Scam center bosses

No one takes much notice of the Myanmar junta’s bleating. However, a recent bleat, reported by The Irrawaddy, had a certain ring to it.

While proclaiming its willingness to crackdown on scammers, the regime noted that it has almost no control in these areas, and:

claimed in a lengthy statement on Monday that scam centers along the border operate with electricity and internet supplied from a neighboring country. It said criminal syndicates active near the border also obtain weapons, ammunition and construction materials from the adjacent country, which was not named but is widely understood to be Thailand.

The statement declared that the scams were run by foreigners from neighboring countries, which “must cooperate constructively to combat online fraud.”

The articles does note that the junta has its partners in the area, including Saw Chit Thu. Yet there is a ring of truth in the claims.

The scams are indeed well-organized and hoover up huge amounts of loot across the region. They are a scourge in Thailand and while police seem to lay their hands on some small fry, one wonders if there arn’t some bigger bosses doing very well out of fleecing their compatriots. After all, that has been the pattern for decades.

The very next day, the Thai military was talking with the junta’s no. 2: “The Myanmar regime’s second-in-command has held talks with a Thai military delegation to discuss a crackdown on border scam operations amid mounting pressure from China.” Surprisingly,

The meeting took place as Myawaddy, a Myanmar border town notorious as a hub for scam centers run by Chinese criminal syndicates, made headlines again earlier this month for human trafficking….

Myawaddy is under the jurisdiction of the junta-aligned Karen State Border Guard Force (BGF), whose chief, Saw Chit Thu, is notorious for overseeing online scam operations and casinos on the border.

So the junta is directly involved. And, one might guess, it does have partners across the border. The Thai military was quick to say that it was acting against illegal border activities, with the Defence Ministry confirming “that Thailand doesn’t have policies to support or neglect illegal actions by any person or organisations.”

But what of Thailand’s supply of power and internet to “Scam City”?

Clipped from Khaosod

People’s MP Rangsiman Rome, who chairs the House Committee on State Security, Border Affairs & National Strategies and Reforms, called on [Interior Minister] Anutin [Charnvirakul] to take action to the extent that the Provincial Electricity Authority immediately, completely stop supplying power across Moei River from Mae Sot district of Tak to Myanmar’s Myawaddy township because, he said, it is consumed by suspected call-centre scammers and drug dealers preying on victims in Thailand.

Karen National Army leader Saw Chit Thu had allegedly opened a nominee firm to buy power from the PEA with power poles across the Thai-Myanmar border river for daily use by those transnational criminals, according to the People’s MP.

Rangsiman said he had repeatedly raised concerns about those call-centre scammers and drug dealers clandestinely perpetrating crimes in jeopardy of Thailand’s national security affairs but nothing has been as yet done on the part of the Thai authorities, especially the PEA, to stop them.

Rangsiman was blunt: ”Do not prompt the people to spread gossip about you to the extent that you are allegedly, terminally involved in those transnational, criminal networks…”.

How much money is being siphoned to Thailand’s political and economic rulers?