Northern Myanmar’s Scam Industry Won’t Die in a Courtroom
CCTV aired A Record of the Fall of Telecom Fraud in Northern Myanmar . Many viewers felt relief. On screen, bosses who once ruled compounds with absolute authority have shaved heads, wear prison uniforms, and stand in court. Put their faces beside the wanted notices and little changes. Scroll back further and most came from ordinary backgrounds. Some ran small shops. Some drifted through casinos. Some ran errands along the border. Their common trait was location, guns, and connections. They dared to kidnap and defraud. In another place, without armed groups collecting protection money, without cross-border money laundering, without truckloads of young people tricked over, many might be street debt collectors, labor contractors, or small bosses.
