{"id":232572,"date":"2025-10-22T13:44:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-22T13:44:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/232572\/"},"modified":"2025-10-22T13:44:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T13:44:08","slug":"spacex-says-it-disabled-2500-starlink-devices-at-myanmar-scam-centres","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/232572\/","title":{"rendered":"SpaceX says it ‘disabled’ 2,500 Starlink devices at Myanmar scam centres"},"content":{"rendered":"

YANGON: SpaceX has cut service to more than 2,500 Starlink devices at scam centres in Myanmar, a company vice-president said on Wednesday (Oct 22), after AFP revealed that the use of the satellite internet terminals had exploded in the illicit industry.<\/a><\/p>\n

Sprawling compounds where internet tricksters target foreigners with romance and business cons have thrived along Myanmar’s loosely governed border during its civil war, sparked by a 2021 coup.<\/p>\n

A highly publicised crackdown starting in February saw some 7,000 workers repatriated and Thailand enact a cross-border internet blockade.<\/p>\n

But an AFP investigation this month revealed construction has continued apace.<\/p>\n

Many of the centres appeared to have installed large numbers of Starlink internet receivers on their roofs after neighbouring Thailand cut their internet and power connections.<\/p>\n

SpaceX’s vice-president of Starlink business operations, Lauren Dreyer, said the company “disabled over 2,500 Starlink Kits in the vicinity of suspected ‘scam centres'” in Myanmar.<\/p>\n

Her post on X did not outline when the terminals were disconnected.<\/p>\n

Myanmar’s military announced this week it had raided KK Park – one of the country’s most notorious scam centres – and seized 30 Starlink satellite internet terminals.<\/p>\n

Those are only a tiny fraction of the number used at the site, according to AFP’s investigation as well as independent analysis.<\/p>\n

An AFP journalist on Wednesday saw more than 1,000 people travelling away from the site on foot, by motorbike and crammed into pickup trucks.<\/p>\n

One departing KK Park worker told AFP the crackdown was ongoing.<\/p>\n

“Around 10am, Myanmar military soldiers in four trucks arrived to our site,” said one worker who declined to give his name for security reasons.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"YANGON: SpaceX has cut service to more than 2,500 Starlink devices at scam centres in Myanmar, a company…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":232573,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[64,63,22225,71544,128,285],"class_list":{"0":"post-232572","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-cambodia","11":"tag-scams","12":"tag-science","13":"tag-space"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232572","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=232572"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232572\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/232573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=232572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=232572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=232572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}