Inside The AI Powered Scam Compounds of Southeast Asia

From Job Seeker to Forced Scammer

A Kenyan man's search for a better life took a dark turn when a promised customer service job in Thailand turned out to be a trap. Duncan Okindo, 26, says he was lured to Southeast Asia with the hope of supporting his family, only to be abducted upon arrival. He was transported across the border into the notorious KK Park, a fortified complex in a lawless region between Myanmar and Thailand, guarded by heavily armed men.

Instead of a legitimate job, Okindo found himself a prisoner, forced to work for four months inside a massive fraud operation. His story offers a chilling look at the human trafficking crisis fueling these scam compounds and reveals how modern technology is being weaponized by criminal syndicates.

Inside an AI-Powered Fraud Factory

The facility was a typical example of the region's large-scale scam centers, largely operated by Chinese-led gangs. Okindo described a vast room filled with hundreds of other forced laborers, each sitting at a computer. Their mission: to defraud unsuspecting victims across the globe. A key tool in their arsenal was the free version of ChatGPT, used to craft sophisticated messages for cryptocurrency investment schemes.

These operations, known as "pig-butchering," rely on meticulously building trust with a target before convincing them to invest their money, which is then stolen. While Reuters could not independently verify every detail of Okindo's account, his story aligns with the testimonies of numerous other survivors rescued from similar compounds.

ChatGPT The Scammer's Perfect Partner

The specific scam Okindo was forced to work on targeted real estate agents in the United States, whose contact information he found on property websites. Posing as a wealthy investor, his daily quota was to convince at least two agents to deposit money into what they believed were investment platforms but were actually accounts controlled by the scammers.

Okindo called ChatGPT "the most-used AI tool to help scammers do their thing." It enabled workers with little to no knowledge of American culture to sound authentic, using local expressions and creating convincing backstories. He impersonated characters like cattle ranchers from Texas and soybean producers from Alabama, telling his targets they had made a fortune in cryptocurrency. "You need to feel familiar," he explained. "If you miss any point, the realtor will know that you are a scam."

The AI also served as an on-the-fly research assistant. When targets asked detailed questions about crypto or local housing markets, Okindo would feed the questions into ChatGPT to generate instant, plausible answers.

The Brutal Reality Behind the Scams

Life inside the compound was governed by fear and violence. The bosses provided scripts for the scams but also enforced strict quotas. Okindo said workers who failed to meet their targets were punished severely—they were publicly humiliated, beaten, and shocked with electric batons. In stark contrast, a successful scam that brought in a large sum of money was met with forced celebrations where workers had to pound on drums.

Okindo described the experience as stripping him of his dignity, reducing it "to ashes." His ordeal ended in April when the Thai government cut off electricity to KK Park, forcing the operators to release some of their captives.

AI's Role in Other Deceptive Schemes

The use of AI in these compounds is not limited to financial fraud. Reuters also spoke with two Burmese men who were forced to work in similar operations. They revealed that the public release of ChatGPT transformed their work, particularly in "romance scams."

One man explained how he used the AI to charm and manipulate victims into giving away their money. With ChatGPT, he could simultaneously woo dozens of people with unique, AI-generated poems and flirtatious messages. He noted the bot's persuasive writing made his targets "trust more in us," making the scams more efficient and successful.

A Perilous Escape and Lingering Fear

Since returning to Kenya, Okindo has faced new challenges, including financial hardship and social stigma. More terrifying, he fears for his safety, believing that local affiliates of the Southeast Asian cartels are aware of him. He has already received threatening phone calls, a constant reminder of the powerful and dangerous network he escaped.