SpaceX Disables 2,500 Starlink Terminals Allegedly Used By Asian Scam Centers (arstechnica.com)
- Reference: 0179854486
- News link: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/10/23/0311231/spacex-disables-2500-starlink-terminals-allegedly-used-by-asian-scam-centers
- Source link: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/10/starlink-blocks-2500-dishes-allegedly-used-by-myanmars-notorious-scam-centers/
> Lauren Dreyer, vice president of Starlink business operations, described the action in [2]an X post last night after reports that Myanmar's military shut down a major scam operation: "SpaceX complies with local laws in all 150+ markets where Starlink is licensed to operate," Dreyer wrote. "SpaceX continually works to identify violations of our Acceptable Use Policy and applicable law... On the rare occasion we identify a violation, we take appropriate action, including working with law enforcement agencies around the world. In Myanmar, for example, SpaceX proactively identified and disabled over 2,500 Starlink Kits in the vicinity of suspected 'scam centers.'"
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> Starlink is not licensed to operate in Myanmar. While Dreyer didn't say how the terminals were disabled, it's known that Starlink can disable individual terminals based on their ID numbers or use geofencing to block areas from receiving signals. On Monday, Myanmar state media reported that "Myanmar's military has shut down a major online scam operation near the border with Thailand, detaining more than 2,000 people and seizing dozens of Starlink satellite Internet terminals," according to an Associated Press [3]article . The army reportedly raided a cybercrime center known as KK Park as part of operations that began in early September. The operations reportedly targeted 260 unregistered buildings and resulted in seizure of 30 Starlink terminals and detention of 2,198 people.
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> "Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun, the spokesperson for the military government, charged in a statement Monday night that the top leaders of the Karen National Union, an armed ethnic organization opposed to army rule, were involved in the scam projects at KK Park," the AP wrote. The Karen National Union is "part of the larger armed resistance movement in Myanmar's civil war" and "deny any involvement in the scams."
[1] https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/10/starlink-blocks-2500-dishes-allegedly-used-by-myanmars-notorious-scam-centers/
[2] https://x.com/LaurenDreyer/status/1980816703459082632
[3] https://apnews.com/article/scam-centers-cybercrime-myanmar-a2c9fda85187121e51bd0efdf29c81da
Re: (Score:2)
Even if they try to hide their traffic through mules they need trunk connections for their volume. They can only get those from a handful of companies and even with mules those are easy enough to find for the CIA. Cut them off, or cut who provides them off, or cut who provides their provider off ... it will work.
Re: (Score:2)
PS. it would become difficult if China starts giving them microwave links directly into their system and obscures their traffic, at that point you would have to cut off China. Though at that point I think you should cut off China.
Well that was fast (Score:2)
Said they could/should do just that here a while ago. With heuristics and triangulation it's easy for them to find these operations.
For some reason Feds and Starlink suddenly woke up and stopped looking the other way. They let it grow to ridiculous size in the meantime though.
Now keep going and (secondary) sanction any telecom company cooperating with these outfits into bankruptcy, they are easy enough to track. These centralized criminal enterprises reliant in telecom should not exist, it's far too easy to
Re: (Score:2)
You have no obligation to communicate with them, if they don't clean up their act cut off the entire country. Problem solved, they will get it done.
There is a time and place for multilateralism, but also for Trumpianism.
Speedy judgement (Score:1)
We are hearing one side of the story. The side of a military dictatorship.
Everywhere? (Score:2)
""SpaceX complies with local laws in all 150+ markets where Starlink is licensed to operate,"
They don't switch off the Internet in Algeria during the high-school exams (Baccalaureate), like everybody else, so I guess there will be a few vans with suspicious antennas parking in from of the exam centers. :-)
Re: (Score:2)
Starlink isn't licensed to operate in Algeria though. If you don't license them, you get no control over how they deal with connections from spill over areas.
Starlink is not licensed to operate in Myanmar (Score:2)
Aiding and abetting....the scammers !
Missed Opportunity... (Score:3)
Starlink should have badly degraded the service and when contacted for tech support, forward the calls to a pakistani scam call center. It would have been a full snake eat tail opportunity.