Nexus · Transcript · · Updated
Inside Myanmar’s BRUTAL Scam Centres – Transcript
Video by Nexus · Watch the original on YouTube
Summary
AI-generated from the transcript. Verify details against the source video.
- Criminal networks in Myanmar are running vast global scam operations and forcing trafficked victims to carry out pig butchering scams.
- Scam syndicates in East and Southeast Asia are estimated to make more than 40 billion dollars a year through these fraudulent operations.
- Victims and human trafficking survivors have reported being subjected to severe torture, forced labor, and ransom demands.
Use this video with Pro
Reading, copying and transcript downloads are free. Create saved AI results for this video with a signed-in Pro account ($9/month).
Transcript
Search ignores accents. All transcript text stays visible.
In the chaos of a civil war, criminal networks seize the moment. Behind these walls, people are forced to scam. It's like a streamline workers in the factory floor. I became one of those slaves.
>> Hello and welcome to the Nexus. Today we're looking at the criminal networks that are using Myanmar as a base to run vast global scam operations. Thousands of people are being lured, kidnapped, and imprisoned in industrial scale fraud centers and forced to carry out what is called the pig butchering scam. TRT's Emmy award-winning Off-T Grid series has spoken to the cyber slaves and their victims in the hard-hitting documentary
Myanmar Scam Factory. >> We are carrying out a pig butchering scam. In a country at war with itself, there's a no man's land, at the mercy of organized crime.
And behind these screams, a wall of lies and exploitation. When nothing is what it seems. Torture, >> manipulation, enslavement. I became one of those slaves.
Off the Grid investigates the multi-billion dollar cyber crime industry built on slavery. >> We'll be talking to the TRT producer who made that documentary shortly and a man who was imprisoned in one of these scam centers. But first, here's a look at exactly how the pig butchering scam works.
Many of the scammers participating in pig butchering schemes are themselves victims often of Chinese criminal gangs. Tricked by fake job offers promising lucrative salaries if they're willing to relocate. They find themselves trafficked into Myanmar, imprisoned in heavily guarded compounds, and their passports and phones confiscated.
They're then threatened with violence if they do not become online con artists. In the so-called pig butchering scam, victims across the world are tricked into repeatedly transferring more and more money over time. Initial contact is often made through dating sites, social media, or even wrong number text messages. It's an elaborate scheme built on trust and manipulation and can last for weeks or even months. Scammers fatten up their targets through fake
friendships, romances, or business opportunities carefully crafted to hook their victim. And as the relationship continues, the fraudsters request financial assistance for package deliveries, air travel tickets, or other types of urgent payments. Each interaction is deliberately designed to build trust and increase pressure. The scam goes on until the victim is completely financially exhausted. The
fraud discovered or the scammers simply vanish. Gangs in East and Southeast Asia alone are estimated to be making $40 billion a year. Let's bring in the TRT world producer and filmmaker who put this documentary together, Lucin Enami.
Lucin, welcome to the program. Let's start by asking you this simple question. Why do scam centers operate in conflict or war zones? >> Well, in this particular case, there is a civil war in Myanmar. And as you know, when there is a civil war, the state is not really in control. And when we see chaos ourself, uh some criminal gangs, some syndicates, they see an opportunity. Now, we've seen the chaos is great for the scammers, but it makes
doing journalism very difficult. What are the challenges uh of filming in such an environment? >> Well, it wasn't easy actually because obviously uh we have to go to a to a hostile zone uh and uh and we have to take care of of our security. Um what we decided actually uh is to get close to uh to a rebel group uh people fighting for the pro-democracy group who are
fighting against the juna against the Rangun regime. And among these people we find a lot of fighters who are actually ex employee of these scam centers. Most of them been lured actually. They've been they they've been said like okay there's a job for as a translator. You can do this for us. But at some point they realize this is scamming operation.
and they don't want to be there because they are it's unethical for them. They're like looking of removing the juna from the government and they want something fair and they're fighting for democracy. So working for a scam center in the meantime doesn't make any sense.
So those group gave us a decent access and very actually interesting access to those scam centers. They put us in contact with people who've been there and we've been operating with them. >> We've seen these scam centers collectively make billions of dollars every year. What makes them so effective? How do they work? How are they organized?
