{"id":50764,"date":"2024-03-11T13:51:17","date_gmt":"2024-03-11T17:51:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/?p=50764"},"modified":"2024-03-11T13:51:17","modified_gmt":"2024-03-11T17:51:17","slug":"pig-butchering-crypto-investment-scam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/pig-butchering-crypto-investment-scam\/50764\/","title":{"rendered":"Pig butchering: large-scale cryptocurrency fraud"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today, we\u2019re discussing the increasingly common scam known as pig butchering<\/a>. Due to its high profitability, this scheme is rapidly gaining popularity among fraudsters, and the number of victims is constantly growing. What is it? How does it work? And how can you protect yourself? We\u2019ll cover it all in today\u2019s post.<\/p>\n

What is pig butchering and how does this scam work?<\/h2>\n

Pig butchering is a type of scam associated, on the one hand, with investing (often in cryptocurrencies), and on the other, with online romantic relationships.<\/p>\n

Just as pigs are raised for a long time before being slaughtered, in the pig butchering fraud scheme, scammers typically spend a lot of time and effort carefully courting their victims \u2014 usually over a period of weeks or even months. In this regard, pig butchering differs significantly from other fraudulent schemes, whose creators are often impatient and looking for quick profits.<\/p>\n

The setup: a random message and a friendly stranger<\/h3>\n

It all starts with some random message in a messenger, social network or SMS. The scammer either pretends to have sent the message to the wrong recipient or refers to some distant mutual acquaintance that are easy to find and collect information about from the victim\u2019s social media profile. If the victim responds to the scammer, saying something like \u201cYou\u2019ve got the wrong number\u201d, the scammer politely apologizes and tries to initiate a casual conversation. Message by message, an ongoing relationship develops between victim and scammer.<\/p>\n

It should be noted here that scammers often deliberately select the victims based on their status and personal traits. That is, they look for reasonably well-off but perhaps lonely and vulnerable individuals who may not be opposed to engaging in conversation with a friendly stranger. At this stage, the scammer\u2019s goal is to build at least friendly relations with the victim and, ideally, a romantic connection.<\/p>\n

Thus, the scammer gains the victim\u2019s trust and lulls their vigilance. As mentioned earlier, these scammers are usually in no rush and spend a lot of time communicating with the victim, which is uncharacteristic of online fraudsters. So even if the victim has some suspicions at first, they tend to fade away after a while.<\/p>\n

The plot thickens: an opportunity to invest profitably<\/h3>\n

Sooner or later, the scammer finds a way to steer the conversation toward financial topics. Specific approaches here may vary, but the general idea is that the scammer carefully presents the victim with an opportunity to make a profitable investment.<\/p>\n

This could be something traditional like stocks, bonds, futures or options. But lately, it\u2019s more often associated with some \u201cpromising\u201d cryptocurrency projects. The overall complexity and opacity of crypto<\/a>, coupled with the ease of moving funds, make it ideal for such fraud.<\/p>\n

At this stage, the victim may become alarmed and suspect something is amiss. However, the scammer is quick to reassure their precious\u2026 pig: there\u2019s no need for the victim to transfer any money personally to them or anyone associated with them. All the victim needs do is simply create an account on a trading platform and try to deposit some money there to see how it works.<\/p>\n

Climax: incredible profits and new money deposits<\/h3>\n

An important detail of the pig butchering scheme is that at every stage the scammer carefully maintains the victim\u2019s illusion of control. The victim independently creates an account on the trading platform and can independently choose what to trade there. The scammer only provides helpful advice, making the whole process faster and easier \u2014 and of course, as profitable as possible.<\/p>\n

The scammer\u2019s trading tips turn out to work well \u2014 who would have guessed it? The victim quickly makes their first profit on the trading platform, gets excited, and starts depositing more and more for even bigger earnings.<\/p>\n

