Burma’s government has approved the death penalty for certain internet scam offenses, a move reported by state-backed media just months after the FBI announced a sweeping crackdown on scam networks operating from the country that involved more than $8 billion in seized cryptocurrency.
The country’s parliament passed the Anti-Online Scam Law on Tuesday, authorizing capital punishment for anyone involved in a scam who “commit violence, torture, unlawfully arrest or detain, or treat any person in a cruel manner,” according to The Global New Light of Myanmar, an outlet jointly run by a private company and Burma’s Ministry of the Interior.
Burma, also widely known as Myanmar, has emerged as a major hub for online fraud and cyber scam operations. Criminal groups have frequently lured migrants from other Asian nations with offers of legitimate employment, only to confine them in compounds and force them to carry out digital scams.
In May, the FBI announced a major enforcement action targeting a Burma-based criminal network known as the “Democratic Karen Benevolent Army.” The operation led to the seizure of 127,000 Bitcoin, valued at more than $8 billion as of July.
Multinational victims of scam centers, who were tricked or trafficked into working in Myanmar, stand on a vessel floating toward the Thai side of border via Moei River in Phop Phra District, Tak province, Thailand, on Feb. 12, 2025. (Reuters/Krit Phromsakla Na Sakolnakorn)
The alleged scammers, who authorities say have links to Chinese organized crime, had been focusing their schemes on Americans, including one elderly U.S. victim from whom they extracted more than $3 million, the FBI previously told INC News.
In 2025, authorities from China, Thailand and Burma freed more than 7,000 people from locked scam compounds across Burma.
Victims of scam centers, who were tricked or trafficked into working in Myanmar, at a compound inside the KK Park, a human trafficking hub on the border with Thailand-Myanmar, in Myawaddy, Myanmar, Feb. 26, 2025. (Reuters/Stringer)
While the new Anti-Online Scam Law only mandates the death penalty for offenses that lead to another person’s death, the law mandates 10 years in prison for any instance of forced labor in relation to cybercrime.
The law’s approval also comes two days before the United Nations International Organization for Migration’s World Day Against Trafficking in Persons. This year the international body will commemorate the day on July 30 under the theme “Trapped Behind the Scam.”
People from various countries, who were working in the KK Park compound in Myanmar cross over to Thailand, as seen from Mae Sot District, Tak Province area on Oct. 24, 2025. (Sarot Meksophawannakul/Thai News Pix/AFP via Getty Images)
“People trapped in scam compounds are victims of trafficking, forced to commit crimes through violence, threats and coercion. They deserve protection, not punishment,” IOM Director General Amy Pope said in a statement. “We must work together to support survivors, stop traffickers and close the gaps these criminal networks exploit. No country can tackle this alone.”
The United Nations estimates that South Pacific scams resulted in the loss of over $114 billion in 2025.
