In a Southeast Asian war zone, cloaked in dense rainforest, the Chinese settlement dedicated to scamming people from Kentucky to Kazakhstan grew fast on fertile ground.

在東南亞一片戰火紛飛、熱帶雨林茂密的地帶，一座專為詐騙而生的中國人聚居區在這片沃土迅速擴張，詐騙對象遍佈於從美國肯塔基州到哈薩克的世界各地。

Over just a few months, a sprawling office park materialized and metastasized in the chaotic borderlands of Myanmar, with cavernous rooms holding rows of computer monitors and walls decorated with inspirational work slogans: “Dream chaser,” “Keep going,” “Making money matters the most.” In video conference suites, bookshelves stocked with fake business tomes and ersatz modern art simulated the kind of boardroom a successful crypto investor might inhabit.

短短數月間，一座規模龐大的辦公園區在緬甸局勢混亂的邊境地帶拔地而起，且不斷向外蔓延。園區內，寬敞的房間裡整齊排列著成排電腦顯示器，牆上貼著各類勵志的工作標語：「逐夢者」、「永不止步」、「賺錢至上」。影片會議室內，書架上擺滿了假的大部頭商業書籍和仿製現代藝術品，營造出成功加密貨幣投資者可能使用的那種董事會會議室氛圍。

The scam center, Shunda Park, opened for business in 2024 with more than 3,500 workers from nearly 30 nations, including Namibia, Russia, Zimbabwe and France. Some had been kidnapped and enslaved, but all had become skilled in the art of the online grift. When the scammers bilked $5,000 out of someone, they struck a Chinese gong. A $50,000 shakedown earned a celebratory pounding of a giant drum, then an offering to a Chinese deity resplendent in his golden altar.

這座名為順達園區的詐騙中心於2024年投入運營，僱傭了來自納米比亞、俄羅斯、辛巴威、法國等近30個國家的3500餘名工作人員。其中部分人是被綁架後遭到奴役，但所有人都已練就了嫻熟的網路詐騙伎倆。每當詐騙團伙成員成功騙取5000美元，他們便會敲響一面中國銅鑼；若騙得5萬美元，則會擂響大鼓以示慶賀，隨後還會在金碧輝煌的神壇前祭拜一位中國神祗。

While each nationality required a different approach — for Americans, one scammer told me, the preferred mark was “white old men” — the general approach was the same: an online foray by a sympathetic and attractive person, followed by an invitation to participate in a select investment opportunity.

儘管針對不同國籍的目標需要採取差異化的詐騙手段——一名詐騙團伙成員向我透露，針對美國人的詐騙，首選目標是「白老男」——但總體套路如出一轍：先由一名形象討好、善解人意的人主動在網上搭訕，隨後再邀請對方參與所謂的「專屬投資良機」。

Victims were not just lonely hearts or technologically timid retirees. Using generative intelligence and deepfake videos, as well as fraudulent businesses, websites and financial apps, the scammers at Shunda embraced the long con and reeled in people from almost every demographic.

受騙者並非只有孤寡人士或不懂科技的退休老人。順達園區的詐騙團伙成員藉助生成式人工智慧、深度偽造影片，再搭配虛假企業、偽造網站和非法金融應用程序，精心布局長線騙局，幾乎將各類群體都捲入其中。

But in late November, Shunda Park was unexpectedly captured by a rebel force long at odds with the Myanmar military, whose coup nearly five years ago catapulted this Southeast Asian nation into civil war and created a chaotic space for criminality to thrive. The photographer Jes Aznar and I were granted rare access to the scam compound to document the inner sanctum of this secretive, highly fortified industry. Shunda Park had been closed for business by the rebel militia, but we were able to meet some of its scammers, both those who were trying to return home and others who wanted to find another job in the fraud business.

然而去年11月下旬，長期與緬甸軍方對抗的一支反政府武裝出人意料地攻佔了順達園區。五年前，緬甸軍方發動政變，推翻了民選政府，將這個東南亞國家拖入內戰深淵，也為各類犯罪活動的滋生提供了溫床。我與攝影師傑斯·阿斯納爾獲得特許，得以進入這座詐騙園區，記錄這個高度戒備的祕密產業核心區域。彼時順達園區已被反政府武裝勒令停業，但我們還是見到了部分詐騙團伙成員——他們中有的一心盼著返鄉，有的則盤算著再找一份詐騙行當的工作。

With millions of people falling victim to online shakedowns every year, the cyberscamming industry has quickly grown into one of the planet’s most lucrative criminal enterprises, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.

