The scam center in Southeast Asia is back in the news. Nearly 600 Indians have recently flew over Thailand after being rescued in Myanmar’s scam. India sent military transport planes to the Thai border town of Mae Sot to repatriate its citizens.
This is the latest attempt to close online fraud operations following a dramatic rescue operation coordinated by Thailand, China and Myanmar, which has seen thousands of people around the world sweep their entire lives, with thousands of them in their entire life savings.
The highly publicized action has led to the release of 7,000 people in many countries that have taken hostages in locked courtyards in towns within the Thai-mountain border and other Southeast Asian law-wide. Many are attracted by the false promise of high-paying IT jobs in Thailand. Then trafficked into these scams by criminal gangs, in which they are captured and forced to participate in online fraud schemes to deceive victims through romance or investment scams.
Rejecting work could lead to assault, hunger and electric shock, according to the Associated Press report.
Half of the more than 7,000 people rescued from cruel scams in recent days are Chinese nationals. China has repatriated more than 2,000 citizens. However, many other nations are still waiting to fly home.
This is not the first time Indians were rescued from a scam or war zone. We have been on this road before.
Last year, Indian media reported that 29,466 Indians traveled to Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar and Cambodia on visitor visas from January 2022 to May 2024, according to data compiled by Immigration Bureau at the Union’s Ministry of Home Affairs. This coincides with the spike in cybercrime originating from Southeast Asia. Many desperate and scammered Indians continued to risk madness in search of overseas jobs. This includes many educated men and women. As in the past, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has warned Indian nationals to verify the certificates of foreign employers before accepting a job offer.
In this ever-evolving global story, the Indians are cannon feed. Despite the infamous scam compounds in Southeast Asia, online scammers are victims all over the world. Research by the Global Anti-State Alliance (GASA) says victims lost more than $1 trillion in scams in 2024.
India can’t afford the response. It’s time to ask what we don’t learn.
Countries are united to fight the surge in cybercrime. In January this year, law enforcement officials from six countries (China, Myanmar, Cambodia, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam) – multilateral cooperation groups between countries on the Lancang-Mekong River bank, as well as the post offices of UN officials and UN officials and other regional officials, telecommunications fraud, illegal drugs and other cross-border crimes. The names of Lankan and Mekong are different, but please refer to the same river. The Lancang-Mekong River passes through China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam.
According to media reports, representatives from six countries agreed to strengthen information sharing, deepen joint law enforcement and enhance their ability to combat cross-border crime. They also agreed to coordinate rescue of trapped people, understand the leaders of criminal groups, and demolish telecom fraud dens.
The crackdown by the Lancang-Mekong Integrated Law Enforcement and Security Cooperation Center (LMLECC), known as Operation Seagull, took place between August 2024 and December 2024. This led to the destruction of more than 150 telecom fraud operations, arresting 70,000 criminals and 160 rescues, and the Thais arrested 100. Targeting towns along the border, it is suspected to be a hub for scam call centers and other criminal activities. Media reports that criminal networks that originated mainly in China operate many scam centers, but Chinese nationals are also targets, and China is stepping up efforts to curb these global scams.
How involved is India in this conversation about opposing cybercrime? How effective is India’s public education program to deal with scammers? Despite multiple reports of scam compounds in Southeast Asia in recent years, Indians were still deceived. This is very worrying. Abuse of artificial intelligence (AI) increases the problem.
Most educated Indians know that AI refers to technologies that enable computers and machines to simulate human learning, understanding, problem solving, decision-making, creativity, and autonomy. But they only have a hazy idea of how exactly the scammers can use AI to rob vulnerable ideas.
With the nationwide adoption of digital financial transactions, many people are now using payment systems such as UPI. However, awareness of digital security and assurance remains low. This paradox cannot shrugg.
This problem is not limited to any state or region. Even states with high literacy and education are places for AI scams.
Last year, the scammers used AI-generated Deepfake videos from Dupe, a 73-year-old retired government employee in Kozkikod, Kerala. Voice and video manipulation are used to create compelling emergencies.
A strong public education campaign is needed, involving some common techniques used by scammers to collect victims’ names, contact information and other related information to make fake calls appear legal. For example, voice samples can be easily harvested via the “wrong number” phone call or from a large number of audio or video posts on social media. These samples are then leveraged to train the AI algorithm to mimic the target’s speech pattern. Last year, Tamil Nadu police asked people to be aware of common scams such as voice cloning fraud and to be aware of warning signs. Other states can follow this example.
Despite several crackdowns reveal, the scam centers in Southeast Asia remain. It points to corruption.
The challenges posed by these criminal networks are enormous. It has exacerbated this by the violent cuts to foreign aid to the United States, which has hurt efforts to address human trafficking in scam compounds.
The path forward is through more information sharing and collaboration between the region and other countries and between civic consciousness. India must go beyond repatriation flights. In a global dialogue and action, deal with online fraud and host stronger publicity campaigns to protect their citizens from families and foreign fraudsters.
