The Myanmar compounds Silicon Valley unknowingly powers

On 20th February 2026, a report published by the UN Human Rights Office graphically detailed the experiences of a small fraction of the countless people trafficked from dozens of countries around the world into working in entrenched scam operations mostly in Southeast Asia, as well as places located thousands of miles yonder.

The report documents instances of torture and other ill-treatment, sexual abuse and exploitation, forced abortions, food deprivation, solitary confinement, among other grave human rights abuses. Survivors also shared experiences of border officials aiding scam recruiters, and of threats and extortion by police. An ironic hierarchy we live in: scam centres do not thrive despite policing; they are often deep-rooted in the system’s failures and corrupted officers.

While efforts are being made to expose and dismantle these compounds, they remain fully functional in Myanmar’s borderlands, growing into a multi-billion-dollar industry misusing the discoveries and developments of Silicon Valley, specifically abusing the wonders of Artificial Intelligence (AI).

In 2024, Ariyan, a young man from Bangladesh, came back to Thailand to try to help 17 friends who remained trapped. He said he made a promise to himself to do this after his own escape from one of the most unscrupulous scam centres.

He showed a brief, shaky video of the compound, still under construction in a remote, forested valley, where he was held, and talked about the terrible treatment he and his friends suffered at the hands of their Chinese boss.

"They gave us a target every week, $5,000. If not, they gave us two electric shocks. Or they put us in a dark room, with no windows. But if we earned a lot of money, they were very happy with us."

Ariyan had to approach men in the Middle East and lure them into transferring funds to investments that were a sham in actuality. Using AI, the scammers made him appear on the screen as an attractive young woman, altering his voice as well.

He mentioned that he hated doing it. He still remembers a man who was willing to sell his wife's jewellery to fund the fraudulent investment, and wishing he could warn him. But the bosses monitored all their calls, like the devil watching every move.

As of June 2026, more than 5,300 people are still trapped in online scam centres near Myanmar's Thai border, a human rights group said, over one year after thousands were freed during a multinational crackdown in the region.

It remains a multibillion-dollar scam industry owing to abuse of tech infrastructure at the compounds in Myanmar, as documented by the AP and “FRONTLINE”:

• American-made AI models such as ChatGPT and Gemini have been used to build a specialised software that allows scammers to seamlessly work across dozens of languages, surveil workers, and target victims around the world, the investigation found with the help of C4ADS, a Washington-based nonprofit focused on global security. Scammers who purchased these tools took in tens of millions of dollars, according to blockchain analysis by TRM Labs at the request of AP/"FRONTLINE.”

• Elon Musk’s satellite internet company, Starlink, is the number one internet service provider in Myanmar, including scam centres, according to device data, public records and interviews — despite public pressure from Congress and a widely recognised crackdown last year.

• At least 25 new scam compounds have been built inside Myanmar since the high-profile crackdown last year, identified through new satellite images. Scammers from at least 13 of these outposts used Starlink IP addresses to get online between early March and the end of May, as shown by an AP analysis of device and satellite data from International Justice Mission.

Cybersecurity experts say internet service providers, AI companies and Starlink could do more to prevent the abuse by scammers. Starlink has been a lifeline for schools, humanitarian groups, hospitals, media and more in Myanmar, according to Amnesty International and others. But data from the Asia Pacific Network Information Centre (APNIC), the regional internet registry, indicates that scammers represent a disproportionate share of its user base.

According to Starlink’s own coverage map, it does not sell services in Myanmar. AP asked Myanmar’s ruling military government whether Starlink was legally authorised to work in the country but got no response.

Starlink also declined to respond to detailed requests for comment. But in public comments, Lauren Dreyer, vice president of Starlink business operations at SpaceX, has said that Starlink has “zero tolerance” for abuse.

“We proactively detect and disable terminals involved in illegal activity,” she said in a June statement about the company’s work with the Scam Centre Strike Force. “Through collaboration with law enforcement and technology companies, we advance global anti-scam efforts and ensure Starlink remains a force for good.”

Yet Starlink’s service cuts have not stopped scammers, not even from one of the most high-profile scam compounds in Asia, KK Park. Silicon Valley is unknowingly powering scams; innovations meant to connect people are being used to carry out fraudulent activities through unethical means.

Despite multinational crackdowns, thousands remain in captivity. The real question is: when will Silicon Valley stop the scammers from turning notable inventions into mere instruments of exploitation?

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