Traders fret they’re paying price for crackdown on scam call centres

Faced with economic difficulties and hardship, Thai traders are urging the authorities to end the three "cut-off measures" enforced since February as part of a crackdown on scam call centers operating across Thailand’s border with Myanmar.

Following pressure from China to take action, Thailand cut off electricity supply and internet signals, and also banned the export of fuel from five locations, including two points from Mae Sot district, to Myanmar’s Myawaddy where many scam cities were located.

The government claimed success in the first month of the operation. Deputy Prime Minister Prasert Jantararuangtong said that the number of online crimes dropped from 31,159 cases in January to 25,487 in March, an average decrease of around 20 per cent, with a continuing downward trend.

In May Deputy Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai, who oversees security matters, said that the measures, known officially as “seal-stop-save”, to stop export of electricity and fuel and cut off internet signals to Myanmar, had been beneficial and successful.

The view from Tak

The Tak Provincial Chamber of Commerce, however, has a different perspective. The chamber informed the public in May that while officials may consider the three measures to have been successful, they had caused increasing hardship to traders, business operators and residents in the border areas.

Phumtham rejected their point of view, saying that an assessment had shown small-scale traders had not been significantly affected. This is because efforts were focused on closing informal crossing points, which are considered the most vulnerable.

Imports and exports via official routes remain open as usual, while only controlled goods—specifically those that could be used in call center scam operations—are restricted. Overall, the situation should not pose major problems, he said.

Statistics point to a different reality. The value of Thai exports via the Mae Sot-Myawaddy checkpoint has declined sharply since the authorities stepped up the measure, contracting 20.29 per cent year on year in February, 32.9 per cent in March, 3.34 per cent in April, 27.55 per cent in May and 1.19 per cent in June, according to the Mae Sot Custom House.

Fuel exports have been hit the hardest. Thailand previously exported 249 million liters of diesel, gasoline, naphtha, solvent and liquid petroleum gas last year. The Mae Sot Customs recorded no export of this item since February.

Thailand would lose 5.5 billion baht in income from fuel exports by the end of this year, according to the Tak Provincial Chamber of Commerce.

Most of the fuel is exported for the consumption of ordinary people in Myanmar, not only for the scam cities, said Paniti Tangphati, advisor to the chamber of commerce. Thailand exported via Mae Sot on average nearly a million liters of fuel, notably diesel and gasoline, he said.

“From our calculation, only 10 per cent of that amount generates power for the scam city around the same size as the notorious Shwe Kokko,” Paniti said.

Scam cities are still alive

While these measures have only led to more problems for the border economy and local vendors, scam groups remain active, as they can import fuel from Malaysia and electricity generators from China via other routes, said Surachai Veerasomkiat, a logistics businessman.

Banphot Kokiatjaroen, an advisor to the Tak Provincial Chamber of Commerce, said that five months after the government had implemented the "three cut measures", the crackdown had been ineffective and had served merely as a form of pressure.

In reality, it had been found that in Myawaddy, across the border, call center scam gangs had resumed their operations as before, he said.

“There is no pause in the construction of buildings and facilities. Cutting off electricity has had only a limited impact, as generators have been brought in for use. Meanwhile, satellite connections are making up for internet signals being cut off by Thailand,” Banphot told local media.

The measure to cut off fuel supplies has been neutralised through imports from the inner provinces of Myanmar, albeit at higher prices. As a result, those most affected were not the online scam gangs, but rather the local population and border businesses, he said.

Phumtham had admitted earlier that though the problems along the border areas of Mae Sot in Tak province might have significantly subsided since the crackdown, the scamsters might have shifted their illegal operations to other locations.

Security sources indicated that some of the illicit online businesses had relocated to Southern Shan State to seek protection from the United Wa State Army and the Shan State Progressive Party/Shan State Army.

Plea to end the harsh measures

In their testimony to the Committee of Military Affairs of the House of Representatives on July 3, members of the chamber of commerce and traders in Mae Sot urged the authorities to end the "cut-off measures" and find ways to deal with the scam centers along the border that would have less implications for local vendors and residents in the border areas.

If the authorities wanted to control the power supply to Myawaddy, they could limit the export to only 20 megawatts for consumption within the township, preventing use by the scam cities that are located more than ten kilometers away.

It would make more sense for the Thai authorities to seek cooperation from business operators in Myawaddy to precisely control the power supply on the other side of the border, rather than completely ceasing supply from Thailand, Paniti suggested.

China follows up on impact of crackdown

A Chinese delegation arrived in Mae Sot on July 7 to follow up on the anti-cyber-fraud campaign China has conducted in collaboration with Thailand and Myanmar since early this year.

China has so far managed to rescue 5,414 Chinese victims and suspects of cybercrimes and human trafficking from many scam centers along the Thailand-Myanmar border.

Thai and Chinese officials have agreed to continue their cooperation to crack down on scammers and human trafficking gangs.

Since their emergence in 2019, scam hubs near the Myanmar-Thailand border, particularly in Karen State, have become centers for cybercrime, where trafficked individuals are forced into online fraud.

Key hotspots include Shwe Kokko, a hub for scams, money laundering, human trafficking and arms trading.

Another major hub, KK Park in Myawaddy, mirrors Shwe Kokko’s role, notorious for forcing laborers into internet scams. A newer hub, known as Chong Khaep, Taizhang, or Tha Chang, has gained attention.

These operations are led by Chinese criminal groups with protection from ethnic armed organisations and the Tatmadaw-allied Border Guard Force (BGF), which remains a key enforcer for many scam centers.

In the latest development, the junta's State Administration Council blacklisted a company owned by warlord Saw Chit Thu, chief of BGF in Karen State, who allegedly oversaw networks of transnational scam centers.

His company, Chit Linn Myaing Toyota Co, was among 190 companies blacklisted for failing to deposit foreign currency export earnings into a junta-controlled bank.

Saw Chit Thu was reportedly named as a key business partner in the Shwe Kokko Special Economic Zone.

In May this year, the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control imposed sanctions on Saw Chit Thu, and his two sons, Saw Htoo Eh Moo and Saw Chit Chit, for their role in facilitating cyber scams that harm US citizens, human trafficking, and cross-border smuggling.