Beyond the Mekong | Society | Southeast Asia

POGOs and Online Scams, From the Philippines to Myanmar

A conversation with award-winning Filipina journalist Eunice Barbara Novio.

Buildings in the Shwe Kokko “scam city” in Myawaddy Township, Karen State, Myanmar, as seen from the Thai side of the border, Nov. 9, 2022.

Filipina journalist Eunice Barbara Novio. (Photo supplied)

Eunice Barbara Novio is a Thailand-based journalist and an English lecturer at Vongchavalitkul University who has has written extensively on human trafficking in Southeast Asia, particularly focusing on Filipino victims trafficked to Myanmar.

A veteran writer for Inquirer.net, she has reported about how trafficking networks lure Filipinos with false job offers, only to exploit them in scam hubs or forced labor situations.

Novio has also helped victims of organized crime escape from their ordeal, particularly from compounds operating inside Myanmar and close to the Thai border.

She told The Diplomat’s Luke Hunt that the current scam compound phenomenon had its roots in the Philippines dating back to 2016, when Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators, commonly known as POGOs, took hold and flourished........

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