Law enforcement raids and arrests are no longer enough to clamp down on Myanmar’s growing cyber scam industry, forcing the military-backed parliament to pass a draft bill imposing longer prison terms for individuals and groups organizing crypto scam operations and internet fraud factories.
Despite having an authoritarian government led by civilian leader Min Aung Hlaing, Myanmar continues to deal with online scams, which have been growing following the military coup in 2021, with groups taking advantage of the unrest to establish scam centers and launder funds from unsuspecting victims from around the globe, particularly in Southeast Asia.
A BBC report in 2025 estimated that around 100,000 people were lured in by Chinese fraud and gambling operatives to work in scam operation centers. This issue, however, is not confined to Myanmar but also impacts Thailand, as victims are trafficked by these organized crime groups to areas along the Thai-Myanmar border, prompting the Civil Society Network for Human Trafficking Victim Assistance (CSNHTV) in June 2026 to pressure Thai authorities to take immediate action.
Countries like the United States and China also urged Myanmar to enact measures to clamp down on cyber scam operations, which led to the passage of the Anti-Online Scam Bill last week.
The planned legislation passed through parliament after lawmakers reconciled differences between versions previously approved by its two chambers, Cointelegraph reported, citing data from state-run Global New Light of Myanmar (GNLM). However, existing reports made no mention of whether the draft bill had received presidential assent.
Under the Anti-Online Scam Bill, individuals and groups found to be operating fraudulent schemes and scam factories, including those tied to cryptocurrencies, will be subject to lifetime imprisonment, a significantly harsher penalty than the previous maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.
Additionally, if the fraud committed resulted in the death of a victim, Myanmar may impose capital punishment, which is also applicable to offenses that cause “violence, torture, unlawful arrest and detention, or cruel treatment against another person for the purpose of forcing them to commit online scams,” Lower House member of parliament Aye Chan confirmed to the Agence-France Presse last week.
Myanmar appeared to have little choice but to impose harsher penalties for scam operations, as lighter punishments in recent years had only “displaced and dispersed” scam networks rather than dismantling them, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
The Anti-Online Scam Bill is the first piece of legislation passed under Min’s government since he assumed office as civilian president in April after ousting Aung San Suu Kyi and overthrowing her elected civilian government.
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