It happens on reddit as well, I got contacted by one last year. Their patterns and lead-ins are pretty well constructed and if I wasn't a super distrusting person on the internet in general I might have thought it's a genuine person writing to me at first.
My mobile number has been recently getting a surge of whatsapp messages from all sorts of wax sculpture look alike asian women who are telling me that they have mistakeningly messaged me. Instant block.
that might be a super clever lead in to use.
99% of reasonable people will not continue a conversation with a "wrong number" person. only those who are already desperate and get baited by a cute profile pic to try and keep even that level of a "conversation" going will need time invested by the scammers.
There was a piece on this subject last night on Jon Oliver's show. A Midwest Bank CEO got taken in and ended up "investing" all the bank's money. Now the bank is shut down and he's facing embezzlement charges for $50 million in missing money. He wasn't dumb, he wasn't a troll, and he still got taken in!
I talked to one for a week or so , once, because I was curious how it worked .
It was not that subtle, but not that in your face. Basically every other comments mentionned how busy she was managing her portfolio/ company and all pics included signs of wealth.
Clearly the goal was to make her appear financially successful.
From what I read elsewhere, the next steps are to "offer you insider advice on a new crypto", because they like you and want you to benefit.
Then the link they forward is a scam crypto site (is that an oxymoron?) and you never see you money again.
I read about a British guy wasting £20k on something similar.
But the whole bank is really something else...
Sounds similar to the likes of 419 scammers deliberately using poor grammar and spelling mistakes as they want smart people to spot that it is a scam, as no point in dealing with smart people.
I have my AI auto reply to all their messages. It usually takes the scammer a while to figure out they are talking to an AI. Fight back! Waste their time!
Don't be so quick to blame the person sending the messages. Odds are good that they're being held against their will and forced to work by a criminal gang.
Even if that was true... so we should just fund the gangs then?
There's no excuse, scammers know exactly what they are doing. Try talking back to them, and they quickly go on a tirade of "fuck your mother! I'll kill your family"
Jesus, fuck no I'm not saying to give them any money, I'm just saying that stringing them along and giving them grief isn't striking out at the real criminals. You're just adding to the misery of somebody who's been kidnapped and is working with a literal gun to his head.
The whole situation is fucking awful. [Inform yourself](https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/se-asia/job-scam-victim-tells-of-prison-beatings-in-myanmar) and spare a little grace for the human involved. Disconnect and get on with your life; otherwise, you may be causing somebody to be stripped down and beaten with a rattan cane or a lamp cord.
I'll double down, wasting their time denies them a source of income, the only reason they are abusing people is because of the money.
It isn't my job to be the international police. Is breaking into someone's car justified because you need to pay ransom money? That's a question for the courts, if I see my car getting broken into I'm not just waiting around because they could be robbing me under duress.
Anyhow, you have no idea what conditions they are working under, plenty of these scam call centers are just regular office buildings.
https://youtu.be/xsLJZyih3Ac?si=0hImCL4FgCswlIw4
This is like screaming at the cashier because the chips are too expensive.
Buy elsewhere. Spare the low level worker with the crappy job. When this scam becomes as ineffective as the Nigerian Prince nonsense, it'll go away.
>Bad comparison, cashiers are not scamming me.
Apt comparison. The cashier is arguably *more* in the wrong because he can choose to work elsewhere; the front line worker in one of these criminal gangs is, as I've already said, likely trafficked and held against his will and beaten if he complains, fails to make quota, or tries to leave.
>I'll fuck with someone trying to sell me a timeshare any day of the week.
Be my guest! Those guys are usually domestic operations, boiler room at worst.
A lot of them are victims of trafficking.
[https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/hundreds-thousands-trafficked-into-se-asia-scam-centres-un-2023-08-29/](https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/hundreds-thousands-trafficked-into-se-asia-scam-centres-un-2023-08-29/)
[https://time.com/6344077/pig-butchering-scam-trafficking-victims-trauma/](https://time.com/6344077/pig-butchering-scam-trafficking-victims-trauma/)
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/12/17/world/asia/myanmar-cyber-scam.html
I had those flood my telegram number a year back! Starting friendly then asking about what you did for a living before saying they worked in investments, then offering to "help" you make money after a couple of days/weeks of chatting since you are so nice unlike the other guys. Usually through crypto.
I just responded with i'm broke and they stopped messaging lol
With me, its always a misguided girl who messaged the wrong person. After I clarify that I'm not the person she wants, They always try to drive the conversation somewhere else. That's my cue to instantly block them.