>> They make billion actually they make more than 40 billion a year. And to give you an idea, it is more than drug trafficking which is quite like you know >> [snorts] >> uh existent in this uh in this area. Uh they are effective because they really operate professionally. First of all they build compounds. Uh they make it look like residential area. They make it like business centers. They look normal.
In the picture we filmed, we can even see some workers, some cranes, and they're like building like a normal thing. Even the syndicate are like planting trees, flowers, making grocery shop, sometime a temple, and everything looks so normal from outside. Also, we find out that there are some scam user guide. And in the scam user guide, it's like written in a very professional manner with rule and guidance with like explicit advice. Be nice. Make sure that you don't speak about anything
polarized, divisive issues. Identify vulnerability, identify weaknesses and this is on the long term. You have to keep in mind that these scammers are not like you know calling you on Tuesday and scamming you on Wednesday. No, they calling you in February and they scamming you in maybe like you know June or July. The scammers also works as a different team. You have some people who are supposed to look for accounts. There are some people who are supposed to send
you some messages sometime with AI, sometime with fake profile. Usually a woman made by AI and is like you know doing some shopping and looking like very uninterested financially and is happy just to speak with you. Sometime it's men, sometime it's like people which are you think could be your friend in real life. In other word it's a master class in manipulation. And if you give you if I want to give you one more thing the average amount that people get
scammed the losses I would say is approximately $150 $200,000 per victim. And we've seen a final question. Let's talk about how they staff these centers. Obviously, it's a lot of human trafficking. Have you spotted any patterns? Actually, when we started documentary, we didn't think there was a human trafficking uh pattern. We thought this people was coming because it was their own will. But what we understood, some people see a job ad with an
attractive payment in Thailand. They go to Thailand, they are welcomed by someone. They put them like you know in a car with a driver and they drive from Thailand Bangkok to myot which is at the border with Myanmar and after 8 hours of of driving usually they reach like you know uh around nighttime they go on a boat they cross the river and when they cross the river this is the beginning of the end because at this time literally
they are welcomed with people with with weapons uh and they are telling them just two things. Give me your mobile phone, give me your passport and you can go to your room tomorrow. You you will be told what to do. And if people don't want to be part of this, they get like you know sleep deprivation, they get food limitation, they get torture. Some of them get like you know beaten to death that been told like you know to us many times by people who escaped the
place. And the one of the final threat they are told they can be sold to another group criminal syndicates that doan harvesting. We've seen Inami. Thank you so much for that. Really informative. Well, let's turn to one of the victims in this documentary. His name is Yiha and he lives in the Netherlands. Welcome to the program, Yihow. Just start by telling our viewers where were you living, what were you doing, and how
were you lured into this scam? Uh I was trafficked and lured into a scam compound in Milwaukee BMA back in 2022 and I uh my parents and I paid the ransom. So I was released back in 2023 after seven months and 18 days in the torture chamber.
>> Can you tell me a bit about that? I was sent to the torture chamber for 18 days straight and I got electroshocked. I got uh beaten by the uh the PVC tube and uh all those not all of those footage but some of those footage was recorded by the the cartel member and sent to my parents for the ransom purpose.
>> And how did the scammers persuade you to join them? The human trafficking pitch was posed as a job opportunity to work as a uh English Chinese translator for a prospective Chinese business person in Thailand. So I was flew into Thailand and then I was trafficed to the border
of the uh Burma and Thailand. Then I was forced to cross the river, the Moy River to the other side. And what kind of work did they make you do for them?
>> Well, initially it was a scammer job. It it were just they give you the training material. Okay. And they give you the uh cell phone and uh the the the computer they are asking you to read through the material and do the scammer work. And later I tried my best to selfrescue and
failed. Then they uh had down some due diligence on me to see they should sell me to other cartel or keep me as uh for some other other jobs. I convinced them to give me a bookkeeper's job. So that's why I I uh let's say collect all those financial and share it with the jourers.
>> How did you finally manage to get away from them? Well was uh seven months struggles uh initially I tried to uh let's say collect all the information I can get on this industry then I reach out to my parents explaining my situation uh the ultimate uh solution for that
matter is find the right person the right broker who could brokerage a ransom and release with the local military force or local authority if you will, the border guard force. So my parents literally paid 274,000 irony to the local military, the BGF