How Golden Triangle Scam Syndicates Use AI

The short version

Criminal groups based in the borderlands of Myanmar, Laos and Thailand, and linked networks in Cambodia, run industrial-scale fraud from fortified compounds staffed partly by trafficked workers. They have adopted generative AI quickly. They use it to write and translate scripts, to create fake profiles, and to put a borrowed face and voice on video calls. Crackdowns in 2025 and 2026 demolished buildings, freed thousands of people and led to executions in China. UN analysts say the operations largely moved elsewhere rather than shutting down.

The region and the compounds

Industrial scam compounds took hold in the Golden Triangle area after the COVID-19 pandemic cut casino revenue and Myanmar's 2021 coup weakened state control. The main clusters are:

Myawaddy township, Karen (Kayin) State, Myanmar, on the Moei River opposite Mae Sot, Thailand. It includes Shwe Kokko (Yatai New City), developed by the Chinese Yatai group with the militia led by Saw Chit Thu,[1][2] and KK Park to the south.[3] AFP satellite analysis identified 27 other suspected scam centres in the Myawaddy cluster.[4]
Shan State, Myanmar: the Kokang region around Laukkai, the Wa and Mongla areas on the Chinese border, and Tachileik opposite Thailand's Mae Sai.
The Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone (GTSEZ) in Bokeo province, Laos. Zhao Wei's Kings Romans Group has run it under a long-term concession since 2007.[5][6] The US Treasury sanctioned Zhao Wei, Kings Romans and the "Zhao Wei Transnational Crime Organization" in January 2018.[7]

Forced labour and trafficking

Recruiters advertise customer-service, IT or translation jobs in Thailand, often on social media or Telegram. Recruits are moved across the border, have their passports taken, and are made to scam under threat of beatings, electric shocks, debt bondage or resale to other compounds. UNODC's April 2025 report Inflection Point found that scam groups had set up recruitment centres as far afield as Dubai.[8]

Estimates of how many people work in the compounds vary, and some workers join voluntarily:

In 2023 the UN human rights office (OHCHR) estimated at least 120,000 people held in scam operations in Myanmar and at least 100,000 in Cambodia.[9]
OHCHR's February 2026 report, "A Wicked Problem", cites credible estimates of at least 300,000 people working in scam operations across Southeast Asia, from at least 66 countries. It found that 74% of identified compounds were in the Mekong region. All victims interviewed described mistreatment "amounting to torture," and some reported working days of up to 19 hours.[10]
UNODC's July 2026 threat assessment says people from at least 80 countries and territories have been identified in the region's compounds.[11]
In a 22 June 2026 letter to Thai police reported by Al Jazeera, the Thailand-based Civil Society Network for Human Trafficking Victim Assistance said more than 5,300 people were still trapped in four locations in Myanmar controlled by the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army, about 1,600 of them Chinese.

Pig butchering

The core product is the "pig-butchering" scam (sha zhu pan). Scammers build a relationship over weeks or months, often romantic and sometimes framed as friendship or business mentoring. They then steer the victim to a fake crypto or gold trading platform that shows invented profits. The victim is encouraged to invest more and borrow to do it. Withdrawal attempts trigger demands for "taxes" or "fees" before the scammers vanish. A "recovery" scam often follows. The FBI's 2025 Internet Crime Report says cryptocurrency investment scams "are largely perpetrated by organized criminal enterprises based in Southeast Asia using victims of human trafficking as forced labor." These scams caused US$7.2 billion in reported US losses in 2025.[12]

How AI is used

Scripting, translation and scale. Large language models let workers with poor English, Japanese or Korean write fluent, personalised messages. They can run many conversations at once and adjust tone for each target. OHCHR's 2026 report, as summarised by Forbes, describes "a wide and growing use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) across scam operations; for generating scripts and multilingual content, identifying scamming targets, producing deepfakes for impersonation purposes, and facilitating money-laundering."[13] The FBI says investment scammers use AI "to quickly generate thousands of conversations that appear different to each prospective victim."[12] UNODC's September 2025 technical brief warns that generative AI "could further enable these operations by automating scam conversations in real time." It also notes evidence that large language models are already used in the region.[14] A 2024 ABC News (Australia) investigation found AI translation tools built into messaging apps being advertised on Telegram to compound operators.[15]

