“Pig Butchering” The Ultimate Financial Slaughter
Introduction:
Imagine having someone you thought you could trust emotionally manipulate you, swindle your life savings, and leave you to pick up the pieces of a shattered future.
This isn’t just a cautionary tale; it’s a horrifying reality for thousands who fall prey to the rapidly growing “Pig Butchering” scam.
A friendly hello from a charming stranger quickly turns into a nightmare where the line between love and fraud blurs, ruthlessly butchering your financial security.
This global scheme lures you in with promises of wealth, only to fatten you up for a merciless slaughter—leaving you broken, both emotionally and financially. If you think it can’t happen to you, think again.
Thousands of people have lost enormous sums of money after falling for fraudulent internet investment schemes set up by really attractive strangers who initiate online discussions with them.
One type of fraud on social media and dating services is rapidly expanding globally.
“Tinder trading scam” is what investigators term it, but the criminals mockingly call it “pig butchering.”
If you’re like most people, a stranger with an attractive social network profile picture has probably contacted you via chat or text at least once.
A simple “Hello” or a seemingly friendly misunderstanding about why your phone number appears in that person’s contact book is the beginning of it all.
These messages are frequently anything but random, though.
These are the first steps in a process that will eventually guide you from a pleasant conversation to online investing, and ultimately, to witnessing your money disappear into a scammer’s account.
A procedure known as “pig butchering,” which refers to the process of fattening a pig before slaughter, began in China and spread throughout the world during the Corona epidemic.
Today’s criminal networks prey on individuals worldwide, frequently coercing South-east Asian trafficked victims into committing schemes against their consent.
Pig butchering: what is it?
Also referred to as “Sha Zhu Pan or Shazhupan,” or the “Killing Pig Game,” the Pig butchering scam is a kind of long-term fraud and investment scam in which the victim is progressively tricked into contributing more and more money, typically in the form of cryptocurrency, to a fraudulent cryptocurrency scheme.
Their use in social applications is widespread. Victims of dating apps increased from 5% in 2018 to 12% in October 2023.
Through online discussion, the scammer gains the victim’s trust before persuading them to invest in a phoney bitcoin scheme.
Theft of a victim’s property or assets is considered “butchering” or “slaughtering” of the victim.
During the COVID-19 epidemic, the scam, which started in China in 2016 or before, expanded throughout South-east Asia.
The perpetrators are typically victims of fraud factories, where organized crime groups get them to fly overseas under false pretenses, smuggle them to another place, and coerce them into committing fraud.
Tinder connection
Scammers use cunning techniques to steal millions.
Frequently, it begins with a passionate Tinder connection.
Perpetrators first establish an emotional bond.
They then use phoney websites to persuade their victims to invest in cryptocurrencies. In the end, they lost both money and affection.
The bulk of victims to date have been men, despite the fact that the offenders also communicate with female victims, particularly through social media.
The psychological impact on the affected individuals is severe, in addition to the financial harm.
Regrettably, many individuals opt not to report the crime.
Anxiety and depression are possible.
In certain instances, the offenders even encourage the victims to end their own lives.
In order to humiliate someone financially, scammers typically approach them online, establish an emotional bond, or mimic a friendship.
The con artists in the “Tinder Trading Scam” are not pretending to have financial difficulties, in contrast to the so-called “Love Scam,” which is a contemporary online marriage hoax.
Conversely, they try to entice their victims into making their own investments by advertising alluring deals with shares or cryptocurrencies.
The identities of the criminals are fictitious; for example, they use influencers’ images or occasionally intentionally created photos (known as “deepfakes”).
Digital counterfeiting is becoming more widespread.
This kind of deception occurs in every nation. Since more frauds occur daily, legislation should be passed to control this sector and address these issues.
Modus operandi
These scams are systematic and extremely well-organized.
Here’s how scammers typically operate:
First Stage: “Finding the Pig”
We use dating services and social networks to connect with the “prey” or target individual.
