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Myanmar military shuts down a major cybercrime center, detains over 2k people

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Re: Myanmar military shuts down a major cybercrime center, detains over 2k people

#21

Post by kmeisthax »

m101 wrote: post #17

"It [starlink] does not have licensed operations in Myanmar, but at least hundreds of terminals have been smuggled into the Southeast Asian nation." So how do starlinks work in Myanmar if it's not licensed?

My assumption is that either the terminals don't check, or the organized criminals paid a guy to hack the terminals to think they're in (insert licensed East Asian country here); and SpaceX specifically didn't adjust their constellation orbits to avoid Myanmar so that you can get a signal with a terminal that doesn't care about radio emissions law.

Re: Myanmar military shuts down a major cybercrime center, detains over 2k people

#22

Post by kuangtsao »

randycupertino wrote: post #2

This is a great interactive article about what it's like to be kidnapped and forced to work in these scam centers on the Myanmar border, lured by promise of jobs people are trapped, passports confiscated, phones stolen, 16-hour workdays spent defrauding victims online, cultivating fake relationships and pressuring them into investment or romance scams: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/12/17/world/asia/my...

I used to work in this industry. It pretty much all started with this group of 'Fujian bosses' who set up these 'scam parks.' They were trying to wash money back to China and came up with all sorts of ways to do it, usually by pretending to be online gambling companies.

The people actually doing the scams are on the Thai border, in Myanmar, and Cambodia. The IT and tech staff... well, some are in the parks, but a lot of them are in Taiwan. (I've also heard some are in Japan, singapore, malaysia and the UK).

The money gets laundered through all kinds of channels into different tax havens. It might pass through Taiwan—'cause, you know, China can't touch it there and the money looks clean—and then it goes on to China or Singapore... basically, right into those bosses' pockets.

Inside those parks, there's literally no law. I'm talking beatings, slavery, human trafficking, forcing people into prostitution, and death... that's just everyday stuff there.

As for me, I was working in Taiwan, so the worst thing that happened to me was just not getting the high pay they promised. Other than that, I was fine. This is all stuff I either heard from other people in the business or saw firsthand.

Re: Myanmar military shuts down a major cybercrime center, detains over 2k people

#23

Post by datameta »

Mistletoe wrote: post #10
EvanAnderson wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I got a lot less snarky in my responses to scam text messages when I learned about the forced labor aspect. I just block the sender and go on, versus trying to bait them and waste their time. For awhile I was asking "Is there someone I can contact for you?", but then I got worried that would get somebody a beating.

“I love you” works well, because even if they are a piece of shit now, they need to hear it. No one is born bad. I’ve actually gotten them to break character with stuff like that sometimes.

I agree with the sentiment, but that phrase is too strong to be used in an unfamiliar setting and won't land the same way outside of the anglosphere

Re: Myanmar military shuts down a major cybercrime center, detains over 2k people

#24

Post by sysguest »

HeatrayEnjoyer wrote: post #18
Nextgrid wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not actually the scammers that are redeeming the gift cards - instead they are in turn reselling the codes on marketplaces (to legitimate customers) for a small loss as a way of laundering them. From Google's perspective - someone bought a gift card in the US, and redeemed it somewhere else in the US, aka the expected behavior of legitimate gift card usage.

Google has enough metadata to graph and deduce which are scams.

this

> From Google's perspective - someone bought a gift card in the US, and redeemed it somewhere else in the US

hmm really? is this coming from a google PR firm or what? if that's the google's "perspective", unfortunately that means google is really technically inept or morally corrupt enough to watch a lot of people, including Americans, go thru the torture and being incinerated.

if Google receives a lot of "I was scammed into this" from whoever bought the giftcard, doesn't google have the responsibility to ask the giftcard user where they got that redeem code from? At least warn them several times, and then cut those buyers too?

that's the worst justification of a big corp imaginable -- I mean, that alone justifies a congressional hearing, and could mount to a deluge of negative media press:

"how google has skin in the Cambodian scams"

Re: Myanmar military shuts down a major cybercrime center, detains over 2k people

#25

Post by optimalsolver »

HeatrayEnjoyer wrote: post #18
Nextgrid wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not actually the scammers that are redeeming the gift cards - instead they are in turn reselling the codes on marketplaces (to legitimate customers) for a small loss as a way of laundering them. From Google's perspective - someone bought a gift card in the US, and redeemed it somewhere else in the US, aka the expected behavior of legitimate gift card usage.