Finale: the scammer vanishes with the money<\/h3>\n

But of course, sooner or later, the scammer absconds. This usually happens once a reasonable balance has formed in the account. Alternatively, the scammer may milk the victim until the moment they try to withdraw money from the platform.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s when the victim learns the truth: the trading platform was fake, and all those incredible profits just disappeared into thin air. As for the real money, it has long gone to some unknown account. At this stage, the scammer cuts all communication with the victim, deletes the accounts used for the scam, and \u2014 poof! \u2014 vanishes in a puff of smoke.<\/p>\n

The victim has lost everything invested in the platform, and we\u2019re usually talking significant amounts: the fraudsters often manage to get away with tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars \u2014 sometimes even millions<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Scam farms in Southeast Asia<\/h2>\n

As you may have gathered from the description of pig butchering, this scheme has several key differences from most scams. First, the criminals come well-prepared \u2014 they have effective tools to deceive their victims. Second, they\u2019re in no hurry and are ready to work on a single target for a long time, gradually moving toward their sinister goal. Third, we\u2019re talking about truly large sums of money \u2014 meaning the amount of time and effort involved eventually pays off.<\/p>\n

The secret to this success is that, in the vast majority of cases, it\u2019s not individual scammers who are behind pig butchering, but large criminal groups. These organizations run huge fraudulent \u201cfarms\u201d, most often located in the least prosperous countries of Southeast Asia. Such farms exist in Laos and the Philippines, but most farms are in Cambodia and, above all, Myanmar, where a civil war has been going on for several years.<\/p>\n

\"KK<\/a>

One of the largest scam farms engaged in pig butchering \u2014 KK Park. This farm, located in Myanmar near the border with Thailand, employs over 2000 people. Source<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

These enterprises are truly massive: for example, a report<\/a> last year about one of the largest scam farms, called KK Park, claimed that over 2000 people work there, and it has even earned its own article on Wikipedia<\/a>. Moreover, the farms are constantly expanding and, of course, new ones are being opened.<\/p>\n

Generally speaking, these fraud farms should more accurately be called labor camps \u2014 and this is perhaps the saddest detail of this scheme. For it turns out that the rank-and-file operators of pig butchering \u2014 the ones who directly communicate with the victims \u2014 are usually doing so against their own will.<\/p>\n

Scam enterprises require highly skilled, well-educated, multilingual employees with strong online communication abilities. As you might imagine, such people don\u2019t naturally appear in the jungles of Myanmar or Cambodia. Usually, these are citizens of other countries who are lured by the promise of high-paying jobs \u2014 call center operators, SMM specialists, translators or IT specialists.<\/p>\n

\"Construction<\/a>

Scam farms are constantly expanding: this photo, taken on July 1, 2023, shows the construction of a new building at KKII \u2014 a newer part of KK Park. Most likely, it has already been completed by now. Source<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

Usually, new scam-farm workers first end up in neighboring Thailand, from where they\u2019re taken to Myanmar or Cambodia. There they\u2019re transported to a camp located far away from any large populated areas and have their documents confiscated. Then these people essentially become slaves: they\u2019re forced to work 12-16 hours a day for nothing but food, can be subjected to violence, and sometimes even resold to other fraudsters.<\/p>\n

The overall scale of the problem is extremely serious. A report<\/a> last year by the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, citing reliable sources, gave the following figures: at least 120,000 people are employed in scam farms in Myanmar, and approximately another 100,000 in Cambodia.<\/p>\n

How to protect yourself from pig butchering<\/h2>\n

It\u2019s difficult to calculate the exact total losses of pig butchering victims because it\u2019s a global problem \u2014 scammers target citizens of different countries. In addition, not everyone reports that they\u2019ve been a victim. However, rough estimates suggest the size of the pig butchering industry runs to billions of dollars.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a very lucrative business, so there\u2019s no use hoping the problem will simply go away by itself. Nor is there any hope that the authorities in Cambodia or Myanmar will address it \u2014 they appear to have other priorities. Therefore, unfortunately, we must protect ourselves and our loved ones on our own. Here\u2019s what we can advise:<\/p>\n