Usually, a messenger switch follows immediately. There, scammers entice victims with promises of money and love.
- They make a fake profile.
Pig butchers typically begin by creating an online persona, often complete with a seductive photo (which they may have stolen) and images that depict a glamorous lifestyle.
- They made contact.
Scammers begin texting people on dating sites or social networks as soon as they create an online profile.
As an alternative, they can pretend to have found the “wrong number” while calling you over WhatsApp, Viber, Messenger, or another messaging app.
Despite the apparent innocence of this type of contact, you should remain vigilant at all times.
- They gain the target’s trust.
Talking to the potential victim and earning their trust is the next stage.
Scammers frequently strike up harmless discussions about work, family, and life in an attempt to elicit personal information from their victims that they can use to control them later.
They will create aspects of their lives that mirror yours.
People tend to favor those who are similar to them, after all.
Again, exercising caution is never sufficient.
The second stage is “Fattening Pigs.”
The discussion skilfully veers toward purportedly profitable Internet investing ideas as it goes along.
The sites tricked people into believing they were making a lot of money if they signed up.
To encourage those affected to invest all their savings (more).
- They begin discussing investing.
Scammers will soon start talking about investments.
They might post screenshots of a brokerage account with impressive data to support their claims about their own purported investing success.
They will make an effort to persuade their targets to register for an online brokerage account. Because the brokerage is fraudulent and does not know the target, the scammer will directly receive any provided money.
The majority of victims are unaware of that final aspect until it is too late.
The third stage involves “Butchering the Pig.”
The criminals attempt to “squeeze” every last penny out of the victims during phase 3.
The concerned party delays any withdrawal or refund requests, charges a substantial additional withdrawal fee, and ultimately terminates the contract.
Apparently, all of the invested money has vanished.
- Transferring funds to a fictitious account
Scammers will “assist” people in the investing process once they agree to learn investment tactics.
Scammers will describe the process of moving funds from your bank account to a cryptocurrency wallet and then to a phoney brokerage firm.
The fraudster will typically help the process along by suggesting a small initial investment that will undoubtedly provide a profit.
In order to convince victims that the process is reliable, scammers frequently ease their first concerns by allowing them to withdraw money once or twice.
- Getting people to invest more money
And that’s only the start.
Guides on pig butchering include information on how to take advantage of their financial and emotional weaknesses to trick them into making increasingly larger deposits.
The urge to take out loans, liquidate retirement funds, or even mortgage the house increases after initial promises that investments are risk-free.
- Cut them off
Targets’ apparent financial success abruptly ends when they reach the limit and lose interest in making additional deposits.
They either experience a significant “loss” that wipes out their entire investment or withdrawals become impossible.
- They make the most of their desperation.
By telling victims they could recover their losses by depositing more with the brokerage, the con artists tightly controlled the manipulation.
Sometimes, a successful investment may have a “tax problem” that requires additional payments, such as 10% or 20% of the account’s total value.
If the victim pays, the scammer would claim that new challenges have emerged and more fees are required.
Targets never make enough money, no matter how much they pay.
- Scoffing, they leave
The scammers frequently make fun of or humiliate their victims after they realize they have been duped.
They soon stop talking and take down their phoney brokerage websites.
After that, they start the process over with new goals and publish a new website with a different URL.
In order to give their plan more authenticity, scammers also create phoney brokerage websites and mobile applications, which make it harder for victims to tell them apart from authentic platforms.
To those who are impacted
- Please examine who is texting you carefully online, particularly if the sender is never available for a video call or in-person meeting and prefers to switch from dating sites to messaging apps as soon as possible after making initial contact.
- Be cautious if someone asks you to pay with cryptocurrency.
An additional piece of advice is that web browsers might be able to identify fake profiles.
For me, reporting the offenders is really crucial. Anyone could become a victim of this type of fraud and scam.
This post was written by Mario Bekes