Pig Butchering and Proxy Wars: The Dark Economy of Scam Centres

The article “Pig Butchering and Proxy Wars: The Dark Economy of Scam Centres” analyses how scam centres in Southeast Asia take advantage of conflict areas, digital infrastructure, and trafficked labour, hence influencing India as the victim and source of recruitment.Pig butchering" scams have created a vast dark economy in parts of Southeast Asia, with illicit profits estimated to equal a significant portion of local GDP. These criminal enterprises are linked to human trafficking, violent crime, and appear to be fueling instability and conflict in a manner similar to proxy wars, as local armed groups vie for control and funding.

The intensification of the scam centres in Southeast Asia is a multi-dimensional intersection between geopolitical instability, crime network transnationalism, and digital exploitation. These centres, which frequently enjoy lawless enclaves in Myanmar, Cambodia, and Laos, have become highly organized cybercrime factories that utilize trafficked labour and high technology to coordinate international financial fraud. The most significant aspect of their activities is the so-called pig butchering, a dishonest scheme of manipulation based on emotional grooming and financial fraud, and most often imposed on the victims of social media and the cryptocurrency sector.The beginning of these centres has a strong connection with the never-ending civil war in Myanmar, which has resulted in unregulated areas that support the criminal business. At the same time, entities like Huione Group in Cambodia have been brought under the light of scrutiny for purportedly making scam infrastructure possible through fintech services and encrypted communication systems. The twofold effect is being felt in India, where its citizens are being seriously victimised by such scams, and others are being trafficked in scam compounds in the guise of jobs.

This article critically discusses the socio-political factors that have historically encouraged scam hubs in Southeast Asia, the anatomy and geographical locations of these hubs, and the transnational implications of such a changing cybercrime environment, especially in India. It is based on unpacking the operational machineries, empowering actors, and policy dilemmas illuminated through a multidisciplinary approach to this novel threat.

Scam Centres and Pig Butchering Tactic

The scam centres that are prevalent in Southeast Asia are a transnational hub of cybercrime by taking advantage of trafficked labour and advanced digital impersonation. The hub of these actions is the manipulative approach that is usually known as pig butchering.

Scam Centre
Scam centres are intentionally designed compounds, often located in extrajudicial or semi-autonomous administration zones of Southeast Asia, some located in Myawaddy in Myanmar, or in the Shwe Kokko area, Cambodia. These are the workplaces of industrialised cybercrime, where trafficked employees, most of whom are enticed to these jobs through illusory prospective positions, are forcefully induced to commit online fraud. These processes are typified by an elevated level of structural organization, which is signified by the hierarchical management, formally coded communication procedures, and multi-lingual targeting approaches. Through weakening the governance systems and obtaining militia cover services, and using digital infrastructure, these centres are able to get rid of legal penalties and encourage the expansion of fraudulent enterprise activities across the borders.

The Pig Butchering Tactic
Butchering of pigs is a method of scam that involves the combination of financial fraud and psychological manipulation. It gets its name because of the Chinese term sha zhu pan, which symbolically describes the victims as fat pigs, which are ultimately slaughtered. A false front is usually created by relationships that have been formed through dating programs or social networking websites, and builds a trusting relationship, combined with emotional intimacy over time. After the victim is fattened enough, the offender convinces the victim to spend money in fake cryptocurrency exchanges or trading opportunities. Such websites are created to make money so as to attract even more deposits before the scammer with the money makes away with the money collected. The strategy achieves success by enticing emotions and an appearance of valid monetary growth.

Digitalization and Technological Maturity
The scam centres use modernized digital technologies to maintain the illusion and avoid being identified. Staff uses coded communication services, fake email addresses, and spoofed websites to disguise themselves as financial advisors, love interest, or call centres. Most of the operations are full-time, including rotation of shifts and writing quotas, which makes them similar to the call centre situations. Use of cryptocurrency wallets and offshore money-laundering systems also complicates the process of traceability. Some of the operations also combine AI-produced content and deep-fakes to increase the credibility and reach on a mass level.

Coerced labour and Human Trafficking
The importance of trafficked labour to scam centres is a salient dimension in scam centres. The victims, who are mostly South Asian, African, and Chinese, are recruited under false pretexts and imprisoned within safe compounds. It is reported that when people are not complying, they are either physically abused, their passports are seized, in addition to violent intimidation. Such a collision between cybercrime and modern slavery has caused a lot of attention around the world, and punitive actions are taken; the latest cases involve the imposition of financial restrictions on individuals by the U.S. Treasury in regard to fraudulent operations in Myanmar and Cambodia.

