Scam centres in Southeast Asia are back in the news. Nearly 600 Indians flew home through Thailand recently after being rescued from scam compounds in Myanmar. India sent military transport planes to the Thai border town of Mae Sot to repatriate its nationals. This comes in the wake of a dramatic rescue operation jointly coordinated by Thailand, China and Myanmar, the latest attempt to shut down scam centres carrying out online fraud operations that have swindled thousands and thousands of people across the globe, some of their entire life savings. The highly publicised operation led to the release of 7,000 people from many countries held hostage in terrifying conditions in locked compounds in towns along the Thailand-Myanmar border and other lawless pockets of Southeast Asia. Many were lured by false promises of high-paying IT jobs in Thailand; then trafficked by criminal gangs to these scam compounds where they were held captive and coerced into participating in online fraud schemes, deceiving victims through romance or investment scams. Refusing to work could bring beatings, starvation, and electric shocks, according to a report by the Associated Press. Over half of the 7,000 who have been rescued from the brutal scam compounds in recent days are Chinese nationals. China has already repatriated more than 2,000 of its nationals. Nationals of many other countries, however, are still waiting to fly home. This is not the first time Indians have been rescued from scam compounds or war zones. We have been down this road before. Last year, the Indian media reported that according to data compiled by the Bureau of Immigration in the Union home ministry, 29,466 Indians who had travelled on visitor visas to Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar and Cambodia between January 2022 and May 2024 never returned. This coincided with a sharp spike in cybercrimes originating from Southeast Asia. Many desperate and gullible Indians continued to take insane risks in search of a job overseas. This includes many educated women and men. As in the past, the external affairs ministry has cautioned Indian nationals to verify the credentials of foreign employers before accepting job offers. Indians are cannon fodder in this unfolding global story. Though the notorious scam compounds are in Southeast Asia, the victims of online scamming are spread across the world. Research from the Global Anti-Scam Alliance (GASA) says victims lost over $1 trillion to scams in 2024. India cannot afford to be reactive. It is time to ask what we are not learning. Countries are banding together to fight the surge in cybercrime. In January this year, law enforcement officials from the six nations of the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation mechanism (China, Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam) — a multilateral group for cooperation between the riparian states of the Lancang-Mekong River, along with United Nations officials and other regional law enforcement officers — met at Kunming, capital of southwest China’s Yunnan province, to address telecommunications fraud, illicit drugs, and other cross-border crimes. Lancang and Mekong differ in name, but refer to the same river. The Lancang-Mekong river runs through China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. During the meeting, representatives from the six nations agreed to strengthen information sharing, deepen joint law enforcement, and enhance their ability to crack down on cross-border crime, according to media reports. They also agreed to coordinate the rescue of trapped individuals, apprehend leaders of criminal groups, and dismantle telecom fraud dens. The first phase of the Lancang-Mekong Integrated Law Enforcement and Security Cooperation Centre (LMLECC)’s crackdown, called Operation Seagull, happened between August and December 2024. It led to over 150 telecom fraud operations being busted, arrest of 70,000 criminals and rescue of 160. In recent days, Thailand has arrested some 100 people as part of its crackdown and cut off electricity supply to certain border areas in Myanmar, specifically targeting towns along the border suspected of being hubs for scam call centres and other criminal activities. Going by media reports, criminal networks, primarily originating from China, have been known to operate many of these scam centres, but Chinese nationals have also been targets and China has stepped up efforts to suppress these global scam gangs. How engaged is India in this global conversation about countering cybercrime? How effective are India’s public education initiatives to counter scamsters? Despite multiple reports about Southeast Asia’s scam compounds in recent years, Indians continue to be tricked. That is extremely worrying. Misuse of artificial intelligence (AI) adds to the problem. Most urban educated Indians know that AI refers to technology that enables computers and machines to simulate human learning, comprehension, problem solving, decision making, creativity and autonomy. But they have only a hazy idea of how exactly scamsters can use AI to rob the gullible. With a nationwide push for the adoption of digital financial transactions, many now use payment systems such as UPI. But awareness of digital safety and security in general is still very low. This paradox cannot be shrugged away. The problem is not confined to any one state or region. Even states with high literacy and education have been sites of AI scams. Last year, a scammer used an AI-generated deepfake video to dupe Rs 40,000 from a 73-year-old retired government employee in Kozhikode, Kerala. Voice and video manipulation were used to create a convincing emergency. There needs to be a strong public education campaign on some of the common techniques used by scammers to gather victims’ names, contact details and other relevant information to make a fake call seem legitimate. Voice samples, for example, can be easily harvested by scammers via a “wrong number” phone call or from the profuse audio or video posts on social media. These samples are then leveraged to train AI algorithms to emulate the target’s voice patterns. Last year, the Tamil Nadu police put out an advisory asking people to become aware of common scams such as voice cloning fraud and look out for warning signs. Other states could follow the example. That Southeast Asia’s scam centres continue to exist despite several crackdowns is revealing. It points to corruption. The challenge posed by these criminal networks is huge. It is exacerbated by the drastic slashing of US foreign aid which is hurting efforts to tackle human trafficking at scam compounds. The way forward is through greater information sharing and collaboration between countries in the region and beyond, and citizen awareness. India must go beyond repatriation flights. It must be a more visible part of the global conversation and action to counter online fraud and mount a stronger awareness campaign at home to protect its nationals against domestic and foreign scammers.
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