What’s a Pig Butchering Scam? Here’s How to Avoid Falling Victim to One.

🌈 Abstract

The article discusses a type of online fraud known as "pig butchering", which involves scammers creating fake online personas to gain the trust of victims and then manipulate them into investing money in fraudulent schemes. The article provides a detailed overview of how these scams typically unfold, including the various tactics used by the scammers to lure and exploit their targets.

🙋 Q&A

[01] Create a Fake Identity

1. How do the scammers typically begin the "pig butchering" scam? The scammers start by creating a fake online persona, often accompanied by an alluring profile photo (which may have been stolen) and images that convey a glamorous lifestyle.

2. What are some of the methods used by scammers to initiate contact with potential victims? Scammers may send messages to people on dating or social networking sites, or they may use WhatsApp or another messaging service and pretend to have reached a "wrong number" when contacting the victim.

[02] Win the Trust of the Target

1. What are some of the tactics used by scammers to gain the trust of their targets? Scammers often initiate benign conversations about life, family, and work in order to gather information about the target that they can later use to manipulate them. They also fabricate details about their own life to make themselves seem similar to the target, as people tend to trust those who are like them.

2. Can you provide an example of how a scammer might use a target's personal information to build trust? The article mentions that when a Houston woman revealed that her brother was born with cerebral palsy, a scammer countered with a similar-sounding tale, which helped to build a sense of connection and trust.

[03] Sign Them Up

1. How do scammers typically transition the conversation to investment opportunities? Scammers will often pivot the conversation to discussing investing, making claims about their own purported investing successes and trying to convince the target to open an account at their online brokerage, which is actually a sham.

2. What tactics do scammers use to make the investment opportunity seem legitimate? Scammers may tout the reliability of the MetaTrader trading app, pointing out that it is available in the Apple App Store as a way to suggest it is safe and trustworthy.

[04] Get Them to Put Real Money into the Fake Account

1. How do scammers guide their targets through the investment process? Scammers will "help" the target wire money from their bank account to a crypto wallet and then to the fake brokerage. They often start with a modest initial investment that shows a gain, in order to build trust.

2. Can you provide an example of how a scammer manipulated a target into investing more money? The article describes how one scammer, who called herself Jessica, escalated the pressure on a California man over 9 days, convincing him to first use his cash on hand, then tap his retirement savings, and finally borrow money to invest.

[05] "Prove" that it's Legitimate

1. How do scammers convince targets that the investment is legitimate? Scammers often allow targets to withdraw money once or twice, which helps convince them that the process is trustworthy. For example, a Canadian man named Sajid Ikram was allowed to withdraw 33,000 Canadian dollars, which helped persuade him that the investment was real.

2. What happens when targets try to withdraw larger amounts of money? Once targets reach a limit and become unwilling to deposit more funds, their seeming investment success comes to a sudden stop. Withdrawals become impossible, or they suffer a big "loss" that wipes out their entire investment.

[06] Manipulate Them into Investing More

1. What tactics do scammers use to pressure targets into investing more money? Scammers exploit targets' emotional and financial vulnerabilities, assuring them that the investments are risk-free and then escalating pressure to take out loans, liquidate retirement savings, and even mortgage their homes.

2. Can you provide an example of how a scammer manipulated a target into investing more? The article describes how one scammer, over the course of 9 days, pushed a California man to first use his cash on hand, then tap his retirement savings, and finally borrow money to invest, ultimately leading to the loss of $440,000 and then an additional $600,000.

[07] Cut Them Off

1. What happens when targets reach a limit and become unwilling to deposit more funds? At this point, the scammers suddenly cut off the target's access to the investment, either making withdrawals impossible or claiming a large "loss" that wipes out the entire investment.

2. Can you provide an example of how a scammer cut off a target after they had invested a large amount of money? The article describes how the California man lost $440,000 that he had deposited, and was then persuaded to invest an additional $600,000, which also disappeared.

[08] Use Their Desperation to Your Advantage

1. How do scammers exploit their targets' desperation to try to recover their lost funds? Scammers tell victims that there is a potential solution - if they deposit more cash into the brokerage, they can regain what they lost. They may claim there are "tax problems" or other fees that need to be paid, but no matter how much the target pays, it is never enough.

2. Can you provide an example of how a scammer used this tactic to extract more money from a victim? The article includes an excerpt from an FTC complaint filed by a pig butchering victim in Maryland, who lost almost $1.4 million because the scammer kept demanding additional payments for "taxes", "security deposits", and "withdrawal fees" in order to get their money back.

[09] Taunt and Depart

1. What do scammers typically do once their targets realize they have been swindled? Once the targets realize they have been scammed, the fraudsters often insult or taunt them. They then go silent, and the websites of their phony brokerages stop working. They then relaunch a new website under a different URL and restart the process with other targets.

2. Can you provide an example of how a scammer taunted a victim after defrauding them? The article describes how, after nearly four months of chatting and $30,000 in losses for a Michigan victim, her scammer seemed to revel in unveiling the financial and emotional deception.