Emergence of Lawless Zones

The civil war in Myanmar has created vast lawless areas, which contribute to the creation of scam centres, which make the border regions the center of cybercriminal activities, human trafficking, and militia-controlled digital scams.

Militia Governance
After the military coup in 2021, Myanmar was in a state of civil war that disintegrated the administrative system, thus allowing militias and armed forces to dominate peripheral states. Other towns, including Myawaddy (Karen State) and Kokang (Shan State), have become autonomous, ruled by ethnic militias or militias aligned with the junta. These organizations often go about their activities in an impunity-filled manner, which provides space where criminal activities such as scam centres thrive. Lack of proper law enforcement and judicial control has therefore made these places a good refuge for transnational cybercrime networks.

KK Park and the Scam Economy
A good example of how conflict, criminality, and online fraud intersect could be seen in the example of KK Park, a fraudulent center that is high-profile and is situated in Myawaddy. The park, which lies on the border between the Moei River and Thailand, has harbored thousands of forced expatriate workers who have been forced to participate in internet-based fraud deals, hence depriving victims all over the globe. By October 2025, over 600 people had fled to Thailand after military raids and consequent crackdowns. However, according to the reports, construction works and installation of satellite Internet services (including Starlink) are underway, which helps keep the fraudulent business operating.

Cross-border Organizations
The Myanmar scam centres are frequently run by the umbrella of the domestic militias and are given payments or direct ownership shares. These are used to make recruitment, logistics, and security, whereas transnational criminal networks, which are mostly Chinese networks, are used to supply technological infrastructure and laundering pathways. As a result, the scam economy is a profitable alternative source of revenue to militias, which makes the militias even more entrenched and difficult to decimate through peace-building activities. The militarization of cybercrime is part of a greater tendency that posits that digital fraud is integrated into the political economy of conflict.

Humanitarian and Diplomatic Backlash
The advent of scam centres has triggered a humanitarian crisis, with thousands of people trafficked to Myanmar as a result of being tricked with the promise of jobs. The transnational nature of these operations is supported by the fact that only India reports on the repatriation of more than 500 citizens who also fled KK Park. The international balancing cost of handling cross-border traffic, cybercrimes, and refugees has aggravated the tensions in the region. Furthermore, when the dynamics of civil war become intertwined with the scam infrastructure, it presents a special challenge to international law enforcement, as it requires international collaboration in the field and across borders.

Infrastructure Empowerment in Cambodia

The Huione Group in Cambodia has become a major enabler of lawless cyberspace infrastructure in all of Southeast Asia, offering digital arenas and monetary products that support transnational cyber-problem rings and tyrannical regimes of labor.

Digital Ecosystem and Corporate Infrastructure
The Huione Group is a Cambodian-based conglomerate that has strong commercial relationships with Chinese businesses, which provide a wide range of digital services, including fintech services, instant messaging services, and logistics services. Its main product, HuionePay, is a type of mobile payment platform, which is said to make illegal activities connected with scam hubs faster. These systems provide encrypted channels of communication, as well as anonymised finances, which makes them reliable when used by criminals who need to obscure their operations. The group has moved its infrastructure so profoundly into operation in scam complexes in Myanmar and elsewhere in the region, in Laos and Cambodia.

Enabling Forced Labor Networks
Anti-trafficking agencies, such as Humanity Research Consultancy (HRC), have also linkedHuione and its platforms with organizing scam networks that depend on the labour that is trafficked. The labourers are typically South Asian, Chinese, and African workers, who are coerced and forced into engaging in scam activities under the threat of being killed. Digital solutions provided by Huione enable these businesses to scale, which provides a secure means of communication to organize victims, launder cryptocurrencies, and manage their business processes. In May 2025, it was estimated in a report that scam networks linked to Huionegenerated up to USD 19 billion annually.

Political Protection and Regulatory Blind Spots
Even after gathering evidence, the operations of Huione are still enjoying little regulatory control. The analysts believe that the company enjoys the benefits of being involved with the Cambodian political elites to provide them with a shield against local enforcement action. Such regulatory loopholes have seen scam hubs extend beyond the city limits to the countryside and thus making it hard to detect and intercept them. The lack of transparency in the structures of its ownership and transnational operations causes the inability of international agencies to hold such a group of people accountable, highlighting the issues associated with the regulation of digital infrastructure in the context of political compromise.

