Human trafficking, crypto online scams, organ sales, opium and heroin production, all in one place. We're speaking about KK Park Myanmar, one of the worst places in the world, where the only rules are those of criminal organizations. If you're considering visiting Myanmar, never go to the KK Park, on the border with Thailand, because you could never return to your house.
For citizens of modern countries, it's difficult to believe that such an evil and unregulated place exists, where all the scariest nightmares become a reality. But it exists, and PlasBit wants to clarify how it works to educate people about it. What is KK Park Myanmar?
It is a factory prison dominated by Chinese criminal organizations that kidnap people and force them to commit online scams, usually using cryptocurrencies for increased partial anonymity. Sadly, that's not all because, in the last few weeks, the number of people saying that this place is also a hub for organ sales has continuously increased.
Why the government of Myanmar doesn't stop it? How is it possible that in 2024, there are still criminal organizations that kidnap people, forcing them to work in brutal conditions in prison camps? It is unacceptable, and we want to investigate further to unveil the truth, the actors and mechanics behind it, trying to help people prevent being victims of these criminals. That's not all, we also want to understand who the scammers are: Even if you are a victim of a scam, you should understand that on the other side of the screen, there isn't always a single malicious actor, most of the time the crypto scammer himself is a victim of a criminal organization, and is forced to commit online scams under torture and violence. The only way to fight these organizations is through education, raising awareness about the risks and mechanisms of these evil organizations without scruples.
Analyzing The Historical Context of KK Park Myanmar
KK Park in Myanmar is a small prison town built around 2020, governed by criminal organizations, and situated on the border between Myanmar and Thailand, at the side of the Moei River. If you enter, you can't exit: It's a one-way journey to slavery. This area is remote and hardly accessible, making it simple for the mafia to hide the crimes and horrors done inside it, allowing them to be independent of international rules and national government.
Myanmar: Golden Triangle and Opium Trade
Myanmar is part of the famous Golden Triangle, a name forged by a U.S. State Department official during a conference related to the opium trade in 1971. As you might know, the Golden Triangle comprises parts of Myanmar, Thailand, and Laos. For decades, this area produced most of the opium distributed worldwide (producing also heroin and other drug derivatives). In 2023, since the Taliban government reduced the production of opium in Afghanistan, Myanmar became the first producer of opium, increasing the interest of criminal organizations in this area.
Since its independence from the UK in 1948, Myanmar's history has been complex, with critical political instability over the years. In 2021, another coup d'etat from Tatmadaw (Myanmar military forces) increased the region's instability, decreasing the influence of the US and occidental countries while increasing the influence of China and Russia and their investments in this region. These are the perfect premises to boost illicit activities in the area, allowing criminal organizations to operate unchallenged, without rules and governments. It's not a case that the criminal organizations that control the KK Park are mainly Chinese, highlighting the increasing power of China in the area.
A Detailed Overview: What is KK Park Myanmar?
Now that we have a basic understanding of the complex dynamics in the region, we can analyze KK Park Myanmar. It is located near the Moei River on the Thailand border. A prison complex designed to host at least 20,000 worker-slaves and additional buildings have been built in recent months. There is no official data since it's impossible to access this place without the permission of the military to surveil and control the area. Only workers are authorized to join (but not to exit), they cannot enter with phones or video cameras, and their documents are confiscated. As we said earlier, it's a one-way journey nobody should do.
How are KK Park Workers Recruited?
Workers didn't know they were hired to commit online scams in slavery conditions. So, how did criminal organizations of the KK Park kidnap people and force them to work as slaves in this area, and what is KK Park Myanmar? It's worth reporting the testimonials of a few people who escaped from it to understand the gravity of the situation.
"The company is treating us like animals. Help us, I’m begging you."
"We worked 17 hours a day, no complaints, no holidays, no rest, and if we say we want to leave, they tell us that they will sell us or kill us."
“They didn’t give us our salary; they stole our money, they stole our jewelry."
Most of the people recruited to work in KK Park thought they were starting a legitimate and safe job, attracted by promised competitive salaries offered online and secure job positions. However, criminal organizations leveraged the high demand for jobs in Asia following the COVID-19 pandemic, manipulating, kidnapping, and forcing people to work in this scam factory. Targeted people came from regions with low average salaries, such as China, Thailand, Myanmar, Africa, etc. Once they arrive at KK Park, it's impossible to escape; the only way is by paying an enormous amount of money to redeem their freedom.
It's important to note also that KK Park is only one of the many scam-prison factories in this area, all situated on the border between Myanmar and Asia. These criminal organizations' operations are sophisticated, using modern technology, dangerous, corrupted militaries, and international connections to perpetuate their crimes while avoiding detection.
