In November 2023, Htun was trapped in a cyber-scamming compound in Laukkai, in Myanmar’s eastern Shan State on the border with China, when the city came under siege.
For nearly a year, the former English tutor from Myanmar’s central Sagaing region had been held there against his will. Forced to engage in cryptocurrency scams by Chinese syndicates, he is one of what the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) recently estimated to be hundreds of thousands of people from more than 60 countries trafficked into the Southeast Asia-based industry.
Laukkai, a city in Myanmar’s autonomous Kokang region known for its glittering casinos and criminal underworld, quickly emerged as a major hub after the Myanmar’s military took power in a February 2021 coup. Then, in October 2023, a coalition of autonomy-seeking ethnic armed organisations launched an offensive known as Operation 1027 along the Shan State-China border, quickly closing in on Laukkai.
As the sounds of war drew nearer, Htun and his fellow workers hunkered down inside their compound and hoped. “We were really happy, even though we could be killed, because it was our only chance at freedom,” he said. “We were praying that [resistance forces] would come and attack our company as soon as possible.”
By mid-November, the city was in chaos. As bosses abandoned the scamming compounds, Htun and his fellow workers suddenly found themselves free – and running for their lives in an active conflict zone. “Many people died in the crossfire,” he said. “We weren’t able to worry about that…Our minds were full of desire to return home.”
In early January, more than 2,000 soldiers handed over their arms in one of the biggest mass surrenders in the Myanmar military’s history. The city has since been under the control of the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), which led the October offensive and has promised to eradicate cyber-scamming from its territory.
This article, the second in a two-part series, looks at the rise and fall of Laukkai as a cyber-scamming hub and what happened after the MNDAA took over the city. Htun and others interviewed have been given pseudonyms because of the risk of reprisals from the syndicates, the military, or armed groups.