Face-swapping on video calls. Victims often ask for a video call before sending money. Compounds answer this with real-time face-swap software, often operated by a worker or a hired "model" whose face is replaced with the profile's. ABC reported in May 2024 that some Myanmar compounds were using advanced face-swapping technology. One Telegram vendor offered "door-to-door" installation in Cambodia and claimed to have installed its product in more than 1,000 compounds.[15] That is a vendor's marketing claim and has not been verified. UNODC's September 2025 brief names one product, AIFace, identified through monitoring of Telegram markets where deepfake tools are sold as a service, packaged with scam playbooks. The brief also describes arrests at a scam centre in Poipet, Cambodia, of people using AI voice cloning and real-time deepfake video for impersonation.[14]

Voice cloning. UNODC's 2024 report includes a section on voice cloning and integrated audio deepfakes.[16] Cloned voices support impersonation of police, officials and relatives, and match the synthetic face in video calls.

AI-generated profiles and documents. Synthetic profile photos avoid the reverse-image searches that catch stolen pictures. Generative tools also produce fake IDs, bank statements and trading-platform screenshots. UNODC documented face-swap "injection attacks" against identity verification rising 704% in the second half of 2023, a figure drawn from industry data, and Telegram vendors selling KYC-bypass services.[16][17]

A supply chain on Telegram. UNODC's October 2024 report found underground data markets moving to Telegram. In the largest market it studied, vendor categories included "deep fake software development and installation."[18][17] Chainalysis's 2026 crypto crime research found that scams with on-chain links to Telegram-based Chinese AI vendors selling face-swap software, deepfake tools and LLMs tended to steal more and grow faster.[19] UNODC analyst John Wojcik has called generative AI "a powerful force multiplier for criminal activities."[20]

AI has not replaced the trafficked workforce. Human operators still run conversations, close deals and launder proceeds. AI lowers the language barrier and makes it easier to pass the video-call test.

Revenues and losses

All revenue figures are estimates, built from different methods:

UNODC, October 2024: US$18–37 billion in scam losses to victims in East and Southeast Asia in 2023.[20]
UNODC, April 2025: hundreds of industrial-scale compounds generating "just under US$40 billion in annual profits."[21]
US Institute of Peace (USIP), as cited by the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission: pig-butchering scams generated US$63.9 billion worldwide in 2023. Scam centres in Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos generated about US$43.8 billion, roughly 40% of the three countries' combined official GDP.[22]
US government: Americans lost at least US$10 billion to Southeast Asian scam operations in 2024, according to the State Department in September 2025.[23][24][25]
UNODC's 2026 threat assessment (An Interconnected Criminal Ecosystem, July 2026): combined losses to scams across East Asia, Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand of US$88.3–114.1 billion in 2025.[11][26] Not all of this comes from the compounds.
Shwe Kokko alone: about US$192 million in revenue in 2024, roughly half passed to Myanmar's military, according to a US-ASEAN Business Council summary of sanctions research.[27]

Sanctions and prosecutions

The US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has targeted the compounds' protectors and owners:

5 May 2025: designated the Karen National Army (KNA) as a transnational criminal organisation, along with its leader Saw Chit Thu and his sons Saw Htoo Eh Moo and Saw Chit Chit.[28][29] Treasury said survivors from KK Park reported that guards wore KNA insignia. The UK sanctioned Saw Chit Thu in 2023 and the EU in 2024.[30]
8 September 2025: sanctioned nine targets connected to Shwe Kokko, including two subordinates of Saw Chit Thu, alongside ten Cambodia-based targets.[23][24][28]
12 November 2025: designated the Democratic Karen Benevolent Army (DKBA) and four of its leaders for supporting scam centres.[28]

The Prince Group case is Cambodia-centred, but US and UK authorities say the group also ran scam operations in Myanmar.[31] On 14 October 2025, prosecutors in Brooklyn charged founder Chen Zhi with wire fraud and money-laundering conspiracy.[32] The Justice Department filed a forfeiture action over 127,271 bitcoin, worth about US$15 billion at the time, the largest in its history.[33] The US and UK sanctioned 146 people and entities linked to the group.[31] Cambodia arrested Chen on 6 January 2026, revoked his citizenship and sent him to China[33] the next day. Chen and the Prince Group deny wrongdoing.[34] The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists has reported apparent irregularities in the US indictment, including photographs with no clear link to the group.[35] The forfeiture is not final.[32]

