The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights reported in August 2023 that credible sources indicate at least 120,000 people across Myanmar may be held in situations where they are forced to carry out online scams, in compounds it places in Myawaddy, Shwe Kokko, the Kokang Self-Administered Zone and Mong La. Australian agencies publish the money side separately, and neither the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission nor AUSTRAC publishes a destination breakdown.
Four named bodies have published on this, and they cover different halves of it. Two United Nations offices describe organised online fraud operated from compounds in Myanmar's border areas and estimate its scale. Two Australian bodies publish what Australians lose to fraud of that kind and how the proceeds are moved. Neither half joins to the other.
Key Takeaways
- The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights reported in August 2023 that credible sources indicate at least 120,000 people across Myanmar may be held in situations where they are forced to carry out online scams.
- It names Myawaddy, Shwe Kokko, compounds along the Moei River, the Kokang Self-Administered Zone and Mong La.
- The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime estimated in April 2025 that cyber-enabled fraud caused losses of between 18 and 37 billion United States dollars in East and Southeast Asia in 2023.
- The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission reported 274,577 loss-bearing scam reports in Australia for the 2025 calendar year, totalling 2.18 billion Australian dollars.
- No Australian agency publishes how much of that reached any one country, so the two halves of the record do not meet.
What do the United Nations bodies report about Myanmar's border areas?
Two reports carry most of the detail, and they were written three years and different purposes apart. The first is from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, published on 29 August 2023 and titled Online Scam Operations and Trafficking into Forced Criminality in Southeast Asia. Its concern is the people inside the operations rather than the money leaving them. The Office states that credible sources indicate at least 120,000 people across Myanmar may be held in situations where they are forced to carry out online scams, and that credible estimates in Cambodia similarly indicate at least 100,000.
That report is also the most specific about place. It says centres are allegedly located in Shwe Kokko and other locations in Myawaddy on the Thai border, including KK Zone and other compounds along the Moei River, the Kokang Self-Administered Zone in Shan State, and the Wa-administered city of Mong La on the Chinese border.
Its explanation for those locations is about governance. It states that many of the scam centres in Myanmar are in weakly regulated and often porous border areas characterised by a lack of formal law enforcement structures, oversight and accountability, and that the situation relating to trafficking into these operations worsened after the military coup of February 2021.
The second is from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, published in April 2025 as Inflection Point: Global Implications of Scam Centres, Underground Banking and Illicit Online Marketplaces in Southeast Asia. Its framing is industrial. The Office on Drugs and Crime describes hundreds of industrial-scale scam centres generating tens of billions of dollars in annual profits, and estimates that in East and Southeast Asia alone cyber-enabled fraud caused financial losses of between 18 and 37 billion United States dollars in 2023.
On Myanmar it is careful about the limits of what is known. It states that major crime sites have expanded at a rapid pace in recent years, with indication of new sites also being developed, particularly south of Myawaddy, and adds in the same sentence that official reporting remains limited.
What do Australian agencies publish about the money?
The Australian record is a loss series and a laundering assessment, produced by different bodies for different reasons. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission publishes the annual Targeting Scams report through the National Anti-Scam Centre. For the 2025 calendar year the Commission reported 481,523 scam reports, of which 274,577 involved a financial loss, and aggregate reported losses of 2.18 billion Australian dollars. The Commission put that at an increase of 7.8 per cent on 2024, and 29.7 per cent below the peak of 3.1 billion Australian dollars it recorded in 2022. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission put investment scams at the largest single share, 837.7 million dollars, followed by payment redirection at 166.8 million, romance at 139.9 million, phishing at 97.6 million and remote access at 69.9 million.
AUSTRAC covers the movement rather than the loss. Its 2024 national risk assessment of money laundering in Australia rates scams as posing a medium and increasing money laundering threat. It states that scams targeting Australians are largely orchestrated by offshore criminals, including by transnational serious and organised crime groups, and that criminal proceeds generated from scams often already exist in the legitimate financial system. Money laundering techniques, it says, are then integral to layering and transferring those proceeds offshore to the offenders who orchestrated the scam, with domestic bank accounts, and mule accounts in particular, playing a key role, alongside a significant increase in the use of digital currencies.
The same assessment places the regional risk without naming a single country, recording that a number of jurisdictions are emerging as a medium money laundering threat and that these sit across multiple global regions, in particular Southeast Asia.
Which body publishes which part of the picture?
The four bodies barely overlap, and what each one stops short of is as informative as what it covers.
| Body | What it publishes | What it does not cover |
|---|---|---|
| Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights | The people held in the operations, and named locations in Myanmar | Money flows from any sending country |
| United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime | Regional scale, site expansion, and the laundering ecosystem | Country-level victim data for Australia |
| Australian Competition and Consumer Commission | The Australian loss series by scam type, contact method and payment method | Where the money went after it left |
| AUSTRAC | How scam proceeds are layered and moved offshore | The volume reaching any named destination |
What has the official response been?
It is published as law enforcement activity rather than as any restriction on the corridor.