Trans-boundary Consequences
The fact that Huione enabled scam centers is a sign of the transnationalism of cybercrime in Southeast Asian countries. Its platforms are used to attack victims around the globe, which includes India, Europe, and North America. The contacts between the world of fintech development and crime attract some serious issues relating to digital regulation, corporate responsibility, and transnational regulatory structures. The best way of alleviating this threat would be international actions that include sanctions, a forensic audit, and diplomatic pressure to bring down the enabling infrastructure.

Victim and Recruitment Ground

The twofold effect of the scam hubs of Southeast Asia faces India as both its victims and as human trafficked and sold as forcibly sourced labor into criminal scam activity that is based in lawless commercial border areas.

India asa victim
The victims of an advanced scheme of fraud in the country have become Indian nationals who are the victims of the cybercrime hubs in Myanmar, Cambodia, and Laos. These plots are most often the pig-butchering technique, when people are emotionally manipulated over a long term and then duped in the ways of a fraudulent investment scheme, especially the ones involving cryptocurrency. This language diversity and high rate of digital penetration in India make it a highly desirable target for spammers who can use specific scripts and language programming to swindle people of different socio-economic backgrounds. These crimes are also made worse by the fact that financial losses are augmented by the psychological trauma and the lack of effective legal means of redress, which is due to the transnational character of offenses.

India as a Recruitment Ground
At the same time, India has become a prime source in terms of recruiting labor that is used in scam centres. Even hundreds of Indian citizens have been trafficked into compounds like the KK Park in Myanmar on the pretext of being employed in very well-paid jobs in their respective fields of customer service or information technology. Once they arrive, they are stripped of their passports and forced to run scams on the world's victims. There were almost 500 Indian nationals who fled KK Park in October of 2025 and were repatriated through Thailand. The overlap between cybercrime and modern slavery was noted, with many of these individuals reporting physical threats, surveillance, and enforced quotas.

Diplomatic and Cybersecurity Problems
The diversity of India offers an intricate diplomatic and cybersecurity dilemma. The Ministry of External Affairs has ensured that Thai and Myanmar officials have helped in the repatriation of trafficked citizens, but there are no extradition treaties, and the jurisdictional aspect is a hindrance to prosecuting perpetrators. In addition, permeable digital boundaries and the use of encrypted networks make the undertakings of Indian cybercrime units to track and degrade scam networks more difficult. A rather complex approach that includes international collaboration, electronic literacy, and tougher control of foreign employment options is crucial to the situation.

Policy Requirements and Regional Cooperation
In order to mitigate this dual impact, India will be required to strengthen its cybercrime surveillance system and strengthen regional cooperation by establishing organizations like BIMSTEC and ASEAN. The bilateral agreements concerning labor protection, digital forensics, and exchanging scam intelligence are necessary. Also, vulnerability to recruitment and financial fraud can be reduced by means of public awareness campaigns targeted at vulnerable job seekers and online investors. The case in India can thus be seen to be a reflection of a wider international problem where digital crime is intersecting human trafficking in poorly governed areas.

Conclusion

The increasing number of scam centres in the southeast of Asia is a worrying sign of the merging of geopolitical instability with internet abuse and transnational criminal organizations. Based on the fact that lawless areas have been established by the continuing civil war in Myanmar, and supported by business organizations like the Huione Group in Cambodia, these hubs carry out business with impunity, taking advantage of trafficked labour and advanced cyber technology to scam the victims of these activities across the world. The twin nature of India as a source of recruitment and victim implies the twin nature of the effects of such operations. The fusion of contemporary slavery, financial fraud, and anonymity on the Internet creates such a strong threat to traditional law enforcement and diplomatic systems. To counter this phenomenon, it is necessary to have a concerted effort by the international community to include regulation reforms, cross-border intelligence coordination, and corporate responsibility. In addition, the population needs to be sensitized regarding their vulnerability to digital illiteracy, to prevent the vulnerability of prospective victims and job seekers. With the development of scam centres, various systems of resistance should be developed, which are based on transnational solidarity, technological alertness, and ethical governance.