聯合國毒品和犯罪問題辦公室的數據顯示，全球每年有數以百萬計的民眾淪為網路詐騙受害者，這一產業已迅速蛻變為全球利潤最豐厚的犯罪行當之一。

In the United States alone, in 2024, at least $10 billion was stolen through cyberscams run out of Southeast Asia, the U.S. Treasury Department said. That figure is likely only a fraction of the true toll because victims are often too embarrassed to admit they have been fooled. Late last year, the United States formed its first ever federal task force to combat scam centers and the Chinese transnational crime networks that American investigators say run them.

The Myanmar junta, which has imprisoned members of an elected government and killed thousands of civilians, recently vowed to tackle the scam networks. But its current crackdown feels like a Potemkin exercise. The global profits from online cons rival the gross domestic products of the countries where the fraud factories have proliferated, including Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos.

緬甸軍政府曾監禁民選政府成員並殺害數以千計平民，近期突然宣稱要重拳打擊詐騙網路。但外界普遍認為，此次所謂的打擊行動不過是一場表面功夫。網路詐騙帶來的全球非法收益，甚至堪比緬甸、柬埔寨、寮國等詐騙工廠泛濫國家的國內生產總值。

These illicit proceeds do not just line the pockets of the gangs, most of which are originally from China; dirty money also flows to powerful elites across the region — most of all, crime-watchers say, to powerful people in the conflict-ridden, failed state of Myanmar.

這些黑錢不僅塞滿了犯罪團伙（其中多數源自中國）的腰包，犯罪問題觀察人士指出，贓款還流向了該地區各國的權貴——尤其是在深陷戰亂、近乎崩潰的緬甸，大量非法收益落入這些人之手。

Our journey to Shunda Park occurred during what was supposed to be a lull in the fighting between the Myanmar military and the opposition militia, known as the Karen National Liberation Army. (The Karen, pronounced Kuh-REN, are one of Myanmar’s many ethnic groups that have been persecuted by the military for generations.)

我們前往順達園區時，恰逢緬甸軍方與反對派武裝克倫民族解放軍之間的戰事暫歇。（克倫族是緬甸眾多遭受軍方世代迫害的少數民族之一。）

By the time we arrived in the village of Min Lat Pan, where Shunda Park is, the lull had ended. Our visit was punctuated by the thud of mortar rounds and the crackle of small-arms fire. At least three shells flew over our heads and landed across the river in neighboring Thailand. The next day, a 60-millimeter mortar hit a building where we had been sheltering the day before, wounding three people, including our guide.

可當我們抵達順達園區所在的敏拉潘村時，短暫的平靜已然被打破。迫擊炮的轟隆與輕武器的噼啪聲貫穿了我們此行的始終。至少有三枚炮彈從我們頭頂呼嘯而過，落入邊境線另一側的泰國境內。次日，一枚60毫米口徑的迫擊炮擊中了我們前一天居住的一棟建築，造成三人受傷，其中包括我們的嚮導。

What we discovered inside Shunda Park’s thick walls ringed by razor wire resembled a set for an apocalyptic film. Amid white office blocks, Chinese restaurants and luxury villas reserved for the compound’s Chinese bosses, bonfires burned, consuming the tools of the illicit economy. Piles of electronic equipment — keyboards, tangles of cables and thousands of cellphones — littered the site. In some buildings, with nearly every step I took, I crunched on SIM cards, scattered like snow in the tropical heat.

順達園區四周高牆環繞，牆頭架設著帶刺鐵絲網，園區內部的景象宛如末日題材電影的布景。在白色辦公大樓、中式餐館，以及專供園區中國老闆居住的豪華別墅之間，篝火熊熊燃燒，正在焚毀用於非法勾當的工具。鍵盤、纏繞的線纜、數以千計的手機等電子設備堆積如山，散落各處。某些建築裡，我每走幾步就會踩到SIM卡碎片，它們在熱帶高溫下像雪片一樣散落。

While members of the Karen militia handed over armfuls of evidence to the police in Thailand, along with a man identified as the compound’s Chinese boss, no representatives of foreign governments or intelligence agencies have come to Shunda Park to investigate. Now, the fighting has intensified, and all of Shunda Park’s workers have scattered. Other proof of scamming has gone up in flames.

克倫民族解放軍已將大批證據，連同一名被指認為園區中國老闆的男子一併移交給泰國警方，但迄今為止，沒有任何外國政府或情報機構的代表前往順達園區展開調查。如今戰火愈演愈烈，順達園區的所有工作人員都已四散奔逃，其餘詐騙證據也盡數化為灰燼。

“We are trying our best, but we are not scam experts,” said Padoh Saw Taw Nee, the spokesman for the K.N.L.A.’s political wing, as he leafed through a notebook with instructions on how to cheat middle-aged women in Taiwan. “We do not like that our land is known as the place where criminals cheat people.”

