Criminals, like legitimate businesses, target different market niches. Consider the difference between a luxury car dealership\u2019s showroom, with its jewel-like vehicles and perfect lighting, and that used car lot with the lowest prices and the biggest signs (\u201cWE FINANCE EVERYONE!!! GOOD\/BAD\/NO CREDIT!!!\u201d). They\u2019re in the same business, but with a vastly different clientele. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Scammers are the same way. Some are content to bilk Uncle Harry out of a couple of hundred dollars, but others target well-to-do victims and invest significant time in building relationships with them on the way to a Really Big Score. One of these big-ticket scams has become known as \u201cpig butchering,\u201d and despite the inelegant name, it\u2019s a very smooth, sophisticated operation. Here\u2019s what you need to know about it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pig butchering scams aren\u2019t a whole new thing, they\u2019re a mashup and refinement of other scams that have been around for a while. They combine evergreen elements from the \u201cscammers\u2019 greatest hits\u201d – catfishing<\/a>, investment scams<\/a>, romance scams<\/a> – but it\u2019s the way the whole scam is conducted that sets it apart. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Ordinary romance scams are often carried out by a single criminal who does all of the work. Pig butchering scams, on the other hand, are big business and are managed as such. They draw on a full team of illicit operatives: some who create a persona with a fully fleshed-out back story, others who handle the necessary coding, still others who manage the group\u2019s financial machinations, and finally one photogenic person to play the role on-camera. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Scammers are, in their narrow way, experts in psychology. Ordinary people are often out of their depth when dealing with one skilled con artist, and scams are even more dangerous when they can draw on such a deep pool of resources. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the days when most of the country were rural dwellers, families typically kept a pig. It would forage for itself all summer in the woods and pastures, and be fattened on the family\u2019s food waste, and then in autumn be slaughtered to provide food (and cooking fat) for the winter to come. The term \u201cpig butchering\u201d (it\u2019s a literal translation from Chinese) refers to that months-long process of feeding the pig, and the correspondingly large reward at the end. The online scam shows a similar philosophy, targeting affluent victims and cultivating them over an extended period<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Usually, the initial contact between scammer and potential victim comes in the form of an oh-so-casual encounter, perhaps a comment on one of your social media posts or a message that has (apparently) come to your number by mistake. If you reply, you\u2019ll find yourself in a long conversation with this new acquaintance, who just happens to be highly attractive. They may also have a low-key sob story to tell (a bereavement, a bad breakup, etc.), which is psychologically useful: it creates a bond (we\u2019ve all been through bad times, right?), and it neatly explains why this random stranger is willing to suddenly be your new BFF. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Over a period of months, sometimes many months, the victim develops a deep emotional bond with this new online acquaintance (this is the \u201cfeeding up the hog\u201d stage). Along the way your new friend\/potential lover will casually mention having some success at investing (usually in cryptocurrency). After a time, once you\u2019ve gotten used to the idea that financial acumen is part of your new acquaintance\u2019s skill set, there will come a day when you\u2019ll be invited to invest as well. That\u2019s when the metaphorical knives come out. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The actual scam part of the operation is usually the same kind of investment scam (typically, but not invariably, revolving around cryptocurrency) that you\u2019d run into on platforms like Reddit<\/a> or Instagram<\/a>. The details are limited only by the scammers\u2019 creativity, but usually it boils down to an opportunity to take advantage of an \u201cinvestment opportunity\u201d that includes some combination of above-average returns, rapid returns, and\/or a flat-out guarantee that you\u2019ll make money. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Typically you\u2019ll be guided through setting up a trading account, either through a website or an app that you\u2019ll download. Either way, it\u2019s either created or controlled by the scammers. Guided by your new friend you\u2019ll make a few initial investments, which will show rapid and impressive gains on your money. You may even get to withdraw some of your (chimerical) profits<\/a>, which gives the whole enterprise an even greater veneer of legitimacy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n So then you\u2019re coaxed into investing some serious money, because why not set yourself up for life with a big windfall? That, of course, is when the scammers collect their payoff. Whatever resources you\u2019ve used to fund your investment – your existing investments, your life\u2019s savings, a home equity line of credit – well, you\u2019ve lost them. If you\u2019re really<\/em> unfortunate, and already had money in other crypto investments, they may also have drained your wallet of those previously-earned funds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s possible that a given criminal syndicate might offer some other form of investment, perhaps involving stock markets or emerging economies and sectors (\u201cget in on the ground floor of AI!