The new trending scam called Pig butchering scam

What is Pig Butchering / Slaughtering?

“Pig butchering” or “pig slaughtering” is a crypto scam in which victims are enticed to put money into an account, essentially fattening that account up, before disappearing with large amounts of cryptocurrency.

How does it work?

The scammer works to make an emotional relationship with their victim with the end goal of persuading the victim to invest cryptocurrency into a fictitious website controlled by the scammer.

Social Media and Dating Sites

Fraudsters have also infiltrated dating applications (e.g., Tinder, Skout, Coffee Meets Bagel), social media (e.g., Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn), and online messaging platforms (e.g., WhatsApp, Telegram, WeChat), often posing as a young good-looking Chinese man or woman (“Fake Romantic Partner”) who is looking to meet successful like-minded professionals.

Wrong Telephone Number

We have seen recently a new type of approach from scammers. Basically, scammers pretend to be a good-looking girl who has reached the victim by mistake because she has been given the wrong telephone number by a guy that she allegedly met on an online platform

It is a new way scammers have found to meet new victims and introduce the Fake Romantic Partner is a convincing manner.

Fake Romantic Partner

The Fake Romantic Partner serves three purposes:

(a) identifying wealthy and influenceable potential victims;

(b) establishing trust; and

(c) misdirect, distract and influence the victim whenever necessary.

Invariably, the conversation between the Fake Romantic Partner and his (or her) victim will, at some point, revolve around stock trading and investment opportunities. He (or she) will often discuss his (or her) own success in investing and will  offer to either teach the victim how to invest or introduce him or her to a third party who is often presented as a so-called specialist (e.g., a person purporting to be a broker, an investment teacher, a wealthy relative).

The fake brokerage firm is then introduced and efforts are made to get the victim to fund their account on the fake brokerage firm. 

If the victim has been referred to the specialist (who will then find various ways to defraud the victim), the Fake Romantic Partner will often continue to maintain an online relationship with the victim, with a view of encouraging him (or her) to invest larger sums of money and inform the fraudsters when the victim starts to suspect wrongdoing.

Fake Online Trading Platforms

Fraudsters often successfully onboard their victims using fake trading platforms which operate on hacked versions of the electronic trading platforms like MetaTrader 4 (“MT4”) and MetaTrader 5 (“MT5”). These hacked copies of the MT4 and MT5 platforms allow the fraudsters to simulate transactions and update the stock prices to mirror reality and give a false sense of confidence to the victims.

The victims then emboldened by the gains they believe they have made on the fake trading platform, and then usually invest more money, trying to capitalise on the perceived opportunity.

At the end of it all, they realize withdrawals can not be made, exorbitant taxes are requested for, unending billing that never stops till the victim gets broke and can not borrow more money from the bank.

Beware of the pig butchering scam!!!

Report to LEGAL247RECOVERY if you have been a victim or know someone in need of urgent help.