BANGKOK - Myanmar's scam operations are expanding south along Thailand's border, authorities have told VOA in recent days, and will continue operating as long as their access to SIM cards, Starlink satellites, electricity and the key human resources - scammers - continues.

The Myawaddy area in Myanmar, opposite the Thai border town of Mae Sot, is the "global capital" of scams, opposition People's Party lawmaker Rangsiman Rome told VOA on Wednesday.

"We are talking about an empire," he said, estimating the number of scammers in at least 40 major compounds there at around 300,000.

"They have scammed more than the entire gross domestic product of some countries, and there is no end to their operations in sight," said Rangsiman, who is chair of the House of Representatives Committee on National Security and Border Affairs.

Powered by billions of dollars of illicit money from their scams, the crime bosses are already moving to new sites further south from Myawaddy along the Thai border, police, politicians and former scammers have told VOA.

New scam bases have already been set up hundreds of kilometers south of Mae Sot, in border areas of Myanmar held by ethnic rebels across from Thailand's Sangkhlaburi district, a security attache at a Southeast Asian embassy in Bangkok who deals directly with scam victims told VOA, requesting anonymity.

"The scam compounds are expanding far south of Myawaddy," the source said.

A toxic mix of cross-border criminal interests, the protection of ethnic armed groups and Myanmar's junta, has enabled the scam gangs to flourish, virtually in the open.

"What I'm most concerned with is about how Thai 'grey money' has operated as the wings for Chinese 'grey money' which makes enforcing the law even more impossible," Rangsiman said, without elaborating on who he believes is backing the scam gangs.

Billions in losses estimated

A United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime report last year estimated losses of between $18 billion and $37 billion from scams across East and Southeast Asia in 2023 alone.

The scam networks are mainly operated by Chinese criminals in China or elsewhere, using foreign nationals from around the world to carry out elaborate romance or investment scams, hunting for victims online or through cold calls. Many of them have been tricked into traveling to Thailand for well-paying jobs but are trafficked into Myanmar instead to work as scammers against their will.

Last year Chinese authorities crossed into Myanmar and arrested over 50,000 of their nationals operating in scam factories along the eastern border with Yunnan province.

New scam rooms are cropping up to the south, including along Myanmar's border with Thailand's Kachanburi province - Rangsiman pointed to the border along Thailand's Phop Phra district, 35 kilometers south of Mae Sot, and Payathonzu, in Myanmar's Karen state and across from Sangkhlaburi, 300 kilometers from Mae Sot.

China's deputy minister of public security, Liu Zhongyi, visited Mae Sot on Wednesday, a trip signaling Beijing's prioritization of the scam issue in Myawaddy, according to Thai Police General Thatchai Pitanilabut, who is head of the Combat Call Center Crimes and Human Trafficking Task Force.

"Beijing is taking this matter very seriously," he told reporters after the visit.

As "a transit route" to the scam rooms, Thailand needs to tackle the problem, as it is "giving us a bad image as someone who is an accomplice to human trafficking for the call center gangs," he said.

Thai law enforcement authorities, which are working with the UNODC and other entities on the issue, have said they are committed to assisting and protecting victims of human trafficking as well as investigating and prosecuting perpetrators of call center crimes and human trafficking.

The scrutiny comes after a flurry of high-profile rescues of Chinese citizens tricked into scamming in Myawaddy. They include actor Wang Xing, who was rescued in early January after his case went viral on social media.

Thatchai said there are immediate measures Thailand can take to rein in the scam gangs.

"First and foremost, we must intercept and block all the supplies, including receivers, antennas, SIM boxes, and Starlink satellite internet dishes from leaving our borders," he said, referring to the portable kits providing access to high-speed internet from Starlink, which have become essential tools for the scammers.

Rangsiman confirmed the movement of scam centers further south and added that the Thai Interior Ministry, acting through its Provincial Electricity Authority, could cut the power into Myawaddy, which is under consideration, but is yet to do so.

Questions are also being asked by foreign embassies about how vast numbers of foreigners from such disparate countries as Kenya and Japan have been able to cross a remote Thai border into Myanmar, seemingly without the knowledge of Thai authorities. It should be noted, though, that the Thai-Myanmar border is marked by the Moei River, which at some points can be as narrow as 10 meters.

Three police chiefs in charge of three Mae Sot police stations were transferred from their roles this week pending a probe into failing to stop human trafficking into Myanmar.

China holds the key to shutting down the Myawaddy scam base, said Thaksin Shinawatra, Thailand's former premier and a powerful tycoon whose daughter, Paetongtarn, is prime minister.

"China has major clout over Myanmar. We can't speak to the Myanmar government directly ... so we need China to help us," he told reporters Thursday, referring to Myanmar's post-coup junta.

Trafficking victims or not

With a crackdown seemingly imminent, human rights groups are urging Thailand to ensure foreigners tricked into working in the scam rooms are freed and treated as human trafficking victims.

Others who have recently left Myawaddy scam rooms paint a more complex picture of the motives of some of the rank-and-file scammers.

"It's in the news everywhere, social media, it's impossible for them not to be aware," a Filipino woman who voluntarily went into one of the most notorious scam rooms told VOA, requesting that her name not be used.

"It's sad but true ... money is the only reason, and it is luring people into work," she said.

The fear of a major Chinese-led crackdown has meant the scam bosses are now recruiting people who know what they are getting into rather than trafficking unsuspecting people, the woman said.

"The new 'policy' is that people need to be aware of what type of job they are taking on," she said.