Why Southeast Asia’s Scam Compounds Just Went on a Recruiting Frenzy

A mass escape from the cybercrime hub of KK Park in Myanmar triggered a rush to absorb thousands of displaced workers.

Thousands of people are on the move in the aftermath of Myanmar’s recent crackdown on the notorious KK Park cybercrime compound. Late-October raids at KK Park, one of Southeast Asia’s largest “fraud factory” enclaves, sent over 1,500 workers fleeing across the border into Thailand.

Thai authorities scrambled to detain and screen them, unsure who might be a victim and who might be a perpetrator.

A Thai soldier watches on as fleeing workers from the KK Park compound board a truck. Source: AFP

But instead of dismantling the scamming industry, the crackdown has merely scattered it.