Times reporter enters cyber fraud center in conflict zone

Holy Molly. Look at these phones. SIM cards are scattered on the floor. We are in Myanmar. Just weeks after rebels took control of a cyber fraud center near the border with Thailand. For years, Chinese criminals have been using ordinary office spaces like this one in the middle of the jungle to target Americans with elaborate online scams. OK, this is the nerve center of this multi-billion dollar industry that is scamming people all over the world. More than 3,000 people from dozens of countries were once employed here, joining an industry that exploded during Myanmar's civil war. There are rows of monitors lined up. It looks like a normal office park. This is all evidence of fraud. Many of the employees fled, leaving behind documents and records detailing the fraud. This looks like a receipt. There were also piles of electronic equipment, their main tools of the trade. This is an AT&T SIM card. So you can pretend you are calling from the US. Scammers act like potential love interests and send messages to their targets on social media. They were targeting America's lonely hearts, pretending to be beautiful young Asian women who were just interested in making a connection with someone. As scammers grew closer to their victims, they began to shift the conversation to video calls. You can see that this is a video calling room with a fake background and some fake flowers and books. It looks like a book, but it's actually just a box. When a victim sends a large amount of money, the scammers celebrate. When I make $5,000, I hit the gong, and when I make $50,000, I bang this really big drum. And in between is the god of wealth. [explosion] Jesus Christ, it's almost here. Our visit was interrupted by the thud of mortar shells, forcing us to evacuate. “Hurry, hurry'' But many of the Chinese workers still living in the complex seemed unfazed by being in the middle of a war zone. We tried to talk to some of them while visiting the grounds. These are scammers who have no intention of going away. Some say they have been lured by fake job offers and forced to work in fraudulent industries. He is likely to be arrested if he returns to China. So for now, their best hope is to find another job here in war-torn Myanmar.