\u201d) but most often the \u201cpig\u201d will be fed a steady diet of cryptocurrency. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Crypto has a lot of advantages for scammers. It has a high level of visibility, thanks to loads of press over the past several years (and those Super Bowl ads certainly didn\u2019t hurt), and everybody knows that there are fortunes being made in crypto. The flip side is that most people don\u2019t know a lot about it, and – unlike conventional financial vehicles – potential investors don\u2019t have a century or more of guidance to draw on. That combination of high visibility and low expertise means that almost anybody is a potential victim, as long as they have the money to invest. <\/p>\n\n\n\n A final, and very important, advantage is that cryptocurrency transactions are typically irreversible. Not only that, there are some well-established tools to help anonymize funds transfers so it\u2019s very difficult indeed to find out where the money went. Agencies like the FBI are getting better at tracking down stolen or fraudulently-obtained cryptocurrency, but if the criminals are based in a country that won\u2019t prosecute scammers or extradite them to the US, that doesn\u2019t mean a lot (and most pig butchering is carried out by Chinese organized-crime rings). <\/p>\n\n\n\n As we\u2019ve mentioned, a typical pig-butchering scam harnesses a team that can include scores of people. Many spend their days in character, replying to messages from dozens of potential victims, posing as the persona behind the face you see in video chats. They\u2019re the crime-ring equivalent of burger-flippers; low-level, low-income employees in a dead-end job (note that many scammers won\u2019t video-chat with you, but that\u2019s such an obvious red flag that the biggest gangs now often use an on-camera \u201cspokesmodel\u201d). <\/p>\n\n\n\n For many it\u2019s worse than that. Crime rings are, by nature, not the most scrupulous of employers. Often these scams originate out of \u201cboiler rooms\u201d where large numbers of young people, lured by job advertisements, toil away in abusive conditions that sometimes teeter into outright slavery<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n While the gangs themselves are typically headquartered in China, the scams are often run from locations scattered around Southeast Asia in impoverished corners of Cambodia, Vietnam and several other countries. The ideal situation is some combination of official inattention, local corruption, and people desperate enough to seize any employment opportunity, however dubious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You may think you\u2019re safe from pig-butchering scams because \u201cthose target rich people, and I\u2019m not rich.\u201d Well, try this little mental exercise. How much money could you put into a really<\/em> good investment opportunity, if you stretched yourself a little? If your answer is over $70,000, it\u2019s more than what half of Americans earn in a year (the country\u2019s median income in 2021<\/a> was $69,717). Realistically any answer even close to that figure means you\u2019d be passably affluent by most worldwide standards, and if it reaches six figures then you\u2019re a slam-dunk (whether you feel<\/em> rich or not). <\/p>\n\n\n\n So the first big question is whether in the past few months you\u2019ve struck up a new acquaintance, who has become one of your most-frequent chat partners, but whom you\u2019re unconnected with in real life? Okay, that happens a lot in today\u2019s world. But have they moved the conversation from its original setting (social media, dating app, an apparently errant text) to a private messaging platform like WhatsApp or Telegram? Have they oh-so-casually brought cryptocurrency (or investments in general) into the conversation? Do they always seem to be around, no matter when you message? <\/p>\n\n\n\n Even if you\u2019re thoroughly persuaded that you\u2019re interacting with a real person, with a real life (\u201cbut I\u2019ve seen so many pictures!\u201d), if any of those questions struck a chord for you it\u2019s time to dig a little deeper. Set aside your feelings, and take a long, hard look back through your chat history. <\/p>\n\n\n\n If you\u2019re wondering how a security professional might go about unmasking a pig-butchering scheme, you\u2019re in luck. One crime ring had the spectacular misfortune to target a senior researcher at security firm Sophos, and he\u2019s written about it at length<\/a>. Obviously he has access to tools (and skills) that you don\u2019t, but some of the steps are certainly transferable. