China Apprehends Thousands of Cyber Scammers, but Schemes Likely to Continue

Aldohn Domingo, Tech Times 23 October 2023, 08:10 am

China's Ministry of Public Security has reportedly repatriated another 2,349 people on Monday, over cyber scamming crimes in coordination with Myanmar authorities.

The cyber scamming schemes reportedly have networks run by powerful Chinese criminal syndicates all across Southeast Asia, most of which have Chinese scammers who are also possibly victims according to the report.

(Photo: GREG BAKER/AFP via Getty Images)

To combat cyber fraud in the region, China, Thailand, Laos, and Myanmar decided to establish a unified police operations center in August. The "Summer Operation" of China's Ministry of Public Security had successfully returned 2,317 fraud suspects from northern Myanmar to China, the ministry reported back on October 10.

Since the start of the partnership, the joint operations have netted out around 4,000 suspects according to the Associated Press report, such suspects have already been deported back to China.

Local elites and criminal syndicates of these cyber scams, however, remain at large, experts according to the report, state that the recent efforts of the Chinese government to stop these cyber scams "don't seem very comprehensive."

Chinese Efforts' Effectiveness

United States Institute of Peace reported how various measures and policies have already been implemented by China to safeguard its own inhabitants and its relations with the surrounding Southeast Asian nations regarding these scams.

Beijing has tightened bank anti-money laundering standards, policed WeChat to deny criminals access to Chinese telecoms, increased public awareness of human trafficking, and prohibited many Chinese from traveling to Southeast Asia.

But none of this has reportedly prevented the networks from spreading regionally. Instead, criminals have changed their tactics, concentrating more on markets outside of China and adjusting their attempts to traffic young Chinese job seekers.

Even after operations to stop the schemes are conducted, it only prompts numerous cyber scam organizations to simply relocate, such as is the case back in 2019 when Cambodia cracked down on illegal casinos and online gambling networks.

This merely prompted syndicates to move to Myanmar's less well-policed regions.

The syndicates are also infamous for "pig butchering" scams, in which con artists lure victims into internet romances before tricking them into investing their money in fraudulent schemes from afar.

Chinese and non-Chinese people are the two groups into which the con artists split their victims. They deceive the people they speak with on the phone or online into parting with their money by using scripts, pictures of models and influencers, and translation software. There are victims everywhere in the world.

Cyber Slavery Across Southeast Asia

The alleged "suspects" and cyber scammers, however, are reportedly victims too, described by the United States Institute of Peace as "cyber slavery."

Criminal operators of the said syndicates entice job seekers from around the world with promises of lucrative high-tech positions before trafficking them across borders into virtual slavery to work in financial cyber schemes.

The victims who don't do properly are then regularly beaten or subjected to physical penalties like being made to run laps.

Most of the victims or "suspects" are Chinese, but other reports also indicate that cyber slaves across Southeast Asia are Thais, Vietnamese, Indonesians, Malaysians, persons from Myanmar, and numerous others.

Other than bodily harm, victims are also being threatened with being sold at seemingly human trafficking markets where people are bought and sold for thousands of dollars to carry out these scams.