「我們已經盡了最大努力，但我們並非打擊詐騙的專業人士，」克倫民族解放軍政治組織發言人巴杜·索·陶尼一邊翻閱一本記錄著如何詐騙台灣中年女性的手冊，一邊說道。「我們不希望自己的土地淪為犯罪分子坑蒙拐騙的罪惡之地。」

The layers of victimhood at a place like Shunda Park are complex. Many of the scammers who worked here say they were duped, too. They arrived in neighboring Thailand, thinking they had been hired for well-paying tech or marketing jobs. Others thought they were checking out merchandise for online sales businesses. Instead, they were hustled at gunpoint across the river that demarcates the border with Myanmar.

在順達園區這樣的地方，受害者的身份呈現出複雜的多層性。許多曾在此處工作的詐騙團伙成員稱，他們自己也是受害者。他們原本以為在鄰國泰國找到了高薪的技術或營銷工作，或是去考察電商商品，結果卻被人用槍指著，強行押解著渡過界河，進入緬甸境內。

I spoke with several scammers whose bodies bore scars from beatings or tight shackles. They never received payment for their 12-hour shifts, they said. Life was a Sisyphean loop: sleep, eat, scam, eat, sleep, scam.

我與幾名詐騙者交談過，他們的身上留有毆打和鐐銬留下的疤痕。他們表示，即便每天要工作12小時，也從未拿到過一分錢報酬。生活就像一個西西弗斯式的死循環：睡覺、吃飯、詐騙、吃飯、睡覺、詐騙。

Kason, a 22-year-old from Malaysia who is being identified only by his first name, said he suffered only two “hard” beatings. But his legs and torso were crisscrossed with traces of lacerations from what he called “many, many” smaller beatings.

22歲的馬來西亞青年卡森（他只同意透露自己的名字）稱，自己只遭受過兩次「嚴重」的毒打，但雙腿和軀幹上縱橫交錯的傷痕都源自他所說的「無數次」的輕微毆打。

His job for more than a year was to send endless “hellos” into the social media ether. If he did not receive responses from at least 5 percent of the greetings, then he would be punished physically, he said.

過去一年多來，他的工作就是在社群媒體上無休止地發送「你好」之類信息。他說，要是發送問候的回覆率達不到5%，就會遭受體罰。

Ivan, a Malaysian who once worked as a member of the ground staff at the Singapore airport, said he was chained in a crucifixion position and denied food for days.

另一名馬來西亞人伊萬曾是新加坡機場的地勤人員，他說自己曾被人以十字架的姿勢銬住，連續數日不許吃飯。

“You think you know hell,” he said, “and it’s actually even worse.”

「你以為自己知道地獄是什麼樣子，可這裡比地獄還要糟糕，」他說。

In one of the Shunda Park workrooms, bobblehead dolls and fake gold bars enlivened the space. At the front, near a statue of a Chinese god worshiped by the gangsters, were three port-a-potty style boxes that scammers said were used as punishment chambers, in clear sight of the rest of the room. Elsewhere in the compound, behind a barbecue restaurant, a row of cement torture cells was outfitted with bars and shackles.

在順達園區的一間工作室內，搖頭娃娃和假金條裝飾著這個空間。工作室前方，一尊被詐騙團伙供奉的中國神像旁，擺放著三個類似移動廁所的小隔間。詐騙團伙成員稱，這是用來懲罰違規者的禁閉室，且故意設在所有人都能看見的地方。在園區的另一處，一家燒烤店的後方，有一排水泥砌成的刑訊室，裡面配備了鐵欄杆和鐐銬。

Not all the workers at Shunda landed there unwillingly. Many of the Chinese employees at Shunda Park received salaries, a review of records in one finance office shows. A company called Huisheng International, for instance, had stacks of wage receipts, sick-leave forms and medical tests for H.I.V. and syphilis, among other diseases, all written in Chinese. Employees were identified by nicknames like “Eastern Dragon” or “Little Li.” Contracts in the office specified that workers would be bound by Myanmar labor law.

並非所有在順達園區工作的人都是被迫的。我們查閱了一間財務辦公室的記錄，發現許多中國僱員是有工資可拿的。例如，一家名為匯盛國際（音）的公司存有大量工資條、病假條，以及員工的愛滋病、梅毒等各類疾病的檢測報告，所有文件均為中文書寫。員工們都使用「東方龍」、「小李」之類的綽號。辦公室裡的合同還明確規定，員工需遵守緬甸勞工法。

While most of the workers at Shunda Park were transported to safety via Thailand, about 900 Chinese workers refused to leave for more than two weeks, despite the compound being in the middle of an active conflict zone. The Chinese government has periodically cracked down on the scamming industry, arresting Chinese workers who are repatriated. So tense was the situation that days before our visit, some Chinese workers had tried unsuccessfully to wrestle weapons away from the Karen soldiers, according to members of the militia and other scammers who witnessed the melee.