Google has enough metadata to graph and deduce which are scams.

Seriously, when are people gonna stop giving these megacorporations the benefit of a doubt?

Re: Myanmar military shuts down a major cybercrime center, detains over 2k people

#26

Post by programmertote »

lysace wrote: post #4

I heard that both sides of the ongoing civil war ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myanmar_civil_war_(2021%E2%80%... ) work with these criminal organizations to secure foreign revenue for weapons purchases - but that it is primarily a junta-driven thing. And that the people running them come from PRC Chinese organized crime (triads).

Wish I could give your comment 10 more upvotes for visibility.

This is Myanmar military trying to do field work for China. China is the one who allowed these militias to thrive in the border areas and they have been arming them for decades. This particular operation happens in Myawaddy, which is in lower eastern part of Myanmar close to Thailand, but not in northeastern Myanmar closer to China, because Myanmar military dare only touch the militia there. It helps that the accused collaborators of these scam centers in the lower east part of Myanmar are Kayin ethnic militia, who--unlike Wa or Kokang--aren't as Chinese, and thus, China doesn't care. Also, China is now 100% backing the military regime (which staged a coup around 2021) in Myanmar, so this is like shooting two birds with one stone (i.e., get rid of scam centers for China, while helping Myanmar's brutal military to remove an income source of one of the non-ethnically Chinese militia).

The military dares not assault the northeastern militias like Wa [ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Wa_State_Army ], Kokang militia [ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myanmar_National_Democratic_Al... ] because these guys are truly backed (and enabled) by China. There was a raid by Myanmar military in northeastern part (close to China) about a year ago [ https://www.rfa.org/english/myanmar/2024/11/20/shan-state-wa... ] and that was backed by China. Otherwise, Myanmar military dares not do that.

Basically, China is getting what it sowed and now that its citizens are being impacted, it's asking its lapdog, Burmese military, to do the clean-up for them selectively.

Re: Myanmar military shuts down a major cybercrime center, detains over 2k people

#27

Post by ValentineC »

kuangtsao wrote: post #22
randycupertino wrote: post #2

This is a great interactive article about what it's like to be kidnapped and forced to work in these scam centers on the Myanmar border, lured by promise of jobs people are trapped, passports confiscated, phones stolen, 16-hour workdays spent defrauding victims online, cultivating fake relationships and pressuring them into investment or romance scams: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/12/17/world/asia/my...

I used to work in this industry. It pretty much all started with this group of 'Fujian bosses' who set up these 'scam parks.' They were trying to wash money back to China and came up with all sorts of ways to do it, usually by pretending to be online gambling companies. The people actually doing the scams are on the Thai border, in Myanmar, and Cambodia. The IT and tech staff... well, some are in the parks, but a lot…

> The money gets laundered through all kinds of channels into different tax havens. It might pass through Taiwan—'cause, you know, China can't touch it there and the money looks clean—and then it goes on to China or Singapore... basically, right into those bosses' pockets.

Singapore cracked down on a huge part of that: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2023_Singapore_money_launderin...

Funny how the banks let these money launderers go on with their activities for years, most likely because they paid the banks their share of fees and commissions.

Re: Myanmar military shuts down a major cybercrime center, detains over 2k people

#29

Post by kuangtsao »

ValentineC wrote: post #27
kuangtsao wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used to work in this industry. It pretty much all started with this group of 'Fujian bosses' who set up these 'scam parks.' They were trying to wash money back to China and came up with all sorts of ways to do it, usually by pretending to be online gambling companies. The people actually doing the scams are on the Thai border, in Myanmar, and Cambodia. The IT and tech staff... well, some are in the parks, but a lot…

> The money gets laundered through all kinds of channels into different tax havens. It might pass through Taiwan—'cause, you know, China can't touch it there and the money looks clean—and then it goes on to China or Singapore... basically, right into those bosses' pockets. Singapore cracked down on a huge part of that: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2023_Singapore_money_launderin... Funny how the banks let these money…

they use crypto for part of the money, too. I even heard some of the guys in the industry back then got paid in USDT.
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