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Hundreds of thousands of people are being recruited – usually under false pretences - to work in massive facilities in the border areas of Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos, to promote fraudulent investment schemes and romance scams to unsuspecting citizens around the world. The scams, run by criminal gangs, are thought to be making tens of billions of dollars every year. Those recruited often find themselves, trapped, beaten and tortured.

Ed Butler travels to Thailand’s border with Myanmar to investigate the scale of the trade, to speak to survivors and to some of those still involved, and to explore what role the ongoing civil war in Myanmar is playing in fuelling this apparently burgeoning criminal trade, beyond the reach of international law-enforcement.

Presenter/producer: Ed Butler
Sound engineer: Rod Farquhar
Programme co-ordinator: Gemma Ashman
Editor: Penny Murphy

(Photo: Alleged scam centre workers and victims sit on the ground during a crackdown operation by the Karen Border Guard Force (BGF). Credit: AFP/Getty Images)