\n SpaceX said it works to identify violations in all markets where Starlink operates.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cOn the rare occasion we identify a violation, we take appropriate action, including working with law enforcement agencies around the world,\u201d said Lauren Dreyer, SpaceX\u2019s vice president of business operations for Starlink, in a post on X.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cIn Myanmar, for example, SpaceX proactively identified and disabled over 2,500 Starlink Kits in the vicinity of suspected \u2018scam centers\u2019.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n Dreyer did not provide a date for when the consoles were disabled, but the announcement comes after the Myanmar military junta said it discovered 30 sets of Starlink \u201creceivers and accessories\u201d during a raid on one such scam compound this week.\n <\/p>\n
\n There are about 30 sprawling, purpose-built compounds dotted along the Myanmar-Thai border that are dedicated to scamming victims, including Americans, out of billions of dollars every year, according to a recent report<\/a> by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.\n <\/p>\n \n Workers in the scam centers are often lured by the promise of well-paid jobs, or trafficked, and are routinely held against their will and forced to carry out online fraud schemes in the heavily guarded compounds, where former detainees have previously told CNN<\/a> beatings and torture are common.\n <\/p>\n \n For more than a year, concerns have been raised by the United States that criminal networks in Myanmar were using Starlink to access the internet and carry out their scams.\n <\/p>\n \n Starlink has more than 6 million global users, according to its website. It provides high-speed internet service using a network of thousands of satellites at low-Earth orbit, enabling it to reach remote communities.\n <\/p>\n \n An investigation by the news agency Agence France-Presse this month found that Starlink receivers had been installed on the roofs of the scam compounds at a \u201chuge scale.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n The US Congress Joint Economic Committee has begun an investigation into Starlink\u2019s alleged involvement in the centers, according to the AFP investigation.\n <\/p>\n \n The move by SpaceX comes as the global scam industry is growing at an unprecedented rate, according to the UN Office of Drugs and Crime, with criminal groups adopting artificial intelligence<\/a> and using online cryptocurrency markets to move vast amounts of stolen money undetected.\n <\/p>\n \n Southeast Asia is a hotspot for these romance or investment scams known as \u201cpig butchering,\u201d named for the practice of fattening up prey before the slaughter. And Myanmar has become an attractive destination for the cybercrime networks, who are shielded by corruption and the military junta.\n <\/p>\n \n Since taking power in a 2021 coup, the military administration \u2013 which does not control all of the country \u2013 has fought a civil war against a patchwork of anti-junta and regional ethnic groups.\n <\/p>\n \n In February, Thailand cut electricity supplies<\/a> to several areas in Myanmar that are home to the scam sites, to try and disrupt their operations.\n <\/p>\n![\"In](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/ap25293591683269.jpg\")
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