{"id":219786,"date":"2025-10-23T07:44:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-23T07:44:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/219786\/"},"modified":"2025-10-23T07:44:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-23T07:44:10","slug":"elon-musks-spacex-says-it-has-cut-starlink-services-at-myanmar-scam-compounds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/219786\/","title":{"rendered":"Elon Musk’s SpaceX says it has cut Starlink services at Myanmar scam compounds"},"content":{"rendered":"

Elon Musk<\/a>\u2019s SpaceX<\/a> has disabled more than 2,500 Starlink <\/a>devices in and around scam centers in Myanmar<\/a>, following warnings from activists that mainly Chinese syndicates were using the technology to defraud people worldwide.<\/p>\n

The company \u201cproactively identified and disabled over 2,500 Starlink Kits in the vicinity of suspected \u2018scam centers,\u2019\u201d Lauren Dreyer, SpaceX\u2019s vice president of business operations, wrote on X<\/a> late Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are committed to ensuring the service remains a force for good and sustains trust worldwide: both connecting the unconnected and detecting and preventing misuse by bad actors,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

The company\u2019s terminals enable internet in remote areas by using satellite dishes that connect to SpaceX\u2019s satellites. Photos had previously shown the dishes atop documented scam compounds along the Thai-Myanmar border.<\/p>\n

The SpaceX announcement came after Myanmar\u2019s military shut down a major online scam operation known as KK Park.<\/p>\n

According to state-run news outlet Myanma Alinn, the army seized 30 sets of Starlink terminals and detained nearly 2,200 people in the Monday raid on the cybercrime center outside Myawaddy, a major trading town in Myanmar\u2019s Kayin state. <\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/p>\n

Myanmar, where the civilian government was overthrown in a military coup<\/a> in 2021, is notorious for cybercrime. The Southeast Asian nation is embroiled in a civil war<\/a> with various ethnic groups fighting the military, creating an almost lawless situation in many parts of the country and allowing scam operations to thrive. <\/p>\n

Workers in the scam compounds are often trafficked from third countries, usually under the pretense of a lucrative job offer, and then forced to scam people online with investment pitches or romantic ploys<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Following international pressure, particularly from neighboring Thailand<\/a> and China<\/a>, whose nationals have also been trafficked to work in these compounds, the junta \u2014 working alongside the same armed ethnic groups it opposes \u2014 launched a massive operation in February <\/a>and released hundreds of workers.<\/p>\n

The practice is also well documented in other countries around the region such as Cambodia<\/a>, where the U.S. last week seized more than $14 billion in bitcoin and formally charged the chairman of a Cambodian conglomerate over his alleged involvement in a massive cryptocurrency scam. <\/p>\n

The U.S., along with the U.K., also sanctioned the company, which was declared a transnational criminal organization by the Treasury Department.<\/p>\n

Last year, Americans lost at least $10 billion<\/a> to Southeast Asia-based scams, according to the Treasury Department, a 66% increase from the year before.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Mithil Aggarwal<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/p>\n

Mithil Aggarwal is a Hong Kong-based reporter\/producer for NBC News.<\/p>\n

The Associated Press contributed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Elon Musk\u2019s SpaceX has disabled more than 2,500 Starlink devices in and around scam centers in Myanmar, following…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":219787,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[90,416,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-219786","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-science","9":"tag-space","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219786","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219786"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219786\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/219787"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}