Indians among hundreds in Myanmar scam hub exodus

Dozens, possibly hundreds, of Indians were among more than 1,000 people who fled from Myanmar into Thailand this week after the country’s military raided one of Southeast Asia's largest cyber-crime compounds, according to news agencies and local reports.

- HTC and Agencies

Thai media outlet Khaosod reported that 399 Indian nationals — the single largest group — were among those who crossed the border. However, this figure could not be independently verified.

The ministry of external affairs did not respond to requests for comment.

The Indians were part of more than 1,000 people who crossed from Myanmar’s notorious KK Park scam compound into Thailand's Mae Sot district between Wednesday and Friday, Thai provincial authorities confirmed to news agency AFP.

The exodus followed a raid announced Monday by Myanmar's military junta on KK Park, a sprawling complex located just across the border from Thailand in Karen State.

Sprawling compounds like KK Park house thousands of workers who run sophisticated online scams, including “pig butchering” cons where fraudsters spend months building romantic or friendship relationships with victims before persuading them to invest in fake cryptocurrency platforms.

While some scammers work voluntarily in the multibilliondollar illicit industry, many are trafficking victims lured with false job promises and then held captive under armed guard, forced to defraud people worldwide or face physical abuse.