Main Criminal Activities in KK Park
PlasBit conducted in-depth research about what is KK Park Myanmar and how it works, and, in general, we verified that all the areas around it are basically hubs for various criminal activities, including online crypto scams, organ trafficking, opium production, and other illicit activities, such as human trafficking, forced labor, and various forms of smuggling. People forced to work in KK Park are divided into groups and are constricted to commit various types of crypto scams. They target mainly occidental rich people with unstable emotional situations. The victims are searched through online dating apps, crypto telegram groups, and often sophisticated algorithms that scrape the web, looking for the perfect target victim.
Crypto Romance Scam
The main scam they use is the crypto romance, in which the scammers establish a trusted relationship with the victim, aiming to steal crypto funds. How do crypto romance scams work?
1. Scammers scrape the web looking for the perfect victims
Using dating apps, social media, communities, and automated scripts, the scammers identify the possible victims and collect data about them. In this way, they aim to increase the "conversion rate" of the victim, trying to target the weakest ones who are looking for online partners. In fact, using dating apps, they try to identify people who have recently finished a love relationship since it's easier to manipulate them due to their unstable emotional status and depression.
2. Victims are contacted by the scammers
Once the target is identified, the scammer establishes the first contact with them by sending a message. Usually, scammers use photos and stories of real people, stealing their identity and often representing beautiful Asian women who are looking for a partner. The first messages are not suspicious, since the scammers are patient and want to build a trusted relationship with the victim. Scammers, after analyzing and studying relationship dynamics and human feelings, use the most effective romance patterns and strategies to quickly gain the trust of unaware victims.
3. Trust is built, and the victim falls in love
After days, weeks, or even months, in which the scammer progressively gains the victim's trust, the situation becomes perfect for continuing with the second and third part of the evil, deceptive plan. Scammers are trained to perfectly manipulate the victim: The victim feels appreciated and understood and thinks that the scammer could become a trusted partner in his life. The victim starts sharing personal information about their family, job, and previous love relationships, and the scammers use all the information to further manipulate the victim's perception, customizing the scam plan to perfectly fit the victim. The unsuspecting victim now trusts the scammer and starts considering a romantic relationship with it, progressively falling in love.
4. Romance relationship and introduction of crypto investments
Now, the situation is perfect for the fourth part of the plan. The victim fell in love with the scammer, who now knows a lot of details about the victim, such as the romantic status, financial availability, employment status, the composition of his family, and more. The scammers, at this point, introduce the concept of crypto investments, showing the profits and the potential opportunities of cryptocurrencies. They often present themselves as crypto experts who trade crypto assets with notable profitability, and the victim is directly or indirectly pushed to ask for more information about it. Here, it introduces the appealing concept of crypto investments to the victim, who now starts thinking of investing with the scammers.
5. The victim starts investing in crypto with the scammer
In this stage, the victims trust the scammer and consider it an expert crypto trader. Often, with money needed, the victim is ready to invest in crypto to gain illusory financial freedom. The scammer is available to "help" and proposes to the victim that they invest together. At this point, the victim starts sending money to the scammer, aiming for crypto profits and financial freedom. However, as you can imagine, the scammers' real intentions are to steal as much money as possible from the victim.
6. Illusory crypto earnings and "Fatting the pig"
Making the situation even more evil, for the scammer a single payment is not enough. They want to receive as much money as possible, "fatting the pig" before disappearing with the stolen funds. The scam is very well planned, and fake trading dashboards are sent to the victim, making him believe that he is making good profits with cryptocurrencies. Explaining crypto trading strategies such as DCA (dollar cost averaging), in which you should make periodic investments in crypto to reduce the average entry price, the scammers persuade the victim to send them money periodically, trying to get the maximum loot before disappearing with stolen funds.
7. Broken heart and broken wallet
When the victims start saying that they have already invested all the money they have, the scammers simply disappear with all the funds sent over time. It's in this last phase that the victim starts realizing that he is a victim of a manipulative evil scam: The trusted partner (the scammer) disappears suddenly and doesn't reply back to the victim anymore. The picture, the story, and the personality of the scammer never existed, and also, the crypto trading dashboards and profit are fake. Previously, in fact, scammers sent fake dashboards to convince users about the legitimacy of their investments, while, in reality, the funds were never invested. It's the end of this scam, and the victim remains with a broken heart and without money.
Fake Job Offers
The crypto romance scam isn't the only fraud perpetrated in the KK Park Myanmar prison camp. Another emerging threat is fake job offers. How do they work?
1. The scammers contact people looking for jobs
Sneaking into crypto communities, scammers contact the victim through direct messages, proposing appealing salaries for easy online jobs. They often offer competitive salaries using well-studied patterns and strategies, saying, for example, that the worker can earn up to 300$ per day without any relevant skills.
2. People start working for the scammers and get small payments
To make the job proposal legitimate, at the beginning, the scammers actually pay a small amount of cryptocurrency to the victim to gain trust and build a job relationship. However, even if it seemed legitimate at the beginning, it was not.
3. Scammers ask for big payments for tools
After earning trust, scammers introduce the evil manipulative part of this scam. By saying the victim requires additional softwares and tools to perform the job better, they ask for a big payment to allow the victim to keep working. However, the funds will not be used to provide the victim the promised tools, but they are the loot of the scammers.
