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Comment by gnabgib | Hacker News Reader

That happened 17 days ago (24 points, 5 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42962545

Feb 20, https://apnews.com/article/myanmar-online-scam-centers-myawa...

> An airlift carrying more than 1,000 Chinese nationals who had worked at online scam centers in eastern Myanmar began Thursday.. Thailand, China and Myanmar have coordinated efforts over the past month to shut down the scam centers that bilked victims around the world out of billions of dollars through false romantic ploys, bogus investment pitches and illegal gambling schemes. Thai officials said recently that as many as 10,000 people may be repatriated from Myanmar.. Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra on a visit to Beijing earlier this month told Chinese leader Xi Jinping that Thailand would crack down on the scam networks. Just ahead of her visit, Thailand cut off electricity, internet and gas supplies to several areas in Myanmar.. An earlier crackdown on scam centers in Myanmar happened in late 2023.. Ethnic guerrilla groups with close ties to Beijing shut down many operations

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43149372

> This all happened because they kidnapped a Chinese actor, maybe fake casting call ads are not the wisest idea - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearance_of_Wang_Xing

  On January 3, 2025, Wang Xing (stage name "Xingxing"), a Chinese actor, was deceived into a scam center in Myanmar by a fraud group under the pretext of "going to Thailand for filming work". After Wang Xing lost contact, his girlfriend Jiajia posted a message for help through social media and actively contacted relevant authorities. This incident attracted the attention of the Chinese film industry. Many actors posted about this matter, prompting the Chinese Embassy in Thailand, the Chinese Consulate General in Chiang Mai and the Thai police to intervene in the investigation and search and rescue.

From the AP link above, on Myanmar organized crime advertising Thailand as work location:

> Thailand wants to cooperate with China since reports about scam workers being trafficked through Thailand have circulated widely on Chinese social media. The Thai government and others fear it will discourage the lucrative market of inbound Chinese tourists.

Icarus always flies too close to the sun.

These illegal scam prisons are run by Chinese nationals and almost certainly backed by CCP. It's very cute for the Chinese government to pretend they don't have a direct hand in this scourge.

From the AP article:

> about 200 Chinese citizens “suspected of involvement in fraud” were flown to an airport in the city of Nanjing, China’s official Xinhua news agency said.

Exactly what I'm talking about. CCP are now pretending they didn't know / fund these people from the beginning.

It's complicated, the CCP is big, like China is. You simplify it into a monolithic structure, but's it's very much not one, there are factions, geographical divisions, conflicting interests, etc.

You're probably right some people inside the CCP protect those scam bosses, I would not bet an arm that Xi is encouraging it.

What motivation would the CCP have to back this?

Other than the massive profit?

And the fact that these scam centers primarily target rich western countries that are at political odds with the CCP?

They primarily target Chinese, actually. That’s why they kidnap Chinese to work there, because they speak the language and are more convincing to victims.

While you may well be correct in other cases, my local intuitions led me to wikipedia's [0] references to a NYT article, which claims that the scam centers in the town they are cutting power, etc., to primarily target Chinese victims. Since the abductees and other staff manning these call centers are mostly Chinese, it makes sense their victims are too. China is rich enough that they don't need to go to the extra hassle to find western-speakers. In fact, through both local news and second-hand accounts, I know there are even Thais who get tricked and abducted to scam Thais! Scammers are just equal opportunity about their cons: even the poorest bumpkin with a positive smartphone balance is welcome to ride on their roller-coster of desire and loss.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myawaddy?wprov=sfti1#Crime

ed: deduplicate to; regret the last 28 minutes of my life.

CCP has plenty of money. Theyre not north korea. That would be like the US government running scam centers. Juice not worth the squeeze.

How would it compare to the persistent belief that the CIA uses the illegal drug trade for funding?

CIA has to get funds beyond what is approved by US govt to fund unapproved missions. China doesn't have these problems.

The amount of copium when it comes to China vs US is illogical. If you’ve ever done business in China, you know there are honest folk and there are officials who do backroom deals that flaunt or bend the law, particularly abroad. If there’s money to be had, it will be made. If there’s points to be scored on the latest edict, they will be scored. If it needs to be done, but the public can’t handle hearing about it for their own good, it shall be so.

The same is true of US officials. I still dont think any of them are running scam centers.

Same as putin? Mafia state has a proxy to earn money and inflict social disruption on the west? Every succesfull scam is a your family should "vote for anti globalism extremists" for the rest of life flyer. To fail to protect against this kills democracy and rule of law.

These illegal scams are based in Shwe Koko, which is under the control of the BGF and they are not influenced by the CCP. The scam center is operated by a 14K triad leader who fled to Portugal in 1997 to escape China’s anti-triad crackdown. He is likely holding either Macau or Portuguese citizenship.

The 14K triad was originally founded by former Kuomintang generals as an anti-communist action group. In the past, they were heavily involved in transporting and distributing drugs from the Golden Triangle. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/14K_(triad)

I guess all the party members who "fled" to europe and canada while still in control and running their business are also to be seen as persecuted evildoers instead of what the ccp really is, a landed gentry that colonized its own people ?

Some of these criminals suddenly claim to be CCP spies or victims of political or religious persecution to avoid extradition.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/She_Zhijiang

That doesn’t make any sense. The Chinese are also the main victim of these scam factories. That’s why scammers kidnap Chinese to work there, because they speak the language and are more convincing to victims. Also, customs will specifically warn Chinese who are flying to those areas about these fake “job offers”. And the article mentions that Thailand is cracking down before their president meets with the Chinese, which doesn’t make any sense if the CCP is backing them.

According to the Economist series linked above, the industry has switched from scamming the chinese, to bigger targets in west. Taken a proven business model to new markets, so to speak. It was implied that CCP had a firm guiding hand helping this pivot.

i'm a little curious

is it true that you can only get information from the Economist or NYT or CNN or BBC or wikipedia?

have anyone of you tried to get information from other sources? like some non-english articles and posts? or from some chinese who live in china?

In northern Thailand, airports have big signs at arrivals saying "Are you travelling to a new job? Have you been offered better pay than you could get at home? STOP HERE and talk to a police officer. Many before you have been tricked and kidnapped".

What is tragic is that these are labor camps that double as residential dorms for indentured servants. Cutting off gas must make it difficult to cook, even if the intent is to cut another source of power for the machines.

What they do to those foreigners thinking they are going for a great job in thailand, while in reality being smuggled into myanmar against their will, is surreal

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