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In his case, the face of the scam was a young woman who claimed to be Malaysian-Canadian, and the owner of a (real) west-coast winery. Her backstory included an outlet store in Vancouver, which even showed up in a search on Apple Maps, but turned out to be bogus when he used Google\u2019s Street View to look at the actual location (by all means, do this if your suspected scammer claims to operate a storefront). <\/p>\n\n\n\n Oh, and the photos that helped make the backstory sound so credible? Many of them were taken in Phnom Penh, and images of the winery clearly showed that they were taken in France. You can use Google\u2019s Reverse Image Search<\/a> to do similar research, or any photo software to zoom in and look for tell-tale details like out-of-place phone numbers, street names or license plates. <\/p>\n\n\n\n If the (possible) scammer claims to be a US resident, you can also use Spokeo\u2019s Background Check<\/a>, Email Lookup<\/a>, Address Search<\/a> or Reverse Phone Lookup<\/a> to verify them. Results that contradict the information you\u2019ve been given (or each other) are a big red flag. <\/p>\n\n\n\n If any of these previous steps have raised doubt in your mind, well\u2026 good! That\u2019s especially so if the conversation has already moved to the \u201cinvestment opportunity\u201d stage. While cryptocurrency is new and unknown territory for most investors, a few of the old, immutable truths still apply: <\/p>\n\n\n\n If in doubt, make note of the URL of the site where you\u2019re expected to make your investment (or download the corresponding app). You can look those up on a central Web registry<\/a>, to see when it was founded and who owns it. If it has only been set up in the preceding weeks (or days!), and if the ownership data is obscured or doesn\u2019t coincide with what you\u2019ve been led to expect, there\u2019s a strong likelihood you\u2019re being set up. <\/p>\n\n\n\n If you believe you\u2019re in contact with a pig-butchering crime ring, you\u2019ll want to reach out to the authorities immediately. That may include your local law enforcement agency, but you should also report the incident to the FBI\u2019s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3)<\/a>, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA)<\/a>, and the FTC\u2019s Report Fraud website<\/a>. Save and take screenshots of all of your interactions with the suspected scammer, to the extent that you can, because it\u2019ll help the investigation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n You may also want to report the details to public-awareness platforms like the AARP\u2019s Scams Hotline<\/a> or the BBB\u2019s Scam Tracker<\/a>, which potentially can help the next person avoid getting scammed in similar fashion. Going on the local news, or putting word out on your own social media platforms, can also bring visibility to the problem (though it can be a bit embarrassing for you, personally). <\/p>\n\n\n\n If you\u2019ve already lost money, there\u2019s unfortunately little you can do about it. Banks will usually cover your losses due to a hack or data breach, but not if you\u2019ve voluntarily sent money to a scammer. You may, at best, be able to cancel any pending payments or transfers (should there be any). Law enforcement may eventually recover some of the money, but that\u2019s a long shot. So is action against the scammers, but it does<\/em> actually happen occasionally<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The biggest single thing you can do to protect yourself against pig butchering, as with any scam, is simply to educate yourself (so congratulations for reading this far!). If you know how the scammers work, you\u2019ll be \u201cinoculated\u201d – to some extent, at least – against falling for one of these scams. <\/p>\n\n\n\n After that, it all comes down to vigilance. Scammers are always out there, and they only need you to be vulnerable once. So the next time you get a text from an apparent wrong number, just ignore it. Don\u2019t engage, even to the extent of responding that it\u2019s a wrong number. Whether it\u2019s legitimate, or a scammer trying to catch your attention, they\u2019ll eventually get the hint and stop messaging. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Sources<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Criminals, like legitimate businesses, target different market niches. Consider the difference between a luxury car dealership\u2019s showroom, with its jewel-like vehicles and perfect lighting, and that used car lot with…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":112,"featured_media":25550,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[614],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26564","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-safety"],"yoast_head":"\nHow a Pig Butchering Scam Typically Works<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Then Comes the \u201cInvestment Opportunity\u201d <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Why Crypto is Usually Involved<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
We\u2019re Not the Only Victims<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
How to Recognize a Pig-Butchering Scam<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Looking for Discrepancies<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Apply a Healthy Dose of Skepticism as Well<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Reporting a Suspected Pig Butchering Scheme<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
As Always, Forewarned is Forearmed<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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