A crypto scam nightmare

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Thursday, January 19, 2023 5:00 a.m.

People around the world are losing millions to a ‘pig-cutting’ scam — but it has more to do with crypto than our pig buddies, writes Elena Siniscalco

What does the dark Southeast Asian human trafficking industry, pigs and crypto have to do with you? More than you think. After all, the first rule of successful scams is that anyone can fall for it. And people all over the world are.

Those who created it call it Shzhpn pig slaughter. The victim, like a pig, is lured in, fattened up with the promise of quick money, then slaughtered when the scammer leaves with all his money.

Herds of tech-savvy youngsters fall for it.

Charcuterie was born in Asia and is still little known in Europe. Yet he found ripe conditions here in the UK: amid a cost of living crisis, investment scams are on the rise. UK Finance defines the current level of fraud in the UK as a threat to national security. And according to Marcus’ research by Goldman Sachs, Britons aged 18-34 are twice as likely as other age groups to fall victim to financial scams. Mix it all up and you have a dangerous cocktail of online insecurity. A country full of pigs to slaughter.

The consequences on people’s finances and well-being are disastrous. UK-based victim Karen shared her story with City AM but asked to remain anonymous as her family and friends don’t know. She says that after being scammed, she had suicidal thoughts. She had lost a quarter of a million pounds.

It all starts with a message. This can be on a dating app, Linkedin, or email. For Karen, it was on Facebook. It comes from someone who thinks you went to school together, shares your love for puppies, or is interested in your professional life. The scammer is polite, asks you about your day, and sends you pictures of the food he’s eating.

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Compound interest

Most scammers are based in resorts in Southeast Asia, but as they increasingly target Westerners, they have developed manuals on how to communicate and build a relationship. They seem to think that sending each other pictures of food is all we do online. Cyber ​​scam experts claim that this feature of the scam is recognizable in almost all pork butcher cases.

The conversation lasts for months, and turns into a romantic, friendly or professional conversation. For Karen, it was a friendship that lasted from January to April of last year. Not once in those four months did her crook talk about money. Then one day he mentioned crypto. He told her about a specific cryptographic application; one that, in theory, she could make quick and easy wins on. He suggested that she download it. Karen was drawn in. She withdrew money from her account and invested it in the app. A week later, all his money was gone. She never got anything back.

Trapped on both sides

Karens’ crook was different from the others. After weeks, he contacted her again to tell her the whole story. He revealed he was not a wealthy British adult as he claimed, but a 27-year-old trapped in a scam in Myanmar. My scammer told me they had goals and if they didn’t reach them they would slap you and leave you with no food or drink, Karen says. According to the scammer, millions of dollars are made in these compounds. Many people there have been trafficked or lured by the promise of real work.

The scammers’ account is corroborated by several reports from international organizations such as Global Anti-Scam Org (GASO). Founded by a victim of pork butchery, GASO now focuses on supporting people like Karen, as well as investigating fraudulent compounds. They have already rescued 190 victims of human trafficking. Grace Yuen, head of communications at GASO, wants financial institutions and crypto platforms to do a little more to help prevent this. If they see someone wire a large amount of money and they’ve never done a wire transfer, I think you need to ask more than one question before that wire goes through, she says. She adds that some cryptocurrency platforms like Coinbase have done a good job of flagging fraudulent wallet addresses, but clearly more needs to be done. Since fraudsters are mainly located outside the UK, the National Crime Agency often does not have the resources to track them down.

Ultimately, this is all social engineering. That’s what all these attacks are based on, says Sherrod DeGrippo, vice president of research and threat detection at Proofpoint. The scammers are trained to put the victim into a new emotional state – putting pressure on them, hitting them in their weak spots – to get them to do something they wouldn’t normally do. They often target people who have recently had a life change or bereavement.

In 12 months, we recovered 14.473 m. Of that, $11.5 million came from crypto investment pig butcher scams, says Paul Hampson, managing director of Liverpool-based firm CEL Solicitors. Madison Legal partners also said there was an increase in young men being lured into pork butcher scams by users pretending to be young women in bikinis or on private jets.

Of the international victims surveyed by OPAG, more than 75% have lost more than half of their net worth and a full third have gone into debt. Like Karen, many are too ashamed to tell friends or family, let alone the authorities. The scam fuels a global industry of crime and violence. New platforms and lies are already in the works, as scammers play cat and mouse with the authorities. Trust but verify, advises Yuen. And never be so complacent that it won’t be you.

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