Breaking into the 'super sca.m' capital of Myanmar: people panic about what's behind bars

The shiny, high-rise buildings rising up among cornfields on the Myanmar side of the Moei River are such a dazzling sight that you have to blink to make sure you're not imagining things.

Eight years ago, there was nothing in Karen State. Just trees, a few crudely constructed cement buildings. But today, at this spot along the border with Thailand, a small city has appeared like a mirage. It is called Shwe Kokko, or Golden Raintree.

The city is accuse.d of being involved in a series of frauds, mone.y laundering and human trafficking cases. The man behind it, She Zhijiang, is languishing in a Bangkok jail, awaiting extradition to China.

Yatai, She Zhijiang's construction company, paints a vision of Shwe Kokko in its promotional videos: It is a safe resort destination for Chinese tourists and a paradise for the super-rich.

The series of scams uncovered in these sensitive areas has attracted a great deal of public attention, especially after the shocking kidnapping of Chinese actor Wang Jing. To curb the scams, Thailand has cu.t of.f electricity to complexes across the border, tightened banking regulations and pledged to block visas for those suspected of using Thailand as a transit route.

Getting there is difficult. Since construction began in 2017, Shwe Kokko has been off-limits to visitors. As Myanmar’s civil war escalated following a military coup in 2021, access to Shwe Kokko has become more difficult. It takes three days to reach Shwe Kokko from the commercial hub of Yangon.

There are newly paved streets, luxury villas, and rows of trees. Signs on buildings are written in Chinese characters, and there is a constant stream of Chinese-made construction vehicles coming and going from construction sites.

However, most of the people the BBC saw were indigenous Karen people – one of Myanmar’s ethnic minorities. They travel to Shwe Kokko every day to work. Since a decade ago, the scammers have been settling along the Thai-Myanmar border.

The scams have grown into a multi-billion dollar “business.” Thousands of workers from China, Southeast Asia, Africa and the Indian subcontinent are locked up in walled compounds where they swindle the savings of people all over the world.

Some people work there voluntarily, but many others are kidnappe.d and forced to work. Those who escape tell harrowing stories of tortur.e. Not a few of them are from Shwe Kokko.

The reporter was able to speak to a young woman who worked at one of the sca.m centres. She said her job involved working with a team of models, mostly attractive young women, who would contact potential victims and try to build intimate online relationships with them.

“The target is older people,” she said. “You start the conversation like, ‘Oh, you look just like a friend of mine.’ Once you make friends, you build their trust by sending them pictures of yourself, sometimes in your pajamas.” Then, she explained, the conversation turns to get-rich-quick schemes, like cryptocurrency investing.

“Once they feel close to you, you transfer them to the chat,” she said. “The chatters will continue messaging the customers, convincing them to buy shares of the cryptocurrency company.” “Everyone in Shwe Kokko knows what goes on there,” said a young woman who used to work at a sca.m center.

On the Thai-Myanmar border, Arush Gautam and his friends were once detained at a cybercrime center called KK Park. Their Chinese bosses had assigned Gautam and his friends to a classic “pig-killing sca.m,” in which online scammers use fake identities to coerce and lure victims into investing in seemingly lucrative schemes with the ultimate goal of stealing their mone.y, much like farmers fattening pigs for slaughte.r.

Working at a desk on the floor with 300 other scammers, Gautam had to pretend to be a Chinese woman named Ella and win the trust of male victims through WhatsApp chats. His targets were men in countries such as the Netherlands, Russia, Romania, Switzerland and Dubai, whose phone numbers were taken from TikTok.

A typical conversation would last four days. The first day was spent chatting. On the second day, Ella would brag about her wealth - often sharing pictures of her lavish meals or shopping trips. On the third day, she would touch the victi.m's heart, telling her about her difficult childhood.

On day 4, Ella reveals the secret to her wealth - reviewing products on Ebay that earn her up to $25 per item. The victi.m is then encouraged to try the scheme for herself. The victi.m is tricked into uploading a review and Ella transfers $25 to him in cryptocurrency.

The plan then moves to the “killing pig” phase. This is when Gautam hands over the conversation to a more experienced Chinese scammer. Ella will invite the other person to invest in companies that run Ebay product review businesses and make good profits. Once the victi.m has poured in thousands of dollars, he will never hear from Ella again.

Gautam told Scroll that one in five victims fell into the labor trap. To get out of the center, his family and the victims needed to pay a ransom, and very few families had the mone.y. After a while, Gautam was sold to another fraud complex.

In late August last year, Gautam and several others were led out of the dormitory and into the Indian embassy in Yangon. “We were released,” Gautam said. “I don’t know why it happened.” But many other victims were not so lucky.

Sao nam mất tích ở Thái: Suýt bị bắt vì trở thành tội phạm, lộ nguyên nhân sốc? Khang Trần10:38:57 09/01/2025Vụ việc nam diễn viên Vương Tinh bị bắt và giam giữ tại khu vực biên giới Thái Lan - Myanmar đã gây xôn xao dư luận. Sau khi được giải cứu, Vương Tinh đã chia sẻ những trải nghiệm kinh hoàng của mình, đặc biệt là việc bị ép trở thành tội...