Following Myanmar’s military raids on scam centres in October 2025 that prompted over 1,000 people to flee to Thailand, social media users shared a video of a months-old attack falsely claiming it showed one of the cyberscam hubs being bombed. The footage actually depicts an airstrike on a monastery in Indaw, northern Myanmar, in April 2025.
“Oct. 24: Myanmar bombed the scammer building in KK Park. The second round was louder than the first. Shrapnel reached Thailand’s Mae Sot district,” reads a Thai-language TikTok post shared on October 24, 2025.
The caption also includes two hashtags: #ScammersinMyanmar and #MyanmarScammerBuildingExplosion.
The post — which garnered over 1.9 million views and 64,000 likes — shares a 15-second aerial clip of an explosion at a green-roofed building near a golden stupa, with coordinates on-screen suggesting it was filmed by a drone.
Screenshot of the false TikTok post, taken on October 27, 2025, with a red X added by AFP
Other posts sharing the same video with similar claims also appeared in Thai-language posts on TikTok and Facebook as well as in English.
More than 1,000 people, mostly Chinese, have fled from Myanmar into Thailand, Thai authorities said on the day, after the Myanmar military raided one of the country’s largest scam centres (archived link).
Thai authorities told AFP that most of those were believed to be from KK Park, a notorious scam centre located in Myanmar’s Myawaddy township.
Sprawling cyberscam hubs, where fraudsters swindle victims through online cons, have flourished along Myanmar’s loosely governed border during its years-long civil war.
AFP distributed photos of smoke at KK Park seen from Thailand’s side on October 24, as local media organisations Thai PBS and The Nation reported that Myanmar’s troops blew up scam centres at the complex (archived here and here).
But the circulating aerial footage does not depict the scam centre raid as claimed.
Old bombing video
A reverse image search using one of the video’s keyframes led to a longer version of the footage shared on a Facebook page of Indaw Revolution, a resistance group in Myanmar, on September 26 (archived here and here).
The Burmese-language caption says that it shows an airstrike on Indaw Myoma Monastery in Sagaing region, Myanmar, on April 1.
Screenshot comparison between the false TikTok post (L) and Indaw Revolution’s Facebook post
A voice can also be heard saying in Burmese the monastery has collapsed.
Through further keyword searches on Indaw Revolution’s Facebook account, AFP found a post from April 1 sharing satellite imagery over Indaw Township and saying that two civilians were killed by the bombings (archived link).
Another post on April 4 shared footage of the destroyed monastery (archived link).
Google Earth satellite imagery of the Indaw Township matched elements seen in the false post, including the buildings and the pagoda (archived link).
Screenshot comparison between the circulating footage (L) and the Google Earth imagery, with corresponding features highlighted by AFP
Myanmar Witness, an organisation that reports on human rights abuses in Myanmar, said on April 1 two Myanmar Air Force fighter jets dropped bombs on Indaw Myoma Monastery (archived link).
Democratic Voice of Burma also reported civilian casualties after the military forces bombed the monastery for two consecutive days: April 1 and April 2 (archived link).
AFP has previously debunked misinformation related to the scam centres.
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