Fraud factory

, Myanmar.]]
Sometimes, more than one criminal organization use a building or building complex to perform fraud.This is called **fraud factory**, **fraud park** or **scam compound.**  Usually the organizations do  human trafficking. Very often, they are found in Southeast Asia. Many of them are operated by criminal gangs. Fraud factory operators lure foreign nationals to scam hubs. There,  they are forced into modern slavery.The people are forced to scam internet users around the world. They have to make them buy  cryptocurrencies or withdraw cash, via social media and online dating apps. The typical scam is known as "pig butchering". Trafficking victims' passports are taken away, and they are threatened with organ harvesting and forced prostitution if they do not scam enough. These operations first appeared during the COVID-19 pandemic. They can be found in countries such as Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos. The civil war in Myanmar helped their operations.

## Naming 
The term *fraud factory* first appeared in a 2022 *Sydney Morning Herald* article. The article was about the Southeast Asian scams and human trafficking industry.  

Kenya's Ministry of Foreign Affairs  used the term for the activity of trafficking victims to Asia. The victims  use digital media to meet westerners and sell them cryptocurrencies. In Chinese, the term "fraud industrial park"  is used. 

## Organization and ownership 
Fraud factories are often operated by Chinese criminal gangs based in Southeast Asia.

## Human trafficking victims 
, Myanmar.]]
Between August and late September 2022, the Kenyan embassy in Thailand helped  rescue 76 trafficking victims. Victims in Myanmar include nationals from throughout Asia, including China, Indonesia, Taiwan, and Thailand. People  promise victims high-paying jobs. They  are then trafficked through major cities such as Yangon and Bangkok, and transit points like Mae Sot and Chiang Rai.

## Operations 
In 2022, BBC News reported that the locations of fraud factories were in Laos and Myanmar, notably in Kachin. In that area, there is  the Kachin conflict.  This makes rescues difficult. The trafficked victims are lured with job offers; BBC reported that one victim who had travelled to Thailand for a job  was later driven to Laos.

During the Myanmar civil war, the Three Brotherhood Alliance launched Operation 1027 against the Myanmar military regime on 27 October 2023, One ofth goals was  to eradicate scam centers in the Kokang Self-Administered Zone along the northeastern border with China. China had grown frustrated with the Myanmar government's lack of response against fraud factories. On 5 January 2024, the alliance fully captured the city of Laukkai in Kokang from the Myanmar military, and by late January claimed to have handed more than 3,000 scam suspects to China since the operation began.

In March 2024, the head of Interpol estimated that the combined profits of Southeast Asian organized crime networks were $2 to $3 trillion per year, with a typical criminal organization making $50 billion per year.

## Defensive criminal actions 
Scam compounds are able to continue operating even though their locations are known. They do this by bribing local law enforcement and politicians.
, Cambodia.]]
Cambodia, Laos, and Myanmar in Southeast Asia are known fraud factory destinations. Below are known cyber scam hotspots:

* :
** Sihanoukville
** Poipet Ming later committed suicide. The other three were captured by Burmese authorities and handed to China.

## Works 
* *No More Bets*, a 2023 Chinese crime thriller film about people trafficked into a fraud factory

* Slavery in the 21st century
* Cryptocurrency and crime
* List of confidence tricks

## References