Cambodia drug raid video misrepresented as Myanmar scam centre crackdown

As Myanmar raided a notorious scam centre on its border with Thailand, a video was shared in social media posts falsely claiming it showed the junta making arrests at a hub in the frontier area of Myawaddy. The video in fact shows a drug bust in Cambodia, confirmed by an AFP reporter who covered the raid in Phnom Penh.

“Video of a scam centre raid in Myawaddy today, October 20, 2025,” reads the Burmese-language caption of a Facebook video shared on the same day.

The video, which was shared more than 1,500 times, shows a group of people with their hands zip-tied being escorted out of a building by police officers.

It circulated after Myanmar’s junta said it raided one of the most notorious scam centres located along the Thai-Myanmar border and seized Starlink satellite internet devices, after an AFP investigation revealed an explosion in their use in the multibillion-dollar illicit industry (archived link).

Internet sweatshops where workers scam unsuspecting foreigners with business or romance schemes have thrived in war-ravaged Myanmar’s lawless border regions since the coronavirus pandemic shut down casinos operating in the area.

While some scam workers are clearly trafficked into the centres, experts say others go voluntarily to secure huge pay packets.

Thai authorities said more than 1,000 people, mostly Chinese, fled from Myanmar into Thailand in the days after the raid (archived link).

The video was also shared alongside identical claims on Facebook and YouTube.

But the video does not show arrests made at a Myanmar scam centre.

A combination of keyword and reverse image searches on Google led to a similar TikTok video published by the Cambodia-based outlet Fresh News Daily on October 16 (archived link).

“The Narcotics Control Department raided a building and arrested several men and women,” reads its Khmer-language caption. It said the arrest took place in Phnom Penh’s Chamkar Mon district.

Photos of the raid were also used in an article published by the Khmer Times, which reported that up to 200 people were arrested (archived link).

An AFP journalist who covered the raid confirmed the video was filmed in Phnom Penh.

Moreover, a building visible in the background of the falsely shared video corresponds with Google Street View imagery from Phnom Penh, captured in October 2022 (archived link).

AFP has previously debunked other false claims related to the Myanmar scam centres.