4. The scammer disappears with stolen funds
After receiving consistent payment from the unsuspected victim, the scammers disappear into thin air. At this step, the worker understands that he is a victim and that money will never come back. The job basically never existed, and the only goal of the scammer was to steal money from an unaware, poor victim, sadly.
Variance of this scam: Human trafficking
Sometimes, in the worst cases, the goal of the scammers is not to steal money from the victim but to kidnap the victim himself through human trafficking. The scammers promise the victims that they will give them jobs in other countries with competitive salaries, paying for plane and travel expenses. The job could seem legitimate since the scammers are presented as professional business owners who are looking for workers for legitimate jobs. However, the goal is to confine people in prison camps such as KK Park, and the victims realize their mistake only when deported and constricted to work as slaves in these evil factories. In this way, a lot of people have been deported and forced to commit more online scams in a pyramidal cycle. The victim, in this way, involuntarily becomes a scammer too, and cannot come back to their house anymore.
Organ Trafficking
Recently, a few survivors of the KK Park told their stories and what happened in these prison camps. Once they enter the prison, workers are given blood samples and medical tests to see if they are possible good suppliers of human organs. The organs black market is very profitable for criminal organizations, and, sadly, they make profits also from it.
They sell poor people's organs to rich, unhealthy people who are looking for organ donors. Sadly, organs are taken away from people, selling them on the black market at high cost.
Criminal organizations leverage the high level of privacy and control of these scam factories not only to create "modern slaves" but also to brutally steal organs and lives of people. That's incredibly sad, but it's real, and governments should work together to fight these criminal organizations. The Myanmar and Chinese governments are aware of what is happening in these camps, but due to corruption and the high profitability of these illicit activities, they are directly or indirectly complicit in these crimes, partially working together with criminal organizations.
Opium and Heroin Production
The last main illicit activity of the KK Park and similar prison factories is drug production and distribution. As we said earlier, the Golden Triangle is famous for being the biggest producer of opium, and people kidnapped are also used to working in poppy plantations to create opium and other drugs' derivates, such as heroin. Myanmar is the biggest exporter of opium and heroin, and the business is very profitable for criminal organizations.
As you might imagine, workers were forced to cultivate and take care of the plantations in hard conditions and with no rights. They don't receive a salary, they are not free, and they must work up to 17 hours per day in incredible inhuman conditions. If you don't want to work for a criminal organization, you will be killed. There is no way to escape such conditions, and the only way to avoid them is to know the risks of this area and not trust anyone who wants you to move into that area with suspicious promises.
Effects on Victims and Need for Awareness
Some international organizations have already denounced and tried to fight these inhuman prison factories. However, there are a lot of different interests in this situation, and a lot of powerful criminal organizations are winning the fight. The effects on the victims are devasting.
1,200 Saves Freed from Myanmar
Recently, in March 2024, in a coordinated action between the Myanmar, Thailand, and Chinese governments, 1,200 slaves were freed from one of these prison camps. It could be a good sign that some actions are being taken, but it's a very small step against the criminal organizations behind it. That's not all, because freed slaves are accused of being scammers or illicitly immigrating from their origin countries, and they will face criminal charges in their origin countries. In addition to the harm, there is also the mockery..
As we mentioned, criminal organizations infiltrate governments, and this is only the tip of the iceberg. Recent reports show that the crypto scam market in this area produced around $75 billion in the last 2 years, laundered and converted into fiat currencies through famous exchanges such as Binance, Huobi, and OKX, using USDT as the preferred cryptocurrency. It also highlights the need for increased regulation of exchanges, which must not be complicit for criminal organizations aiming for money laundering.
Effects on the Victims of Crypto Scam Factories
The effects are irreversible; the lives of victims have changed, and their rights have been trampled and usurped. As the survivors of the Holocaust in Nazi camps in the Second World War, the victims of crypto scam factories are facing enormous psychological problems that cannot be resolved easily. After being tortured and forced to commit online scams, you cannot return to your previous life without traumas. Victims need to follow a rehabilitation process to restore psychological and physical health, but sometimes they cannot bear all the violence and damage they received, and in the worst cases, they commit suicide.
Need for Awareness of Crypto Scams
Blockchain could brings positive effects in the world, but it also brings risks, such as being a victim of online scams and criminal organizations.
At PlasBit, we believe the best way to fight criminals and crypto scams is through education and awareness. By being aware of the risks of the crypto industry and the malicious actors behind the scams, you can be well-equipped to recognize the red flags and prevent being a victim. In 2024, it's unacceptable to see these brutal violations of human rights, and we must be in the first line to educate users and fight criminal organizations that create modern slaves, do crypto scams, and traffic organs and drugs. Only with a coordinated effort from governments, information platforms, and militaries can we eradicate these evil prison camps and give people back the freedom they are entitled to.
