Criminal-run call centers in Myanmar are on the brink of collapse thanks to Thailand's crackdown.
Three months after launching its "3 Cuts" campaign, the Thai government claims a major victory against border cybercrime networks.
See: Under pressure from China, Thailand finally tackles call centers
The operation began on February 5 and aimed to cut off power, fuel supplies and internet access to five notorious fraud centers located on the Thai-Myanmar border.
A significant drop in illicit activities
A call center located across the Moei River in Myanmar, south of Myawaddy and Mae Sot, in 2022.
The complex is believed to consist primarily of dormitories whose residents are suspected of being call center scammers.
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense Phumtham Wechayachai said on Thursday, May 8:
“These measures have disrupted the infrastructure that supports these criminal networks.
The pressure has forced many of these operations to relocate or close completely.”
The targeted sites include Myawaddy and Tachileik in Shan State, two hotspots located across from the towns of Mae Sot and Mae Sai in Thailand.
Phumtham said call center activity has significantly decreased in these areas, which were previously teeming with illicit activity.
This operation is part of the wider "Seal, Stop, Save" campaign, which also targets human trafficking and drug trafficking networks.
Police say they have seen a 60 percent increase in arrests and prosecutions since the initiative was launched.
A strategy difficult to extend to other countries
Woman in a call center.
Despite this success, officials admit that this strategy is not easy to replicate elsewhere.
Talks with neighboring countries, such as Cambodia and Laos, are proving complicated as Thailand seeks to combat crime without hampering cross-border trade.
"Some economic operators have expressed concerns about export disruptions," Phumtham said.
“But only a small number of traders have been affected, mainly where informal crossing points, often exploited by traffickers, have been closed.
Official trade is not affected.
Victims still awaiting repatriation
Victims of Myanmar call centers are returned to Thailand in February 2025. Photo: The Nation Thailand
At the same time, the human cost of this policy remains to be assessed.
Many call center employees, lured by false promises, are still stuck or detained.
Repatriation efforts, particularly for victims from Africa and Latin America, continue to face diplomatic obstacles as some countries are unwilling to arrange for the repatriation of their citizens.
Foreign Minister Maris Sangiampongsa confirmed that Ethiopia had repatriated the first group of 282 victims of trafficking for the purpose of fraud in Myanmar. Another 469 are expected to follow.
Following discussions with Ethiopian Foreign Minister Gedion Timothewos at a BRICS meeting in Brazil , Maris said:
"This cooperation reflects the growing determination of the international community to address the root causes of human trafficking and cybercrime."
A measurable impact on cybercrime
The interior of an abandoned call center in Phaya Tong Su, Myanmar, shows abandoned office furniture, photographed on February 12, 2025.
Just one month after the campaign began, cybercrime reports have dropped by 20% compared to the 31,159 cases recorded in January.
The government reported an 80% drop in call center scams last March.
This decline fuels hope that the Thai strategy, supported by China and now relayed internationally, could sustainably push back the criminal networks based in Burma.
The centers in Laos and Cambodia still need to be addressed to allow a real return of Asian tourists, mainly Chinese, who avoid Thailand for fear of being kidnapped.
See: Chinese tourism in decline: Thailand launches recovery plan
See also:
Building a wall between Thailand and Cambodia against call centers
China joins Thailand in fight against call centers
Thailand: 7,000 victims freed from the hell of Burmese call centers
Scandal in Thailand: 2 generals linked to Burmese call centers
Burmese call center accomplices ready to cooperate with Thailand
Horror of call centers in Cambodia: kidnapping, torture, rape
How call centers are ruining vulnerable people in Thailand?
Kidnapped and tortured Thai man dies in Cambodian prison
The cyber-fraud industry is growing in public view in Cambodia
Source: Bangkok Post
Prepare your trip to Thailand
Book bus, train, or boat in Thailand
Manage your money while traveling with Wise
If our news, tourist information, or cultural content has been useful to you and you'd like to thank us:
You can follow us on:
Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Google News
Or install our app:
Install the Toute la Thaïlande app on your smartphone
⚠️ Cryptocurrencies involve risks: Invest only what you are willing to lose.
1 comment
This is a significant step forward for the Thai approach to snuffing out these fraudulent computer call centers and, beyond that, the human trafficking and smuggling associated with this mafia activity.
I was quite skeptical about the expected results based on possible alternatives adopted by the criminals at the head of these online scams, but they were unable to find in Burma the help or resources to restructure their organization and find alternatives...
One wonders into whose hands the millions fraudulently collected passed and to what extent the "godfathers" themselves preferred to abandon their failing centers instead of investing their profits and restructuring them to keep them active...
Deprived of internet, electricity and fuel, it was obviously becoming difficult for these cybercrime gangs to survive, deprived of their logistical sources of existence and their potential political protection.
An important battle is being won, but not the war, because as the article points out, the problem remains in Laos and Cambodia where intervening for Thailand is more delicate and less obvious...
It might be useful to bring into play the long-standing friendship between the head of the Army, former Prime Minister and still active leader of Cambodia Hun Sen (officially replaced by his son as Prime Minister) and Taksin Shinawatra, who has been very close to the Cambodian government for many years, to find a diplomatic and judicial solution to involve the joint Thai and Cambodian police forces manu militari for a massive dismantling of similar organizations in Cambodia and the arrest of their mafia leaders and leaders...
Everyone knows where they operate, where they hold their forced labor, and in which buildings they make them work like slaves...
The difference with Burma is that corruption, established as a veritable institution and linked to crime and mafia gangs, reaches to the highest echelons of power and could come to tarnish the current PM, Hun Manet, who succeeded his father Hun Sen in 2023, after "democratic" elections...
Numerous meetings and "diplomatic" missions of delegations and working groups of the Thai police with their Cambodian counterparts have taken place over several years without anything fundamentally changing and have amounted to fine words and fine promises, which remained dead letters as soon as the Thai police returned to the country!!!