Alliance of the Three Fraternities

[Lord777]

In northern Myanmar, the Three Brotherhood Alliance, an armed group consisting of representatives of three ethnic groups, announced the beginning of a military operation in the city of Laukkaing on the border with China.

The city is located in the northeastern part of Myanmar, in the Shan State, which borders China. The political situation in the region is rather tense. It is caused by the presence of various armed groups and prolonged ethnic conflicts, as well as a high level of crime (due to unrest in society).

Laukkaing is also known as a key center of cyber fraud, and its activities cause serious concerns in Beijing.

In an official statement, the Alliance explains its plans:"In order to completely eradicate Internet fraud, as well as eliminate criminal centers and their strongholds throughout the country, including in the border areas between China and Myanmar, we have decided to jointly carry out this military operation." One of the main tasks of the group is to combat the spread of the so-called pig butchering scheme, which has become a major international problem.

Pig butchering is a type of cyber fraud in which victims are "fattened" with promises of large profits, just as they fatten a pig before slaughter. Attackers build up the trust of their targets for a long time (usually through online correspondence) before swindling them out of large amounts of money and disappearing.

In Kokang, an area of Shan State inhabited by ethnic Chinese, such schemes are a significant source of income. Here, organized crime has long flourished, and until recently it was treated with leniency.

However, the Chinese government has recently begun to actively press the Myanmar authorities to stop this activity, as the victims are often the Chinese themselves.

According to UN reports, about 120,000 people were involved in fraudulent activity in Myanmar. This is due not only to harmless cyber attacks, but also to the real slave trade industry on the darknet. Victims attracted by fake job ads find themselves locked up in camps where cybercriminals engage them in their illegal activities.

Since the operation began, the Three Brotherhoods Alliance has successfully captured large areas, including key border towns. Hundreds of victims of human trafficking were released from the captured camps.

On Sunday, the Thai government returned 266 of its citizens, 6 Filipinos and 1 citizen of Singapore to their homeland.

The Alliance's mission reflects the efforts of both local and international forces in the fight against cyber fraud, which has become a global critical threat at the global level.

 

[Teacher]

The Asian cyber fraud center in Myanmar came under the control of the popular resistance

A coalition of rebel groups in Myanmar, a Southeast Asian country bordering Bangladesh, India, Thailand, Laos and China, recently successfully took control of the city of Laukkai, known as a major center of cyber fraud in the region that has plagued countries including those bordering Myanmar.

"Operation 1027" began in late October 2023 with the goal of liberating the people from the military junta that came to power in Myanmar in 2021. On the evening of January 4, the government handed over control of the entire Kokan region, which includes the troubled city of Laukkai, to the Three Brotherhood Alliance.

Since the beginning of the operation, the rebel coalition has clearly outlined its goal — to eradicate organized fraudulent operations that spread under the strict supervision of local law enforcement officers loyal to the ruling junta.

"In order to root out telecommunications fraud, rogue dens and their backers across the country, including the border areas of China and Myanmar, our coalition forces have decided to conduct this military operation," the rebels said at the start of their offensive.

This focus on combating fraud is probably an attempt to enlist the support of China, which is tired of attacks on its citizens in so-called Pig Butchering scams, in which users affected by online fraud become forced Internet scammers themselves. Human trafficking, which flourishes in this region, simply leaves victims with no other choice.

Over the weekend, junta leader Senior General Min Aung Hlaing met with Chinese Deputy Foreign Minister Sun Weidong in Naypyidaw to discuss the common border and organized crime. "The two sides agreed to jointly maintain peace and stability on the China-Myanmar border, fight cross-border crime such as telecommunications fraud, and promote regional peace, tranquility, development and prosperity," the Chinese Foreign Ministry said after the meeting.

According to China's state-run media outlet China Daily, China's public security minister also held a virtual meeting with Myanmar's acting interior minister over the weekend, "where they promised to deepen cooperation in ensuring security and stability in border areas, especially by fighting telecommunications and online fraud."

In August 2023, the UN estimated that about 120,000 people were recruited in Myanmar to work in fraudulent operations. In January 2024, Chinese state media reported that over the past year, about 41 thousand people involved in telecommunications fraud in Myanmar were handed over to the Chinese authorities. It is not clear how many of the detainees were themselves victims of human trafficking, and not targeted cyber fraudsters, but there are more than enough such precedents in the region.

Cybersecurity experts warn that despite the success of the rebel military campaign, fraudulent operations may simply move to criminal enclaves in other parts of the country, especially along the borders with Thailand and Laos.

In an online New Year's message, Army Commander Peng Deren of the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance, one of three allied rebel groups, said that these movements are already taking place. "Even when my army was advancing on the border, military helicopters were taking the leaders of the telecommunications fraud away," Deren said, adding that "four military families" who controlled the fraudulent operations in Kokan also fled to a prominent enclave near the Thai side.

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The investigation revealed which online crimes brought $100 million to the Myanmar fraud syndicate.

Researchers have revealed that a newly built "fraud factory" on the Myanmar-Thailand border has earned almost $100 million in less than 2 years. Details about the activities of online criminals were revealed during a joint investigation of the Chainalysis service and the human rights organization International Justice Mission.

The KK Park Fraud Factory and Human Trafficking Center (KK Park), located along the Moei River on the border with Thailand, is an area where thousands of workers are reportedly being held against their will. Employees of the factory are forced to engage in fraud such as The Pig Butchering Scam-a scam in which a fraudster enters into the victim's trust during online correspondence, and then fraudulently convinces her to make fictitious investments.

The investigation began after the International Justice Mission (IJM) provided Chainalysis 2 with the addresses of crypto wallets that IJM says are linked to a Chinese shell company operating in KK Park. Since the creation of the wallets in July 2022, fraudsters have been transferring funds earned during online crimes to them. Part of the revenue probably comes from transactions related to fraud on dating sites. It is also noted that the families of the abducted people had to transfer the ransom for their release to these addresses, each of which exceeded $30,000.

Chainalysis notes that these addresses are just the tip of the iceberg in the activities of scammers from KK Park, emphasizing the close connection of ransomware operations with the main activity of conducting romantic scams (romance scam). It is also emphasized that the Tether (USDT) stablecoin plays a key role in fueling the fraud economy in Southeast Asia, becoming one of the most popular cryptocurrencies used by organized criminal groups.

Recall that since the summer of 2023, China has been insistently demanding that the Myanmar authorities take tough measures against the numerous enclaves of cyber scammers operating in the border areas. The reason was a wave of fraud using the scheme of "pig butchering" (pig butchering), the victims of which were citizens of the People's Republic of China. The activities of criminal enclaves in Myanmar's border areas were based on the use of forced labor of people illegally brought there from neighboring countries.

A coalition of rebel groups in Myanmar recently successfully took control of the city of Laukkai, known as a major center of cyber fraud in the region, which affected countries, including those bordering Myanmar. The rebel coalition has clearly set out its goal — to root out organized fraudulent operations that were spread under the strict supervision of local law enforcement officers loyal to the ruling junta.

• Source: https://www.chainalysis.com/blog/pig-butchering-human-trafficking/