Online scam centres in Southeast Asia are often framed as a purely digital crime problem. Yet this working paper shows that they are equally rooted in the physical control of movement across borderlands shaped by conflict.
Focusing on Myanmar’s border regions, the paper examines how large-scale scam operations depend on systems of passage control – including border crossings, roadblocks and compound gates – that regulate the movement of people, money and goods. It argues that control over these checkpoints, rather than the compounds themselves, determines who profits, who is coerced into labour, and how enforcement efforts play out.
This paper forms part of a series of working papers presenting case studies from TRACE (Trade, Rents, and Authority in borderland Checkpoint Economies) project, and was first published on the Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS) website.