SpaceX announced on Wednesday that it has disabled over 2,500 Starlink internet kits suspected of powering scam centres along Myanmar's volatile border regions, following an AFP investigation exposing the satellite service's proliferation in the illicit online fraud hubs despite international crackdowns. The move targets sprawling compounds in areas like KK Park and Shwe Kokko, where trafficked workers and willing recruits operate romance, investment, and "pig butchering" schemes defrauding global victims amid the chaos of Myanmar's civil war ignited by the 2021 military coup.
SpaceX Vice President Lauren Dreyer confirmed the deactivations in a post on X, emphasising the company's intolerance for misuse, though she did not specify the timeline. This intervention comes after a February 2025 cross-border blockade by Thailand repatriated around 7,000 workers, yet construction of new facilities and Starlink installations has surged, underscoring the resilience of an industry that ensnared an estimated $37 billion from victims in 2023 alone, per a United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime report.
The scam ecosystem thrives in Myanmar's loosely governed frontiers with Thailand and China, where ethnic militias allied with the junta extract protection fees, turning a blind eye to operations that lure participants with false job promises or coerce them through debt bondage and violence. AFP's probe revealed thousands of Starlink terminals—high-speed, portable dishes evading terrestrial blackouts—installed en masse since the service's quiet rollout in junta-controlled zones, bypassing sanctions meant to isolate the regime. In KK Park, one of the largest such enclaves near the Thai border, the Myanmar junta claimed a raid this week, seizing just 30 terminals and arresting dozens, but independent analysts dismiss it as performative.
Nathan Ruser of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute described the military's efforts as a "balancing act" to appease China—whose citizens are both perpetrators and prime targets—while sustaining revenue streams from militia partners vital to the junta's war against rebel forces. Locals reported chaos as over 1,000 workers fled north on foot, motorbikes, and trucks, with one anonymous employee recounting soldiers' arrival around 10 a.m. without evacuation aid: "Workers are leaving in chaos. Our company didn't arrange anything."
Also Read: Sabarimala Gold Theft: SIT Questions Potti’s Friend Who Took Artefacts to Bengaluru
Regional repercussions have intensified, with Cambodia deporting 64 South Koreans accused of scam ties over the weekend and Thailand's deputy finance minister Vorapak Tanyawong resigning amid allegations of links to Cambodian networks. Thailand's February internet firewall aimed to starve the operations of bandwidth, but Starlink's low-Earth orbit satellites have proven a workaround, highlighting gaps in enforcement against Elon Musk's global connectivity push, which prioritises underserved regions but risks enabling crime.
Experts warn that without coordinated transnational policing, the fraud factories—employing up to 120,000 in Myanmar alone—will migrate deeper into ungoverned spaces, evolving tactics to exploit AI deepfakes and cryptocurrency. The junta faces mounting pressure from Beijing, which has repatriated thousands of its nationals from these dens, yet economic desperation in war-torn Myanmar sustains the cycle, blending human trafficking with white-collar predation.
As night descended, a Mae Sot resident across the Thai border noted KK Park's eerie dimming: "Usually at this time, it is lit up brightly... Today I only see some lights along the fence." SpaceX's disablement disrupts immediate operations but raises questions about verification and prevention, with analysts urging satellite firms to integrate geofencing and collaborate with Interpol. In Southeast Asia's shadow economy—where scams eclipse drug trafficking in profits—the crackdown signals progress, yet the human cost endures: survivors bear psychological scars, while fresh recruits arrive daily. Myanmar's borderlands, once pilgrimage sites for pilgrims, now epitomise a digital Wild West, where profit trumps peril until bolder interventions rewrite the rules.
Also Read: Helipad Incident during President's Visit Triggers Row over Preparation; Officials Deny Major Incident