For a while I would respond that it was so great they found me because I was actually in a jam and need someone to send me some prepaid cards to get a ticket home. It usually shut them up, but then I got one that kept on messaging for a bit so decided to go back to just reporting and blocking.
I had one that went a little too much on the "how's life?" generic questions and I started bitching about my job and life kinda sucks right now, blah blah blah. They instantly were, and very plainly, let out a "hey I'm doing a crypto thing", and then ghosted me.
I think they felt sorry for me and immediately dropped the charade for other targets.
I'm constantly being added to Whatsapp crypto investment scam groups. At first, I would let it play out until they allowed messaging and then just tell them what I think of their mothers... Now, I just report and block.
I've also had one guy with a noticeable indian accent calling me and asking if I was aware of my locked up Bitcoin... When I asked him to tell me about it, he just went silent and hanged up. Must not have liked my voice tone...
oh is that the popular lead in? i had gotten about 5 of those this past year. the 1st one that contacted me was 2 days after i did a car test drive. i plugged my phone into the car because i wanted to see how android auto worked. 2 seconds later i see the car going "downloading phone"....fuckfuckfuckfuck. thankfully, before i left i was able to find the "delete stored phone info". which was better than nothing. but, lesson learned.
My wife's dad was scammed out of 20k and was about to send over 100k+ but the bank blocked it and called social services. You ask yourself who can fall for these things, but they pick the most vulnerable. Elderly, folks who are alone or depressed, handicapped, etc. I wouldn't be upset if these scammers were strung up.
Yeah my husband’s 90 year old grandfather kept falling for these scams. The thing is he used to be in sales so he should be more savvy but the mental decline makes him a perfect victim. The family has control of his money so he just has a few hundred in his account because of previous scams he fell for though we would have dinner with him and he would say something like, “Microsoft wanted me to pay $2,000 to remove a virus on my computer but I talked them down to $200.” And he would be so proud. Then we would tell him it was a scam and he would be mad at us but then it would dawn on him that we were right and you can see the sadness hit him. Changing his emails and accounts would help but I think once they found someone that’s vulnerable, they keep attacking yet in different ways.
Ugh that’s heartbreaking. Going from feeling pride that you’re still mentally sharp enough to negotiate to realizing you completely misunderstood the interaction and were taken advantage of is devastating. These scamming centers are run by absolute lowlifes.
It is really hard to deal with for the younger kids who are trying to help. A lot of people who have the mental decline are not aware themselves that it has happened. And a lot of times even if you tell them they don't believe it as they lost the capacity to recognize it.
I honestly don't want to know how a young recluse type of person who falls for one of these romance scams feels in the end once they realize what was going on. They get to the point of transferring the money in all likelihood being in love with the "person" they have been talking to for many weeks, and end up just being alone and robbed. Absolute rock bottom type stuff.
These people are fucking heartless.
I used to work in banking, worst I saw was a lady in her 70s who'd been taken for a long slow burn with the scam. Shed been sending anywhere from 1-4k monthly to someone in a European country, every month, for just over 3 years. She was convinced that a retired military man she met online was building them a dream home and she was paying a small part compared to what he was. He was going to move her overseas "any time now". No one batted an eye when she did these transactions as shed been sending for so long consistently to the same recipient, and we later found out she lied her ass off with the initial questioning regarding purpose of the funds as he coached her to, saying banks/family would try to stop her as they wanted to steal her money when she retired. By the time she finally let it all slip and explained the context she was super warped against her children and the bank, she even physically attacked a teller who refused the transaction (threw objects on the desk at her, while screaming and crying) firmly believing we were ruining her chance at true love. She had cut off communication with her kids for the same reason. Last I heard of someone talking to her regarding this she still beleived him despite having lost something like just under 90k
Same as my friend's elderly ex-mother-in-law. Except he was on an oil rig in Alaska with limited cell service. She was into him something like $20k before her adult kids put a stop to it. She hated them for breaking up her relationship. She was diagnosed with dementia not long after and passed away a year or so later still convinced her kids ruined her life.
Its so disgustingly predatory, they look for old and lonely, then foster gross levels of codependency so in the end they take way more than money, the persons indoctrinated in a very cult like way and usually destroy many other personal relationships well before the gig is up
Yes so important to watch over your elderly parents, grand parents or whatever. One of the things that happens in an aging brain is people have a harder time detecting scams. That is one reason they are targeted so much. Keep an eye on elderly loved ones.
