Hardly a day passes when we fail to notice some sort of scam on our phones or in our emails, attempting to trick us into downloading malware, revealing a password, or making a payment for something that isn't genuine. However, there is one scam that is becoming more and more popular that you really don't want to fall for.
A "pig butchering" scheme is so named because the perpetrators will "fatten up" a victim to gain their trust before "butchering" them — generally by convincing them to invest significant sums of money in a fake venture and then stealing it all.
The US Department of Justice reported that four males, three of whom were from Southern California, were recently charged in connection with such a scheme. According to the DOJ, the scam cost victims $80 million.
The DOJ charged Alham Lu Zhang, 36, of Alhambra, Justin Walker, 31, of Cypress, Joseph Wong, 32, of Rosemead, and Hailong Zhu, 40, of Naperville, Ill., with conspiracy to commit money laundering, international money laundering, and concealing money laundering. Zhang and Walker were arrested and appeared in court last week. If convicted, they risk a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.
Pig butchering fraudsters mostly learn about their victims on dating sites or social media, or by ringing and pretending to have dialled the wrong number, the federal officials said in a release. The frauds are mostly carried out by criminal organisations from Southeast Asia that exploit human trafficking victims to reach out to millions of people around the world. Scammers establish relationships with victims in order to earn their trust and, in many cases, present an idea of using cryptocurrencies to make a business venture.
When it comes to cryptocurrencies, victims are lured to fictitious investing platforms where they accidentally transfer their money to accounts under the control of scammers. The victims are then persuaded to contribute more and more money by the platform's false presentation of substantial returns on investment. But when they eventually go to take their money out, the con artists either ignore them or simply take off with the money.