear on one thing: Thailand cannot put on an innocent face, saying “It’s the Chinese scamming other Chinese, using us as conduits. We have absolutely nothing to do with this.”
That is a lie, as you shall see.
The Final Straw?
On January 3 2025, a Chinese actor Wang Xing was missing in Thailand. He had responded to a lucrative acting job ad on the Chinese app WeChat. His Chinese girlfriend became worried after losing contact with him for two days. On Jan 5, she decided to put her worry on Weibo (similar to Facebook) to amplify her plead. This did the trick, pressuring both Chinese and Thai authorities to take action.
On Jan 7, with the help of Burmese authorities, the Thai authorities managed to rescue Wang Xing from Burma to Tak’s Mae Sot border safely.
Let me repeat the key dates: Wang went missing on Jan 3; his girlfriend pleaded on social media on Jan 5; the Thai authorities rescued Wang on Jan 7. Thus, it took the Thai authorities no more than 2 days to locate and rescue Wang from the scam compound.
Seems rather quick to me.
Suspiciously so.
Thousands of buildings are across the border. How did the Thai authorities locate him? Surely Wang did not have a micro-GPS device embedded in his body like in a sci-fi movie. His passport and mobile phone had been confiscated as per the modus operandi of the scammers.
Did Wang leave ‘bread crumps’ along to way leading to the compound? Of course not.
Of crucial importance is Wang’s interview after reaching Bangkok. While he didn’t say much, he mentioned that some 50 Chinese nationals were held in the same compound he was in. So why did not the Thai authorities rescue the rest and shut down the compound?
Cyber scams are illegal right? They are conning people all over the world to invest in doggy crypto scam, love scam, online gambling and other schemes, resulting in financial ruins, broken lives, and in many cases, victims ending their lives after losing everything.
Did they save Wang because he was a ‘somebody’? That his girlfriend had raised enough noise?
On the other hand, if Wang had been a nobody, would he have been rescued?
Or did the Thai authorities call their ‘buddy’ across the border: “Hey man, can you give us that Chinese actor? He is proving too loud. We need this public light to go away”?
I find this hard to swallow. It means the authorities in Thailand and across the border know more than they let us know. It may mean there is some sort of “deal,” a tit-for-tat arrangement where Thai authorities turn a blind eye in exchange for political favors or economic benefits. Monthly kickback is the least I expect. Worse is if some Thai officials and politicians are complicit and actively involved in the cyber scam operations.
One UN report called it “state-involved co-perpetration.” A fancy way of saying some government officials and the crime syndicates are in cahoots.
Here is the big picture: Scam centers are highly profitable money-making machines. They generate billions of dollars in revenue for the syndicates. In countries like Laos, Cambodia, and Burma where poverty and corruption are rampant, where covid-19 has worsened their economic situation, where government, thugs, and militias desperately need money, it is not inconceivable that cyber scams serve as a new cash cow for them.
Moreover, scam centers can be readily moved and scaled. What do I mean? A few years ago, with their patience running thin, China and some local militias cracked down on scam compounds along the Burma-China border, practically shutting down most of the operations. However, those scammers merely shifted their operations further south, towards Burma-Thai border — where the Chinese actor Wang Xing was found.
So long as the head of the syndicates are alive, and their illicit money are protected or hidden, these operations are difficult to destroy.
It also follows that in many of these places, possibly including in my country Thailand, officials are paid to turn a blind eye on this modern slavery trade. These officials provide protection and act as informants to the transnational organized criminals.
Returning to Burma, both the junta government and certain armed ethnic groups may tolerate these cyber scams in order to help finance their respective cause.
Solutions
One solution the Chinese authorities have been doing is simply to prevent their citizens from travelling to Mekong region. To persuade them to cancel their trip and sightseeing within China instead.
Also, efforts to raise awareness to their citizens have been made. The film No More Bets lent a crucial hand in waking the Chinese up to this reality. I would say the film — a blockbuster in China — has an outsized impact on deterring Chinese tourists coming to the Mekong, scarring them away, which unfortunately hurt Thailand’s tourism.
Another solution is to set up a taskforce with the Chinese working alongside Mekong countries’ officials with the ultimate aim of dismantling all remaining scam compounds. As the majority of the trafficked victims and financial victims are Chinese, they will be the most motivated to clamp down on this scourge. (Though the challenge is will leaders like Cambodia’s Hun Sen and his son Hun Manet let the Chinese shut down their source of illicit income?)
Last but not least, as far as my country goes, it is up to Thailand whether they want the country to be safe for and attractive to tourists, with rule of law. Or a haven for crime syndicates, where ‘anything goes’ like in the Wild West.
Stay safe and sane.
Edward Shinapat Kitlertsirivatana
Edward ran for member of parliament, Chiang Mai district 1 for United Thai Nation Party in last election, and subsequently was deputy spokesperson for the party. He left his party over a year ago, and is now an independent.