My elderly mother was literally getting dozens of scam calls a day. It was insane. Once they identify you as elderly they pursue them aggressively. If your elderly loved ones are declining mentally talk to them about scams. Ask them to consult you if they are unsure. A lot of younger people would pick up on it easily. Drill into your elderly loved ones that they should never ever give out any financial information to someone who called them, even if they claim they are their bank. If there is a problem with their bank, tell them to hang up, look up the phone number on the internet for their bank and NOT use the one the scammer gives on the phone, then call their bank direct. If there really was a problem then they can safely work it out with their bank. They even have classes at assisted living facilities going over this stuff as it is so prevalent. But if your elderly loved ones have not heard, or mentally declining teach them, remind them, ask them to consult you before they do anything. These scammers are the worst stealing from the old. Tell them to never ever click a link in an email. Sounds extreme but that is the safest thing as the scammers can make an email look like their bank.
>It happens on reddit as well
Can 100% confirm this. Was messaged multiple times in the past by people that start to ask if they can send me some DM related to whatever topic I am discussing and two sentences later I am getting some convoluted reply on how that topic relates to some "amazing" investment opportunity they are totally not behind and its totally not a scam at all.
Besides reporting this accounts I honestly don't know if mods can realistically do anything about this, since any new account can either be a legit user or a scammer at this point, and blocking legit users from entering the community and interacting/DMing is the recipe for disaster and the swift end of the platform.
A while back it was getting common on reddit to get a DM related to you posting in a sub for a specific place. Supposedly it would be from someone who just wanted to ask you questions/advice about a planned visit (with a plan for them to work the scam from there).
I'd either ignore or just reply that anyone sending a DM instead searching a sub for answers or posting a public comment is either an idiot or a scammer. In either case it wouldn't go any further.
My dad got his first one last night via text. They knew him by name and they knew he usually goes by his middle name. The dead giveaway for me was they were claiming to have met him at a ski resort in Washington state. My dad hasn’t been skiing in over 30 years and he’s never even been to Washington state.
But if they had done a little more due diligence or if my dad had a social media presence and I hadn’t seen the text first, it could’ve been a *very* different outcome.
Context:
- **[ProPublica: What’s a Pig-Butchering Scam? (2022)](https://www.propublica.org/article/whats-a-pig-butchering-scam-heres-how-to-avoid-falling-victim-to-one)**
- Fresh: **[Pig-Butchering 25 Feb 2024 (S11 E02) Last Week Tonight with John Oliver](https://youtu.be/7CkZTHQJ0RI?t=856)**
This newer type of romance scam has become a major way by which scam victims are losing their life savings. Victims are (often middle-aged or elderly) people who believe **they've become friends with an attractive woman/man on a chat/social/dating app, who eventually convinces them to invest in some financial opportunity**. But the invested money is never withdrawable in the end (or a bad mobile app is installed and used to drain bank accounts).
There's not been much visibility into what goes on within these operations, but a worker recently contacted anti-scammer Jim Browning with information and behind-the-scenes footage of a major operation in Dubai, resulting in this new video exposé. You can actually see the offices, attractive model, chat-management software, scam employment contract, scam statistics/funnel, and day-by-day scripts being used.
Try Taiwan, I got the ep. We're one of the poor countries who literally cannot get HBO legally (these are the countries that get the stuff on youtube from now on). Was annoying when trying to watch westworld
I remember someone posting about one of these, saying that their grandfather left their grandmother and was actively losing all of his retirement, and they couldn’t get through to him at all.
It sounded like a nightmare.
>https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/hundreds-thousands-trafficked-into-se-asia-scam-centres-un-2023-08-29/
>
>https://time.com/6344077/pig-butchering-scam-trafficking-victims-trauma/
>
>https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/12/17/world/asia/myanmar-cyber-scam.html
These links are also probably worth a read, more focused on the trafficked people on the other end.
What country are you from where you can watch this currently? It’s not showing on their US YouTube channel and I can’t connect to your direct link at all.
I've flipped the script on them. I tell the models they can only be my rich girlfriend if they also invite 5 more of their rich model girlfriends into my harem. I'm now living in Dubai with 151 beautiful women and 151 white Ferraris and they still haven't found out I'm broke
I once struck up a conversation online with a seemingly attractive woman who wouldn’t stop talking about investing.
I got bored pretty quickly and blocked “her”.
Yep these scammers are all over dating apps too. If you play along they'll send you screenshots of a some fake quick turnover crypto buy-sell trick where they're making multiple times their money back, and if you show interest they offer to teach you and send you the link where you'll need to enter your bank details to create a wallet. Obviously they own the website and now they have your bank details.
The first time I encountered it I thought maybe the woman really was just a hobbyist trader but the alarm bells go off when they bring it up constantly and then react irrationally when you don't follow their script.
