NetworkTigers on how responding “hi” to a stranger’s text may be the start of a pig butchering scam and financial ruin.
A pig butchering scam is an online confidence trick and investment fraud, with the scammer carefully executing several stages.
- Select target. The scammer preys on victims through social media, dating apps, or even “wrong number” messages.
- Build relationship. The scammer creates a fake online persona to build trust and establish a romantic or emotional connection.
- Pitch investment opportunity. Once trust is established, the scammer lures the victim into investing in a seemingly lucrative cryptocurrency platform.
- Demonstrate profits. A bogus platform controlled by scammers allows them to manipulate the results to show fake profits.
- “Slaughter” the victim. Encouraged by the fake success, the victim invests more and more money. Eventually, the scammer disappears with all the invested funds, leaving the victim with nothing.
The term “pig butchering” comes from the analogy of slowly fattening up the victim with promises of high returns before slaughtering them financially.
Financially-motivated scams targeting victims via personal, one-on-one interactions and conversations have grown in prevalence and effectiveness.
A recent study revealed that, globally, victims have lost as much as $74 billion to pig butchering scams over the last four years, and that only accounts for reported crimes.
The next time you feel compelled to say “hi” to a message from a stranger, you may want to think again. Pig butchering scams tend to follow the same playbook:
Select target and make contact
The first step a criminal takes is to contact their victim. This can be done through a fake social media or dating app profile festooned with attractive photos stolen from other people or a phony “wrong number” text in which the bad actor leads their mark to believe they made an honest mistake before attempting to initiate a conversation.
The conversational tone largely depends on the context. For example, the subject matter of a rogue text message is likely to begin as small talk. Contact through social media or dating platforms, on the other hand, preys on a victim’s loneliness or desire for connection.
Build a relationship and trust
Once contact is initiated, the next step in the criminal’s mission is to gain the victim’s trust. The scammer asks questions to glean information, create empathy, or reveal common ground. Topics can be as benign as chatting about the weather or as personal as discussing a relative’s cancer diagnosis.
The butchers are adept at identifying any means of manipulating their victims, and they will explore any avenue they can in their pursuit of profit.
Set the trap by pitching an investment
No matter how the discourse begins, the conversation will inevitably turn to finance and investing. The criminal will make claims about the success they have experienced through investing in crypto, recommending that the victim do the same and offering to assist them in the process.
Once the victim expresses interest in growing their wealth, the criminal will move on to the scheme’s next phase.
Demonstrate how much profit can be made
The butcher introduces the victim to an app or platform through which they can deposit money and watch it grow. Depending on the strategy the criminal employs, the platform may be fraudulent or legitimate.
Initially, victims may withdraw money from the account to dispel skepticism. When they have confidence in the platform, the criminal convinces them to deposit more money.
Depending on the victim’s willingness, this can result in harmful financial decisions, such as liquidating retirement funds, mortgaging homes, and taking out loans or borrowing from friends and family.
Slaughter the victim financially and disappear
The last part of the scam sees the criminal and the victim’s money disappear. This happens when the scammer realizes a mark has given all they’re willing to do or when they start to get wise about the scheme.
This brutal exit strategy leaves many victims with little left of their life savings. Additionally, the shame associated with being ripped off can take a devastating toll on a victim’s mental health.
In some cases, the scammer’s final correspondences are sadistic, poking fun at the victim and sarcastically thanking them for being of low intelligence.
How to identify a pig butchering scam
The following warning signs likely indicate that you are on the receiving end of a scam campaign:
- Unexpected contact from someone you don’t know
- Requests for financial information
- Invitations to participate in investment opportunities
- A refusal to interact in person or face-to-face
- Too-good-to-be-true promises of financial growth or romantic relationships
- Appeals to guilt, desperation, or other powerful emotions
- Questions regarding financial stability, medical bills, etc.
Who is doing the pig butchering?
Individuals on the receiving end of a pig butchering scam are clearly victims. It seems the majority of scammers are victims, too, lured into human trafficking after being promised high-wage jobs. Once kidnapped, many are sent to compounds in Southeast Asia, where they are forced to meet quotas or face torture and starvation. These compounds, run by organized criminals, are patrolled by armed guards that prevent escape. The term “slave labor” is highly appropriate for this kind of operation.
The captives are also motivated by threats to their family members, who in turn are extorted for ransom money in exchange for freedom that is likely never granted.
What at face value appears to be individual crooks operating in service to their own greed by taking advantage of those desperate enough to trust them is, in fact, a highly structured humanitarian crisis in which a select few at the top are raking in massive profits from the suffering of many, including those doing the scamming.
The complex truth behind pig butchering schemes speaks to the fundamental nature of organized cybercrime and highlights the urgency of exposing and punishing the puppet masters who pull the strings.
What to do if you get scammed
While average citizens may feel powerless against the threat of organized international crime, greater awareness of pig butchering scams and how they work can prevent more people from falling for them, making them less profitable.
Victims are urged to contact law enforcement and their financial institutions immediately if they feel they have been scammed. The more time passes, the more complicated it is to trace assets and the less likely they can be recovered.
About NetworkTigers
NetworkTigers is the leader in the secondary market for Grade A, seller-refurbished networking equipment. Founded in January 1996 as Andover Consulting Group, which built and re-architected data centers for Fortune 500 firms, NetworkTigers provides consulting and network equipment to global governmental agencies, Fortune 2000, and healthcare companies. www.networktigers.com.
