Pig Butchering
- Brady Heiges
- Nov 15, 2023
- 3 min read
Pig Butchering
By: Brady Heiges
Edited: 11/15/2023
What is pig butchering? How could something like pig butchering be a financial crime? The short answer is that the act of the theft of money is long and drawn out, like that of raising a pig for slaughter.
How They Start
Typically, a scammer will reach out to you via Facebook, other social media, or remote messaging apps, such as WhatsApp. The scammer will typically have a fake online profile that looks legitimate to gain your initial trust. They could also make attempts to develop a friendship or pursue you romantically online. The stranger usually will have an odd, but believable excuse as to how or why they are reaching out. Examples could be that they found you by mistake or that the two of you have some mutual friends in online profiles and they thought they might reach out. These schemes can last anywhere from a few days to a month or more depending on how fast they can build trust within their victim.
Over this initial period, the scammer will make general conversation with you and have long-drawn personal conversations with you. It is common for the scammer to send you pictures of a person. They will claim to be this person to further gain your trust in this part of the scheme. If you find yourself trusting someone in a scenario like this, remember to ask them to video chat. Refusal is a red-flag indicator that they are not who they claim to be. The scammer may even claim to be of a class of people that would commonly receive empathy like a U.S. service member stationed overseas, according to finra.org. Throughout this rapport-building process, the scammer will attempt to learn information about you that would later be used as a bargaining chip. Regardless of the time spent trying to gain your trust, naturally, they guide the conversation to money-related topics.
Readying the Kill
Oftentimes, the scammer will pass on the idea that you could make a lot of money by following their direction. Common themes among reported schemes involve the scammer claiming connections with financial institutions, such as Goldman Sachs or JPMorgan Chase. Using the reputation of another company, they will try and offer you unsolicited advice and appealing investment opportunities. Remember, if it seems too good to be true, it probably is. The scammer may even provide you with falsified screen captures of their investment portfolio, showing large profits.
A route that is gaining traction is cryptocurrency investments. Digital currency makes it much easier to avoid regulatory bureaus and hide the money. The scammer will attempt to convince you to trade crypto using a specific app, typically made by the scammer’s network to gain access to your financial information like account numbers, routing numbers, et cetera. It is important to note that an ethical employee of a reputable financial institution would not be reaching out through their own social platforms.
Slaughtering the Pig
Once the scammer has gained your trust and gained access to your finances, they will allure you with significant profits from your first investment. It will not be long before the situation flips, commonly leaving you with serious financial losses. If the scammer convinced you of the crypto route, you may suddenly lose the ability to log into your account or withdraw funds. If they convince you to invest in a stock portfolio, the scammer will often send a notice about the stock price taking a nosedive and recommending that you invest more to make up for the losses, trying to bleed you of every dollar you have. When you try to withdraw your funds, they will often try to scare you with early withdrawal penalties and steep tax rates associated with your investment. In many cases, the scammer will simply cease contact after your investment tanks.
Things to Look Out For:
Random contact from an unknown person(s).
Denial of Facetime, Zoom, or any other video calls. Even if a fraudster answers they still may be using artificial intelligence to create a fake face like Munch AI.
They are requesting your financial information.
Reasonable and ethical people will not ask for your financial information over an unsecure network, like social media or text.
Offering investment opportunities on the internet.
Inability to clearly articulate the investment opportunity.
Unrecognizable trading apps or venues.
Pressure through emotive language, or any “guaranteed” return.
“Don’t you want to have a healthy retirement?”
“Don’t you want your kids to be able to afford college?”
Real investment brokerages will not try to pressure you through empathetic scenarios.
Making comments on upcoming events relating to stock prices.
This would be insider trading, which is a federal crime with a punishment of up to 20 years of jail time. This is not something a reputable investment brokerage will be involved in.
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