4 ms·

Sorry, is "pig butchering" a euphemism for something, or am I missing out on some new scamming trend?

boeingUH60 3y ago
It’s the name of the scam where they trick people into investing in fake platforms and steal their money. The scammer starts first by building a romantic relationship with the target (this part can last weeks or months). Along the way, they start suggesting cryptocurrency investments on trading platforms that look legit at a glance but are fake underneath. They instruct the target to deposit money into a wallet, like any exchange, but the perpetrators just steal the tokens and show the mark fake figures. It’s a long term thing that takes a ton of work…I have no idea how the scammers even pull it off at scale. This site goes into more detail; https://www.techtarget.com/whatis/feature/Pig-butchering-scam-explained-Everything-you-need-to-know https://www.techtarget.com/whatis/feature/Pig-butchering-sca...
- mschuster91 3y ago
  > It’s a long term thing that takes a ton of work…I have no idea how the scammers even pull it off at scale. When cost of living is a few hundred dollars a month at best, looting 10k from a single mark is going to last quite the time.
- Zenul_Abidin 3y ago
  Someone's obviously making the websites, a few other people are finding the victims, and all the money is funneled to one overlord who pays everyone else a small cut of the stolen money. It is appalling that no social platform is taking this seriously.
  - bloopernova 3y ago
    > It is appalling that no social platform is taking this seriously. The big social media corps won't eat into their profits by hiring people to find the scammers. It will take a law that says something about keeping a human in the loop, or that your reports should always be validated by a human.
  - soco 3y ago
    Tumblr has created a special reporting type exactly for these, and they do disappear afterwards quickly (tested this). But by the amount of requests I still receive daily from fresh and empty accounts, I guess the work on avoiding them in the first place still has a lot to catch up. A quarantine period for fresh users risks alienating legit ones, IP filtering won't bring it too far, no idea what one could do to quench it.
- jamal-kumar 3y ago
  It's really nasty, I lost contact with an ex girlfriend after her social media got taken over by this shit. Still no idea if it was just her account that got taken over or if she got swept up into some nonsense.
  - Given_47 3y ago
    Idk, I’ve seen the former happen pretty frequently. They basically just socially engineer getting ur login credentials from u. I’m not even sure how the conversation would start but I would guess it’s one of the end goals of “Special offer for u! Check your DM!” incessant comments
    - jamal-kumar 3y ago
      It felt way more insidious than that, they were really either trying to be her or roped her into something. I've seen the latter happen pretty frequently, probably because I don't tend to live in what you might call prime target countries for these types of scams to hit as an endgame (NA/Europe/wherever else the money is greener)
btseytlin 3y ago
"take it all" - https://www.wired.com/story/what-is-pig-butchering-scam/ https://www.wired.com/story/what-is-pig-butchering-scam/
cottage-cheese 3y ago
Both, for instance https://www.wired.com/story/what-is-pig-butchering-scam/ https://www.wired.com/story/what-is-pig-butchering-scam/
heja2009 3y ago
The term was also new to me. From [1] I understand it is a class of cryptocurrency scams starting by building a cordial relationship via social media or dating apps and then suggesting financial investment. [1] https://www.michigan.gov/ag/consumer-protection/consumer-alerts/consumer-alerts/scams/cryptocurrency-scam-pig-butchering https://www.michigan.gov/ag/consumer-protection/consumer-ale...
- ceejayoz 3y ago
  So-named because you "fatten up the pig" before slaughter.
illwrks 3y ago
"The pig butchering scam is a type of fraud in which criminals lure victims into digital relationships to build trust before convincing them to invest in cryptocurrency platforms. Unbeknownst to victims, the fraudsters control the platforms and will eventually take all the money and vanish. " I've taken it from the article here: https://www.aura.com/learn/the-pig-butchering-scam https://www.aura.com/learn/the-pig-butchering-scam
- k8fj30gs 3y ago
  See this documentary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bW4wYV0V-5s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bW4wYV0V-5s
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]