順達園區的大多數工作人員都已通過泰國轉移到了安全地帶，但仍有約900名中國工作人員在園區深陷戰火之際滯留了兩個多星期不肯離開。中國政府曾多次打擊詐騙產業，許多被遣返回國的中國詐騙團伙成員都被逮捕。據克倫民族解放軍成員和目睹了衝突的詐騙團伙成員稱，局勢一度十分緊張，在我們到訪的幾天前，部分中國工作人員曾試圖搶奪克倫士兵的武器未果。

All but one Chinese man at the compound refused to speak with me. The scammers shielded their faces with their hands or with masks. The one worker who agreed to talk said he had been promised a salary of 30,000 yuan a month, or $4,250. But upon arriving, he said, he only received 30,000 Thai baht a month, or $940. Records in the finance office showed base salaries of that amount.

園區內，除了一名中國男子外，其他人都拒絕與我交談。他們要麼用手捂著臉，要麼戴著口罩，不願以真面目示人。那名願意開口的男子稱，僱主曾承諾給他每月3萬元人民幣的薪水，可到了園區後，每月實際到手的只有3萬泰銖（約合940美元）。財務辦公室的記錄顯示，員工的基本工資確實是這個數。

“They tricked me,” he said of his employers. The boom of shelling punctuated our conversation.

「他們騙了我，」他這樣控訴自己的僱主。說話間，炮火的轟鳴聲不時傳來。

Around him, rotten food festered. On the basketball court and by a nightclub, fires smoldered. A French bulldog that used to be cared for by one of the compound’s Chinese managers padded by, before collapsing in the shade provided by a luxury sedan. The cars on site came from all over Myanmar, including a fire department vehicle from halfway across the country. There was also an oil tanker truck with Chinese license plates.

在他的周圍，腐爛的食物散發著惡臭。籃球場和一家夜總會旁，余火仍在悶燒。一隻曾被園區中國老闆飼養的法國鬥牛犬慢悠悠地踱著步，隨後癱倒在一輛豪華轎車投下的陰涼處。園區內的車輛來自緬甸各地，其中甚至有一輛來自該國另一端的消防車，還有一輛掛著中國車牌的油罐車。

The Myanmar military appears determined to reclaim Shunda Park, even as it dynamites buildings in other scam centers to show it is tough on crime. Workers at those raided sites, also run by Chinese criminal networks, however, say the crackdowns are just for show. In fact, some of the workers at Shunda said they had just arrived from these cleared out compounds. With international sanctions biting, Myanmar’s generals, supported by business allies and sympathetic militias, have embraced various illicit economies, making the country a global crime capital.

Outside the scam compounds, life is impoverished and insecure. The Myanmar military regularly launches airstrikes around Shunda Park, and across the rest of the country, targeting civilians. More than 3.5 million people nationwide are now displaced.

詐騙園區之外，民眾的生活貧困潦倒、充滿不安。緬甸軍方頻繁在順達園區周邊及全國各地發動空襲，目標直指平民。目前，全國已有超過350萬人流離失所。

As the shelling intensified, we climbed into pickup trucks and sped away. Our driver, the commander of the K.N.L.A.’s special forces, varied his speed to ward off the suicide drones that terrorize the area’s roads. A few days before, an armed drone detonated a bus length away from one of the trucks.

隨著炮火愈發猛烈，我們迅速登上皮卡車，疾馳撤離。我們的司機是克倫民族解放軍特種部隊指揮官，他不斷變速，以防該地區肆虐的自殺式無人機。就在幾天前，一架攜帶炸彈的無人機在距離他們車隊一輛卡車僅一個車身的位置引爆。

In the next village, in an area where an ethnic armed group aligned with the junta had held sway, I spotted more neat rows of scam centers being built, Chinese red lanterns hanging from the eaves. Chinese workers wandered through the construction site, shirts off in the heat.

在下一個村莊——這裡此前一直由效忠於軍政府的少數民族武裝控制——我看到更多排列整齊的詐騙園區正在興建，屋檐下懸掛著中國紅燈籠。中國勞工們光著膀子，在工地上忙碌穿梭，全然不顧熱帶的酷熱。

A few days later, the 900 or so Chinese workers left Shunda. Some went over the border to Thailand. But most headed to other Chinese compounds in the wilds of Myanmar, where scammers are busy finding their next victims.

幾天後，那900名左右滯留的中國工作人員終於離開了順達園區。一部分人越過邊境去了泰國，但大多數人都轉向了緬甸荒野中的其他中國園區，在那裡，詐騙團伙成員正忙著物色下一批獵物。