Over 1,000 enter Thailand from Myanmar after scam hub raid

BANGKOK, Oct 24 (AFP): More than 1,000 people, mostly Chinese, have fled from Myanmar into Thailand this week, Thai authorities said on Friday, after the Myanmar military raided one of the country's largest scam centres.

Sprawling cyberscam hubs, where fraudsters swindle victims through online cons, have flourished along Myanmar's loosely governed border during its years-long civil war.

While some scammers are trafficked into the often-fortified compounds, experts say others work voluntarily, hoping to earn more in the multibillion-dollar illicit industry than they can at home.

Thailand's Tak provincial office said 1,049 people had crossed from Myanmar into Mae Sot district from Wednesday to Friday morning -- up from the 677 who had fled the KK Park scam compound as of Thursday morning.

Nationals from India, Pakistan, Vietnam, Myanmar, Thailand and more than a dozen other countries were among them, the office said in a statement.