Northcrest Capital Review: Trading signals “click a button” Ponzi

Since 2021 BehindMLM has documented hundreds of “click a button” app Ponzis. Most of them last a few weeks to a few months before collapsing.

“Click a button” app Ponzis disappear by disabling both their websites and app. This tends to happen without notice, leaving the majority of investors with a loss (inevitable Ponzi math).

In the lead up to a collapse, “click a button” Ponzi investors also tend to find their accounts locked. This typically coincides with a withdrawal request.

As part of a collapse, “click a button” Ponzi scammers often initiate recovery scams. This sees the scammers demand investors pay a fee to access funds and/or re enable withdrawals.

If any payments are made withdrawals remain disabled or the scammers cease communication.

Organized crime interests from China operate scam factories behind “click a button” Ponzis from south-east Asian countries.

In September 2024, the US Department of Treasury sanctioned Cambodian politician Ly Yong Phat over ties to Chinese human trafficking scam factories.

Through various companies he owns, Phat is alleged to shelter Chinese scammers operating out of Cambodia.

Myanmar claims to have deported over 50,000 Chinese scam factory scammers since October 2023. With “click a button” app scams continuing to feature on BehindMLM though, it is clearly not enough.

In late January 2025, Chinese ministry representatives visited Thailand. The stated aim of the visit was to tackle organized Chinese crime gangs operating from Myanmar.

In early February 2025, Thailand announced it had cut power, internet access and petrol supplies to Chinese scam factories operating across its border with Myanmar.

As of February 20th, Thai and Chinese authorities claim ten thousand trafficked hostages had been freed from Myanmar compounds.

Also on February 20th, five Chinese crime bosses were nabbed in a wider raid of four hundred and fifty arrests in the Philippines.

On March 19th it was reported that, despite the recent raids and arrests, “up to 100,000 people” are still working in Chinese Myanmar scam factories.

As of April 2025 and in response to a crackdown across Asia, newly opened Chinese scam factories have been reported in Nigeria, Angola and Brazil.

Myawaddy is an area in Myanmar along the Thai border. Myawaddy is under the control of the Karen National Army (KNA).

The KNA, led by warlord Chit Thu (right) and sons Saw Htoo Eh Moo and Saw Chit Chit, protect and profit from organized Chinese criminals running “click a button” Ponzi scam factories.

On May 5th the US imposed sanctions on Chit Thu (right).

The Treasury said the warlord, Saw Chit Thu, is a central figure in a network of illicit and highly lucrative cyberscam operations targeting Americans.

The move puts financial sanctions on Saw Chit Thu, the Karen National Army that he heads, and his two sons, Saw Htoo Eh Moo and Saw Chit Chit, the department said in a statement, freezing any U.S. assets they may hold and generally barring Americans from doing business with them.

Britain and the European Union have already imposed sanctions on Saw Chit Thu.

A May 25th report cites Myanmar and Loas as having “towering scam economies”. Cambodia however is reported to be a hotspot for Chinese criminal activity.

Cambodia is likely the absolute global epicentre of next-gen transnational fraud in 2025 and is certainly the country most primed for explosive growth going forward.

Cambodia is becoming the centre of an exploding global scam economy driven primarily by Chinese organised crime.

Chinese gangs are reported to operate in Cambodia under the protection of unnamed local politicians.

In June 2025, Amnesty International claimed Cambodia’s government was

“deliberately ignoring” abuses by cybercrime gangs who have trafficked people from across the world, including children, into slavery at brutal scam compounds.

The London-based group said in a report that it had identified 53 scam centres and dozens more suspected sites across the country, including the Southeast Asian nation’s capital, Phnom Penh.

The prison-like compounds were ringed by high fences with razor wire, guarded by armed men and staffed by trafficking victims forced to defraud people across the globe, it said, with those inside subjected to punishments including shocks from electric batons, confinement in dark rooms and beatings.

In July 2025 Cambodia arrested over 1000 cybercrime suspects. Twenty-seven of those arrested were members of Chinese criminal gangs.

In October 2025 US authorities announced the indictment of Chen Zhi, founder and Chairman of Prince Holding Group.

Zhi, originally from China but having obtained Cambodian citizenship at some point, is accused of being the “mastermind” behind Chinese organized crime operations in Cambodia.

“As alleged, the defendant was the mastermind behind a sprawling cyber-fraud empire operating under the Prince Group umbrella, a criminal enterprise built on human suffering.

