Investigating the Scam Cities in Myanmar
Erin West and investigative journalist Cezary Podkul travel the Thai-Myanmar border to investigate the scam compounds behind the pig butchering scam industry — and what's left of them after recent crackdowns.
While there, they communicate with a trafficking victim who is inside one of the newer compounds, being forced to scam people in the United States. They follow the path that the traffickers used to transport him from the airport deep into Thailand and across the border to Myanmar.
They also visit KK Park, once one of the region’s largest scam compounds and now largely demolished, along with Tai Chang and other sites tied to Myanmar's scam center network.
They trace where scam compound operations and their workers have relocated since enforcement began.
This investigation offers a rare on-the-ground look at how scam compounds are adapting to pressure from authorities — shifting activity away from well-known sites like KK Park and into new locations further inland from the Thai-Myanmar border, including places that have rarely been documented before.