Thailand cut off energy supply to several districts in neighbouring Myanmar on Wednesday. Which has a billion-dollar online scam industry including sites that are the heart of a worldwide cyber scams.
Online scam factories many of which are managed by Chinese crime syndicates. It developed in Myanmar and has been embroiled in a violent civil conflict since the military took control in 2021. Workers are frequently kept against their will and forced to carry out internet fraud schemes in well secured camps where former detainees report beatings and torture.
Thailand’s Interior Minister, Anutin Charnvirakul, toured a control station at the national electrical system on Wednesday, as staff turned off supply to five areas across the border in a live television broadcast. The Thai government “has stopped the electricity supply to Myanmar in five locations based on the decision of the National Security Council,” he disclosed to reporters.
“The electricity supply is not being stopped because the companies violated the contract but because the electricity is being misused for scams, drugs and call centers,” he said.
One of the locations was in the town of Myawaddy, on the banks of a river that separates Thailand and Myanmar and close to some of the largest fraud compounds, according to non-governmental organisations. Several of the compounds are located close to the border allowing them to take advantage of more reliable energy and telecom connections from Thailand.
Last month, a Chinese actor flew to Bangkok for what he thought was a movie casting call, he was picked up at the airport and driven across the border into Myanmar where he was forced to work at a scam centre.
