Myanmar's military says it detained foreigners in raid on a second major online scam center

Myanmar’s military government extended its crackdown on online scam activities to a second major location, detaining hundreds of foreigners and seizing thousands of mobile phones used to carry out the fraud, state media reported Wednesday.

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Myanmar is notorious for hosting cyberscam operations responsible for bilking people all over the world, which usually involve gaining victims’ confidence online with romantic ploys and bogus investment schemes. Authorities raided a major scam center in mid-October called KK Park on the outskirts of Myawaddy, a major trading town on the border with Thailand.

On Tuesday, the army raided a scam compound in the town of Shwe Kokko, also near Myawaddy, military spokesman Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun said in a statement published Wednesday in Myanma Alinn and other state newspapers.

He said authorities detained 346 foreigners and confiscated nearly 10,000 mobile phones along with other related equipment, while blocking people who were trying flee across the border.

The U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime has estimated that hundreds of industrial-scale scam centers based primarily in Southeast Asia generate just under $40 billion in annual profits.