Thailand has turned off fuel, electricity, and internet to Chinese fraud factories that are located close to its border with Myanmar.

Unfortunately, Thailand is just attempting to safeguard tourism, even if I would want to announce that it is now taking action to solve years of widespread financial fraud.

Thailand just lately started working to clean up the fraud hotspot along its border, despite the fact that the issue has been recognized for years. Although they have made a small attempt, Myanmar’s protracted civil conflict has made it difficult to manage the issue.

Following a string of high-profile kidnappings of Chinese nationals that resulted in a decline in Chinese tourism, Thailand launched its campaign.

According to a paywalled story published on February 5th by the South China Morning Post,

Holidaymakers from Thailand’s most significant tourism market canceled their plans to visit the monarchy after the event caused outcry on Chinese social media.

The use of Thailand as a transit point by criminal syndicates to entice and transport gullible workers, along with SIM cards, satellite communications, and gasoline to run the scam facilities, has drawn attention.

Thai officials have often said that it is hard to stop these scammers who operate outside the kingdom, claiming that the country’s distant and lengthy borders with Myanmar, Laos, and Cambodia make it nearly impossible to enforce the law.

However, Thailand began its largest crackdown to date against the criminal syndicates when China’s Assistant Public Security Minister Liu Zhongyi visited the country to confront the fraud epidemic.

New liaison offices have allegedly been established to aid escaping trafficking slaves, and senior Thai police officers in charge of the border have been dismissed.

Fireworks burst above Shwe Koko, a Chinese-affiliated special economic zone that dominates the Myawaddy skyline, prior to the scheduled power outage.

According to Thai sources, the pyrotechnics were a display of defiance by con artists operating in a region that is guarded by the Myanmar army and ethnic militia groups.

In order to evade any crackdown, analysts cautioned that the scammers, who were flush with money, would relocate farther south or switch up their activities along the Mekong.

It should be mentioned that Chinese organized criminal interests operate in a number of hotspots, including Myanmar. Others can be found all across southeast Asia.

It has to be seen if the number of daily “click a button” app Ponzi launches declines.