"SpaceX disables thousands of Starlink devices being used by Myanmar scam centers", 24 October 2025

SpaceX has disabled over 2,500 Starlink devices being used by cyber scam syndicates operating in a lawless corner of Myanmar, the Elon Musk-led company said ...

Despite regional authorities’ highly publicized crackdowns on the cyberfraud centers along Myanmar’s border with Thailand this year, the scamming networks have continued to proliferate in the civil war-afflicted nation.

SpaceX said it works to identify violations in all markets where Starlink operates.

“On the rare occasion we identify a violation, we take appropriate action, including working with law enforcement agencies around the world,” said Lauren Dreyer, SpaceX’s vice president of business operations for Starlink, in a post on X.

“In Myanmar, for example, SpaceX proactively identified and disabled over 2,500 Starlink Kits in the vicinity of suspected ‘scam centers’.”

Dreyer did not provide a date for when the consoles were disabled, but the announcement comes after the Myanmar military junta said it discovered 30 sets of Starlink “receivers and accessories” during a raid on one such scam compound …

There are about 30 sprawling, purpose-built compounds dotted along the Myanmar-Thai border that are dedicated to scamming victims, including Americans, out of billions of dollars every year, according to a recent report by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.

… For more than a year, concerns have been raised by the United States that criminal networks in Myanmar were using Starlink to access the internet and carry out their scams.

… The US Congress Joint Economic Committee has begun an investigation into Starlink’s alleged involvement in the centers, according to the AFP investigation…

The move by SpaceX comes as the global scam industry is growing at an unprecedented rate, according to the UN Office of Drugs and Crime, …