Myanmar’s military targets huge “scam nest” but KK Park still standing strong

The Myanmar military says it has successfully demolished around 150 buildings in the infamous scam den area called KK Park. This, however, might be propaganda, as satellite images reveal that much of the premises of the country’s most notorious fraud center remain intact.

Hundreds of thousands of people work in Southeast Asian scam compounds, and Myanmar’s KK Park is probably the most notorious one.

Some are lured into debt bondage through trafficking networks, while others enter the trade voluntarily, drawn by the promise of high earnings.

The latter are so spectacular that in September, the US imposed sanctions on cyber scam operators in Myanmar and Cambodia, saying that the industry stole tens of billions of dollars from Americans last year alone.

In Myanmar, especially, scam centres have expanded rapidly since the 2021 military coup, spreading from militia-controlled areas into those under junta control, a report by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute recently said.

Now, Myanmar, perhaps concerned by increasingly public displays of dissatisfaction coming from the US and China, says it’s taking action. This week, the military announced that it was demolishing approximately 150 buildings in the scam den area known as KK Park.

Following the raid on the “scam nest” in October, around 1,500 scammers reportedly fled to neighboring Thailand, according to Myanmar’s state media.

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That same month, more than 2,500 Starlink devices were disabled in Myanmar over suspicions that the cybercriminals were using them.

Starlink is, of course, perfect for attackers wishing to operate away from the watchful eye of the law as it’s designed to provide fast bandwidth connections in remote areas. Myanmar’s border regions are notoriously loosely regulated.

According to the military, 101 buildings in KK Park have been destroyed, while 47 others are in the process of being demolished. Locals said they have heard continuous explosions since the operation began.

However, since the junta controls the media in Myanmar, this might not be true. The largest satellite images from October 30th to November 9th, analyzed by the AFP news agency, show that much of the facilities of KK Park remain intact.

The images suggest that about a quarter of the total area was destroyed, but KK Park seems alive and well. This raises questions about the campaign’s authenticity.

Jason Tower, a senior expert at the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, said that this appears to be more of a propaganda campaign than a real operation.

Since the coup in 2021, Myanmar’s military has allowed local crime groups to maintain the operation of online fraud centers, as it’s a significant source of revenue that helps the junta maintain influence in the border area with Thailand and China.

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