It’s the name of the scam where they trick people into investing in fake platforms and steal their money. The scammer starts first by building a romantic relationship with the target (this part can last weeks or months). Along the way, they start suggesting cryptocurrency investments on trading platforms that look legit at a glance but are fake underneath. They instruct the target to deposit money into a wallet, like any exchange, but the perpetrators just steal the tokens and show the mark fake figures. It’s a long term thing that takes a ton of work…I have no idea how the scammers even pull it off at scale. This site goes into more detail; https://www.techtarget.com/whatis/feature/Pig-butchering-scam-explained-Everything-you-need-to-know https://www.techtarget.com/whatis/feature/Pig-butchering-sca...

mschuster91 3y ago
> It’s a long term thing that takes a ton of work…I have no idea how the scammers even pull it off at scale. When cost of living is a few hundred dollars a month at best, looting 10k from a single mark is going to last quite the time.
Zenul_Abidin 3y ago
Someone's obviously making the websites, a few other people are finding the victims, and all the money is funneled to one overlord who pays everyone else a small cut of the stolen money. It is appalling that no social platform is taking this seriously.
- bloopernova 3y ago
  > It is appalling that no social platform is taking this seriously. The big social media corps won't eat into their profits by hiring people to find the scammers. It will take a law that says something about keeping a human in the loop, or that your reports should always be validated by a human.
- soco 3y ago
  Tumblr has created a special reporting type exactly for these, and they do disappear afterwards quickly (tested this). But by the amount of requests I still receive daily from fresh and empty accounts, I guess the work on avoiding them in the first place still has a lot to catch up. A quarantine period for fresh users risks alienating legit ones, IP filtering won't bring it too far, no idea what one could do to quench it.
jamal-kumar 3y ago
It's really nasty, I lost contact with an ex girlfriend after her social media got taken over by this shit. Still no idea if it was just her account that got taken over or if she got swept up into some nonsense.
- Given_47 3y ago
  Idk, I’ve seen the former happen pretty frequently. They basically just socially engineer getting ur login credentials from u. I’m not even sure how the conversation would start but I would guess it’s one of the end goals of “Special offer for u! Check your DM!” incessant comments
  - jamal-kumar 3y ago
    It felt way more insidious than that, they were really either trying to be her or roped her into something. I've seen the latter happen pretty frequently, probably because I don't tend to live in what you might call prime target countries for these types of scams to hit as an endgame (NA/Europe/wherever else the money is greener)

btseytlin 3y ago

"take it all" - https://www.wired.com/story/what-is-pig-butchering-scam/ https://www.wired.com/story/what-is-pig-butchering-scam/

cottage-cheese 3y ago

Both, for instance https://www.wired.com/story/what-is-pig-butchering-scam/ https://www.wired.com/story/what-is-pig-butchering-scam/

heja2009 3y ago

The term was also new to me. From [1] I understand it is a class of cryptocurrency scams starting by building a cordial relationship via social media or dating apps and then suggesting financial investment. [1] https://www.michigan.gov/ag/consumer-protection/consumer-alerts/consumer-alerts/scams/cryptocurrency-scam-pig-butchering https://www.michigan.gov/ag/consumer-protection/consumer-ale...

ceejayoz 3y ago
So-named because you "fatten up the pig" before slaughter.

illwrks 3y ago

"The pig butchering scam is a type of fraud in which criminals lure victims into digital relationships to build trust before convincing them to invest in cryptocurrency platforms. Unbeknownst to victims, the fraudsters control the platforms and will eventually take all the money and vanish. " I've taken it from the article here: https://www.aura.com/learn/the-pig-butchering-scam https://www.aura.com/learn/the-pig-butchering-scam

k8fj30gs 3y ago
See this documentary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bW4wYV0V-5s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bW4wYV0V-5s

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]