SpaceX has deactivated more than 2,500 Starlink satellite internet terminals operating at scam compounds in Myanmar, following reports that the technology had become a key tool for criminal networks running large-scale online fraud operations in the country.
Lauren Dreyer, SpaceX’s vice president of Starlink business operations, confirmed the action via a recent post on X, stating that the company had “disabled over 2,500 Starlink kits in the vicinity of suspected scam centers.” She did not specify when the disconnections occurred.
The move follows an AFP investigation that revealed widespread use of Starlink terminals across sprawling compounds along Myanmar’s border regions. These facilities, often associated with romance, investment, and cryptocurrency scams, have proliferated amid the country’s ongoing civil conflict following the 2021 military coup.
After Thailand enacted a cross-border internet and power blockade earlier this year, many of the scam centers reportedly turned to Starlink’s satellite network to restore connectivity, installing clusters of the small, dish-shaped receivers on their rooftops.
Myanmar’s military announced this week that it had raided KK Park, one of the most notorious scam centers in the country, seizing 30 Starlink devices in the process. However, AFP’s investigation and independent analyses suggest that thousands of terminals were in use at the site, far beyond the number confiscated.
An AFP journalist observed more than 1,000 individuals leaving the KK Park area following the raid, some on foot and others packed into pickup trucks. A worker from the compound, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed that the crackdown was ongoing and that military personnel had arrived in multiple vehicles earlier that day.
Authorities in the region have struggled to contain a growing network of transnational scam operations operating along the Myanmar-Thailand border, many of which have been linked to human trafficking, forced labor, and digital fraud targeting victims across Asia and beyond.