Trafficked workers were confined in prison-like compounds and forced to carry out online scams on an industrial scale, preying on thousands worldwide, including many here in the United States,” said Assistant Attorney General for National Security John A. Eisenberg.

Individuals held against their will in the compounds engaged in cryptocurrency investment fraud schemes, known as “pig butchering” scams, that stole billions of dollars from victims in the United States and around the world.

Cambodia doesn’t have an extradition treaty with the US. As at time of publication, Chen Zhi remains at large.

On October 20th, Myanmar authorities announced seizure of thirty Starlink devices, used to provide internet services to scam compounds operating from KK Park.

KK Park is a notorious Chinese-run scam district operating from within Myanmar near the Thailand border.

On October 22nd Vorapak Tanyawong, Thailand’s deputy finance minister, resigned over alleged bribery from Chinese organized crime groups.

The “Whale Hunting” newsletter alleged that Vorapak’s wife was paid US$3 million in cryptocurrency this year by Chinese-Cambodian criminal networks that he was tasked to investigate as part of a government committee.

On October 31st Singapore announced it has seized $115 million tied to Chen Zhi’s Prince Group.

On November 3rd, Myanmar authorities announced they had been bombing buildings in KK Park for nine days. The bombings coincided with the arrest of 1600 foreigners fleeing the compound.

As of Monday morning 1,598 had been detained, 265 of them women, he said. An informed source said they came from 28 countries.

Prince Holding Group’s Chen Zhi was arrested in Cambodia in early January 2026.

Zhi was promptly extradited to China, where he faces criminal charges related to “operating casinos, fraud, illegal business operations and concealing criminal proceeds”.

On March 13th, 2026, Cambodia announced it had drafted its first law targeting online scam centers.

On April 10th, 2026, Thai authorities announced they had seized $260 million tied to south-east Asian scam operations.

The latest seizure by the Anti-Money Laundering Office included cash, cars, bank deposits and other securities, bringing the total value of assets confiscated in the widening probe to more than 20 billion baht, officials said at a briefing in Bangkok on Thursday.

The network of offenders included South African-born businessman Benjamin Mauerberger, also known as Ben Smith, Cambodian tycoon Yim Leak, and their spouses, as well as a Thai woman who carried out financial transactions on their behalf.

On April 23rd, 2026, the DOJ filed criminal charges against Chinese nationals Jiang Wen Jie (Jiang Nan) and Huang Xingshan (aka  Ah Zhe and Huang Xing Saan).

The Scam Center Strike Force’s actions include criminal charges against two Chinese nationals who managed a cryptocurrency investment fraud compound in Burma and attempted to open another compound in Cambodia, the seizure of a Telegram messaging app channel used to recruit human trafficking victims to a scam compound in Cambodia in order to work a law enforcement impersonation scam, and the seizure of 503 fake investment websites, among other actions.

Huang and Jiang were arrested on immigration charges by Thai law enforcement in early 2026 in Thailand.

That same day the US Department of Treasury also announced sanctions against Cambodian Senator Kok An (right).

Today, the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated Kok An—a Cambodian senator who controls scam compounds throughout the country—as well as 28 individuals and entities in his network.

On April 24th, 2026, the US announced a $4 million reward leading to the arrest of Daren Li (right).

The Department of State’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs is announcing a reward offer under the Transnational Organized Crime Rewards Program (TOCRP) of up to $4 million for information leading to the arrest of Daren Li for facilitating the laundering of proceeds for various scam centers in Southeast Asia.

Li fled the US following his arrest and entered guilty plea. Li was sentenced in absentia to twenty years in prison on February 9th, 2026.

On April 29th, 2026, the DOJ announced a “coordinated takedown of scam centers” that led to 276 arrests.

Unprecedented cooperation between the FBI, Dubai Police Department, and Chinese Ministry of Public Security has resulted in the arrest of at least 276 individuals and the dismantlement of at least nine scam centers used for cryptocurrency investment fraud schemes.

Thet Min Nyi (27, a Burmese national), Wiliang Awang (23, an Indonesian national), Andreas Chandra (29, an Indonesia national), Lisa Mariam (29, an Indonesian national), and two fugitive co-conspirators have been charged with federal fraud and money laundering charges unsealed in San Diego today.

Dubai Police apprehended Thet Min Nyi, Chandra, and Mariam, while the Royal Thai Police apprehended Awang.

While not confirmed, involvement of the Chinese Ministry of Public Security suggests the two fugitives are Chinese nationals.

Regardless of which country they operate from, ultimately the same group of Chinese scammers are believed to be behind the “click a button” app Ponzi plague.