The Australian Federal Police established Operation Firestorm through its Joint Policing Cybercrime Coordination Centre in August 2024, describing it as a global operation to disrupt offshore organised crime networks deceiving Australians through romance, cryptocurrency and investment scams. In a joint release of 31 January 2025 with the National Anti-Scam Centre and two Philippine agencies, the Australian Federal Police recorded that more than 5,000 Australian-based phone numbers had been identified from devices seized at a scam compound.
That case sat in Manila rather than in Myanmar, which is itself part of the published picture: the operations are regional, and enforcement lands where a host state permits it.
What do none of these publications establish?
No Australian agency publishes a destination breakdown of scam losses. The Targeting Scams series records what was lost, how contact was made and how payment was made, not the country the funds reached, and AUSTRAC describes the route in general terms rather than in per-country volumes. So while the United Nations reports place large operations in Myanmar's border areas, and the Australian reports place large losses in Australia, no published Australian figure joins the two.
Both United Nations reports are explicit about their own uncertainty. The 2023 report says the number of people trafficked into these operations is difficult to estimate because of its clandestine nature and gaps in the official response. The 2025 assessment says official reporting on the Myanmar sites remains limited.
What does this mean for money sent from Australia to Myanmar?
The published record answers a narrower question than the address of this page suggests, and the gap is the useful part.
It establishes that large fraud operations exist in named places inside Myanmar, and that Australians report large losses to fraud of the kinds those operations run. It does not establish that money sent from Australia to Myanmar reaches them, because no Australian agency publishes losses by destination country. In every series quoted here, an ordinary remittance to a family member and a payment obtained by deception look the same.
What the record does separate is contact from settlement. The two United Nations reports describe operations whose product is contact, made by phone and by message across borders, and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission likewise records contact method and payment method rather than a route. Nothing in either half describes the Australia to Myanmar corridor itself. The live reference figures for that corridor are published separately, on the Australian dollar to Myanmar kyat page.
Where to look next
How international transfers work sets out the ordinary mechanics of a cross-border payment, and what a payment rail is made of takes those mechanics apart layer by layer. For the live reference figures on this corridor, see the Australian dollar to Myanmar kyat page.
Sources
- Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Online Scam Operations and Trafficking into Forced Criminality in Southeast Asia, 29 August 2023 - the estimate of at least 120,000 people across Myanmar and at least 100,000 in Cambodia, the named locations, and the description of weakly regulated and often porous border areas
- United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Inflection Point: Global Implications of Scam Centres, Underground Banking and Illicit Online Marketplaces in Southeast Asia, April 2025 - the industrial-scale scam centres and their annual profits, the 2023 regional loss estimate, and the expansion of sites south of Myawaddy alongside limited official reporting
- Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, Continued action critical to combat fraud as annual scam losses exceed 2 billion dollars - the 2025 calendar year figures and the five largest categories by loss
- AUSTRAC, National Risk Assessment: Money Laundering in Australia, 2024 - the threat rating for scams, offshore orchestration, the layering of proceeds offshore, and emerging medium-threat jurisdictions in Southeast Asia
- Australian Federal Police and National Anti-Scam Centre, More than 5000 Australian victims receive text warning over romance scam, 31 January 2025 - Operation Firestorm and the identification of more than 5,000 Australian-based phone numbers from devices seized at a scam compound
General information about sending money to Myanmar and about published assessments of organised online fraud in the region. Not financial advice, and not a recommendation of any product or institution. Reviewed by the Tradergy editorial team, September 2026.
Common questions
Which bodies have formally published on scam operations in Myanmar?
Four are used here. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights reported on trafficking into forced criminality in Southeast Asia in August 2023, and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime published a technical policy brief in April 2025. In Australia, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission publishes the annual Targeting Scams series through the National Anti-Scam Centre, and AUSTRAC published a national risk assessment of money laundering in 2024.
Where in Myanmar are these operations located?
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights states that centres are allegedly located in Shwe Kokko and other locations in Myawaddy on the Thai border, including KK Zone and other compounds along the Moei River, the Kokang Self-Administered Zone in Shan State, and the Wa-administered city of Mong La on the Chinese border.
Do Australian agencies say how much Australian money reaches Myanmar?
No. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission publishes losses by scam type, contact method and payment method, not by destination country, and AUSTRAC describes the laundering route in general terms. Any per-country figure would be an inference rather than a published one.
What does AUSTRAC say about how scam money leaves Australia?
Its 2024 national risk assessment states that scams targeting Australians are largely orchestrated by offshore criminals, including transnational serious and organised crime groups, and that criminal proceeds often already exist in the legitimate financial system. Money laundering techniques are then integral to layering and transferring those proceeds offshore, with mule accounts playing a key role.
Why do the reports describe border areas specifically?
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights links it to governance rather than geography. It states that many of the centres in Myanmar sit in weakly regulated and often porous border areas characterised by a lack of formal law enforcement structures, oversight and accountability, and that the situation worsened after the military coup of February 2021.