Satellite Imagery and Phone Data Reveal Romance Scam Centers Still Expanding Despite Crackdowns

Massive mobile device tracking data has exposed the interconnected network of Myanmar's expanding scam centers, revealing how trafficked workers circulate between compounds despite February crackdowns. Analysis of 4.9 million location records from 11,930 mobile devices between January 2024 and May 2025 showed five devices visited all three major compounds -- Yatai New City, Apolo Park, and Yulong Bay Park -- plus the raided KK Park and Huanya Park facilities.

Workers are forced into romance scams, deceiving victims into believing they're in romantic relationships before extracting money. A South Asian man held six months at KK Park worked 16 hours daily conducting these online deceptions while enduring beatings and electric shocks for poor performance. Nikkei's investigation combined satellite imagery analysis, social media posts from Chinese platform Douyin, and open-source intelligence techniques to document continued construction at eight of 16 suspected sites. Myanmar authorities deported over 66,000 foreign nationals involved in these online fraud operations between October 2023 and June 2025.

Re: I thought all romance was a scam.

[Venova]

love is the only real purpose in life it disgusts me that those scammers prey on people who are lonely it almost happened to me once; some person claimed to be on a navy ship and then after a few weeks talking they start randomly asking about money and stuff; i saw thru it easily; they apologized when i confronted them and said they were actually in india fortunately im not lonely or dating anymore; i met and married my heavenly wonderful beyond-soulmate wife last year; we met thru 4chan/discord and now

Re:

[drinkypoo]

econy is more important to people and more incentivised by society than following one's heart and feelings

Uh yeah, because if you don't fit into the "econy" then you get treated like shit and die prematurely. People are more concerned about survival than being nice? SHOCK AMAZEMENT.

Makes you think.

[Gravis Zero]

It's almost like creating a profit motive for prisons is a bad idea because it provides and incentive to expand the prisons by arresting more people. It's a good thing first world countries would never do such a thing. /s

Forced labor and for-profit prisons should be illegal in all nations.

Re:

[whoever57]

These are not government-sanctioned prisons. You should RTFA better: it ways that they are like prisons.

They are compounds that people are tricked into and exist in a mostly lawless part of Myanmar, between government-controlled land and land controlled by insurgents.

Scam Factory podcast

[whoever57]

I can recommend the podcast "Scam Factory", which describes how one person sends her brothers into the compounds and her efforts to get them out.

It also describes the scams that the people in the compounds are required to pull on unsuspecting victims.

Cut them off

[butlerm]

Things like this are a good reason to cut off all of Myanmar's Internet traffic or at least block it in every civilized country until it gets its act together, prosecutes the offenders, and shuts facilities like this down - all of them. And that goes for every other country where the government doesn't seem to care about mass fraud in known or easily discovered locations within their borders. Seriously - people suffer due to this and a country that harbors this should be considered a criminal enterprise or

Re:

[CharmElCheikh]

Even if it was possible (probably russia or china for instance would have no problem letting them hop through), it's a difficult decision to take. You're not just cutting off scammers, you're cutting off everyone using internet to inform themselves outside of propaganda channels, the way it's supposed to be used. Some consider internet access a human right.

Re:

[whoever57]

Listen to the "Scam Factory" podcast. The government doesn't have control of the areas where these compounds exist.