Despite a weekslong multinational crackdown, scam centers along the Thai-Myanmar border are still operating with up to 100,000 people working there, the top police general leading Thailand's operations against the fraud compounds said.
Thailand is fronting a regional effort to dismantle scam centers along its borders, which are part of a Southeast Asian network of illegal facilities that generate billions of dollars every year, often using people trafficked there by criminal gangs, according to the United Nations.
Based on early assessments of some of the 5,000 people pulled out of sprawling scam hubs in Myanmar's Myawaddy area, hundreds went there voluntarily, said Police Gen. Thatchai Pitaneelaboot, calling for careful investigations among nationals of over a dozen countries to winnow out criminals.
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