In November 2025 the US launched a Scam Center Strike Force, led by the US Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia with the FBI, Secret Service and Justice Department. It reported more than US$580 million frozen or seized by February 2026 and more than US$700 million restrained by April 2026.[36][37] Other actions included seizing 503 fake investment domains and, for the first time, a Telegram channel, and charging alleged managers of the Shunda compound in Myanmar.[37][38] In September 2026 it said it had restrained US$52 million in a single day while targeting a Chinese-run Telegram marketplace for scammers.[39]

Crackdowns, 2025–2026

China and northern Shan State. Under Chinese pressure, militias and resistance forces handed over tens of thousands of suspects from Laukkai and other border areas. USIP reported that China had repatriated almost 45,000 people by early 2024, pushing syndicates south to Karen State and into Laos and Cambodia.[40] Chinese courts then went after the Kokang crime families:

Bai family: the Shenzhen Intermediate People's Court sentenced five members to death in November 2025, and China announced four executions on 2 February 2026. The patriarch, Bai Suocheng, died of illness before execution.[41][42]
Ming family: 11 members were sentenced to death in September 2025 for crimes including the deaths of 14 Chinese citizens and fraud and gambling worth more than US$1 billion. China announced their executions on 29 January 2026.[43][44]
She Zhijiang, the Yatai founder behind Shwe Kokko, was extradited from Thailand to China in November 2025.[45]

Local reporting by The Irrawaddy says scam centres remain active in parts of Shan State controlled by the junta or the United Wa State Army.[46]

Thailand's cuts. On 5 February 2025, Thailand cut electricity, internet and fuel to five border connection points serving Myawaddy, Payathonzu and Tachileik.[5][47][48] This followed the January 2025 rescue of Chinese actor Wang Xing from a Myawaddy compound, which caused a public outcry.[9][27][49] Compounds switched to generators and Starlink terminals.[50][51] About 7,000 workers were released along the border in the weeks that followed, many of them stuck for weeks awaiting repatriation.[10][52]

KK Park and Shwe Kokko. Myanmar's military announced on 20 October 2025 that it had raided KK Park, found about 2,200 workers in roughly 200 buildings, and seized 30 sets of Starlink equipment. AFP noted that drone images showed nearly 80 dishes on a single roof.[53] SpaceX said it had disabled thousands of Starlink terminals near scam centres, and the US Congress's Joint Economic Committee opened an inquiry.[52][53] A weeks-long demolition campaign followed. Chinese state media reported 398 of 635 buildings classed as illegal had been razed by mid-December 2025,[54] though Myanmar outlets gave conflicting tallies. In Shwe Kokko, Myanmar's information ministry reported 1,367 foreigners arrested and 101 Starlink units and 21,750 phones seized.[55] The junta claimed more than 70,000 foreigners from 54 countries had been repatriated over two years.[54] That claim cannot be independently checked.

Independent observers were sceptical. Transnational crime expert Jason Tower told CNN in October 2025 that the KK Park raid was "more of a publicity stunt than a crackdown" and "business as usual" for dozens of compounds along the Moei River. Satellite analysis by C4ADS found 14 of 21 known Myawaddy compounds had been built or expanded during 2025. AP reported that only about 1,500 KK Park workers left through official Thai channels; others followed their bosses to other compounds.[56] At the launch of UNODC's 2026 assessment, its regional analyst Seong Jae Shin said of the demolished compounds: "They were destroyed, but none of the operations stopped." He said operations had moved into villas and private homes.[57]

Laos. Lao authorities gave scam operators in the GTSEZ until 25 August 2024 to leave, then raided call centres with Chinese police.[58][59] Early in 2025 Laos's public security ministry declared that no call-centre gangs remained in the zone.[60] Shan Herald Agency for News reported that intensified Chinese and Lao raids in November 2025 pushed many operations out of the zone,[5] while the Kings Romans casino stayed open.[59] Zhao Wei remains under US sanctions. The Lao state was given a reported 20% stake in the zone's business[61] and has honoured Zhao with national medals as recently as December 2024.[58]

Where things stand in late 2026

Large compounds have become politically costly and physically vulnerable. Operations are spreading into smaller sites, other parts of Myanmar, Cambodia, the Philippines and beyond, including Africa, where the US Strike Force has deployed.[39] AI makes this dispersal easier, because a smaller workforce with translation and face-swap tools can still reach victims in many languages. UNODC warns that criminal groups are moving towards automated fraud "that requires minimal human interaction."[11] If that happens, the link between trafficking and scamming may weaken without the fraud getting any smaller.