Satellite Images Reveal How Suspected Scam Compounds Appear Out of Nowhere

At least 25 alleged scamming sites have appeared in the Myawaddy region of Myanmar, close to the country's border with Thailand, since around the start of the year, according to an analysis of satellite images by the International Justice Mission, an anti-human-trafficking nonprofit. The images show how land has been flattened and swaths of forest razed, to be ultimately replaced by dozens of buildings and the infrastructure required to run scam operations at scale.

“Some were skeptical that the crackdowns last year were genuine, and this imagery shows that was correct,” says Eric Heintz, a global analyst at the IJM, who focuses on the impact of scam compounds and analyzed the suspected sites. “While that crackdown did disrupt operations, the scale of these new developments appears to be more than enough to absorb what was destroyed last year.”