In September 2025, Vera Kravtsova, a 26-year-old Belarusian model, was lured to a scam park in Myanmar due to a lucrative online job offer. She was reportedly beaten due to poor performance and then sold to a human organ trafficking group, where her organs were harvested before she was killed. The family received extortion demands of $500,000, claiming they could assist in retrieving her body or ashes.
On October 6, 2026, the Yangzi Evening News reported that the Mandalay Region Court in Yangon, Myanmar, on October 1, sentenced five Myanmar citizens to 21 years in prison with hard labor for their involvement in luring and recruiting a Belarusian woman under the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Law Article 38(a).
The defendants – Jawktoo (also known as Zawktoo), Sin Mintun, Ye Lin Tun (also known as Ko Ye), Ninyet, and Manam Bong Hong (also known as Sofia, Li Li, Jing Jing) – were accused of enticing the woman with money and benefits to bring her into Myanmar.
According to the Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB) on October 6, five other individuals suspected of trafficking Vera to the scam park in Myanmar, forcing her into labor, and exploiting her wages are still at large. They include Myo Zaw Lin, Wa Thon Aung (also known as Wa Thon), Yan Paing Soe (also known as Ah Nge Lay), and two Tajik nationals Mukair Shoev Rustam and Odinaen Alijon, for whom arrest warrants have been issued.
Reports from Myanmar and Russian media indicate that Vera, originally from Minsk, Belarus, had later moved to St. Petersburg, Russia. She had appeared in talent shows, balancing roles as a singer and model, graduating in a music-related field. Vera frequently shared her travels and life on social media and had visited several Southeast Asian countries.
In early September 2025, Vera saw an online job advertisement for a high-paying modeling position, bought a ticket, and traveled to Bangkok, Thailand, for an interview. She arrived in Bangkok on September 12 through Suvarnabhumi International Airport. On September 20, she flew from Bangkok to Yangon, Myanmar, on Thai Airways flight TG301. Thai immigration confirmed her solo departure and customs procedures through biometric data and airport surveillance footage.
After reaching Yangon, Vera lost contact with her family and was taken to a scam park in northern Myanmar or along the Thai-Myanmar border. There, she was forced into “romance scams,” falsifying identities on social platforms to establish fake relationships with foreign men, persuading them to invest in cryptocurrency or participate in gambling.
She was required to meet daily performance targets at the park, facing physical abuse if goals were not met. Subsequently, Vera was sold to a human organ trafficking group, where her organs were illegally harvested before being killed and her body cremated. The family received extortion messages demanding $500,000 for her remains or ashes, which they refused to pay, subsequently learning that Vera’s body had been cremated.
The Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed the disappearance of its female citizen and initiated cooperative investigations.