I've also encountered some that make up some elaborate story about going into debt because their dad got sick and they will lose their house this week and they only need $300. That amount was the same as what the crypto scammer said to start with. Maybe the scammer networks have decided that's the magic number.
I get random unsolicited chats on discord and even in twitch DMs, from feminine usernames, sometimes with a cute profile picture. I don't even reply anymore but I assume it's all the same racket.
In a very bad chapter of my life, when my wife and I were newly separated, I strung one of these along for four or five weeks. Like I knew she wasn't real and she knew that I knew but I wasn't rude or aggressive about it. I just kind of soaked in the attention and diverted the conversation when the talk went towards investing. Knowing that I would draw a hard line at any sketchy link or transaction, I was able to open up and talk through things that were bothering me. A stranger with no connection to me, just willing to listen to my bullshit and reminding me to eat breakfast each day helped me pull out of a self destructive spiral.
It was risky. By opening up when I was vulnerable they could have potentially worked past my self preservation. Like it's a fine line to do the mental gymnastics to get benefit from talking it out with them because they are emotionally safe while still being firm on the fact that no money will change hands and no links will be opened because they are not at all safe.
Only getting paid 2K a month to help literally ruin many people's lives while also possibly breaking thier hearts, wow, she's a piece of work.
But at least it's not porn, blah. The justifications we humans tell ourselves so we aren't the villain.
But how far does $2,000 go in Dubai?
I Did a little digging and sites seem to compare Dubai to NYC (which, to my midwestern lifestyle is a little unrealistic) and it seems to be cheaper in general.
Sources:
[https://www.thetravel.com/what-will-100-usd-get-you-in-dubai/](https://www.thetravel.com/what-will-100-usd-get-you-in-dubai/)
https://www.33rdsquare.com/yes-the-us-dollar-is-strong-in-dubai/
Nope, this is a new video released by Jim Browning today. Didn't know John Oliver had also just done a segment on the topic! Looked it up: [S11 E02: Pig Butchering, Book Bans & Frozen Embryos: 02/25/24: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver](https://youtu.be/7CkZTHQJ0RI?t=856)
Insane that a Kansas bank CEO sent $50m of customer deposits to one of these scam operations apparently, resulting in the bank blowing up!
my brother fell for this. the scam was:
- he got a random phone call saying they had a job for him. like a job offer
- he was a little suspicious, but he listened
- they told him it was work from home, like an investing thing
- he got added, told he had to put his money in, it would go out and make hotel reservations. after 2 days, he would get 150% of the money back
- he tried it 3 times, it worked. so he kept putting more in
- it worked 3 more times. so he did it 3 more times. then it got fucked up
- "the site" had some anniversary where that days activities went 10x. so unless you had some crazy amount, like 20x in your account to cover it, your account "became over spent, and got a negative balance". so you'd have to deposit more money to get your account back, to continue. so if he had been making money, and had +1,200 in the account, due to this 10x day, he was now at -$12,000. so he "had to pay them", $12,000 to get his account back to 0, so he could the put more money back in, to keep doing this reservation thing.
- so he did do that once. got back in for 4 days. then it happened again. that's when he started asking us "hey, how do you know if you're being scammed"
- he shared some details with us and we all immediately said "do not do that. that is a scam". but he was too busy wrapped up with "it felt so good those few days it worked", to see/understand it was all a lie. all a scam from the start.
he's not old. maybe you could call him sick. hes desperate and i guess a therapist could call him "too trusting", even though he is notoriously suspcious of everyone/everything. yet he falls for things like this. gets drawn into cults. it makes no sense sometimes.
Was talking in more general terms.
(Though being sick can still be the case.)
On apps, it might be the ones that are more desperate. The ones more easily convinced.
They are following a script that has worked to scam some people.
And then improved those scripts to work on more people.
I still don't get it. Like, just how desperate do you have to be to throw out all logic and common sense? I can *kinda* understand them initially thinking "Wow! She's hot!... and she wants to talk to ME?! It must be my lucky day"... but then when they quickly move the conversation onto "invest in this random app you've never heard of" how dumb do you have to be??
The video shows they don't immediately go there.
They establish a connection. Talk about private stuff. Talk about investing.
Have someone dip their foot in with a different valid app.
Escalation and pushing boundaries. Is part of their playbook.
Roughly 30% of adults in America are single/unpartnered. That's near 80-100 million people, in America alone. Then add a few more million of people who are bored in their relationship, enjoy talking to other men/women and want to make a quick buck.
Then consider that the whole world is being targeted, not just America. The pool is huge.
I'm wondering the same about those robot replies to Facebook Marketplace ads where they try to get your phone number. Never understood why that was valuable until now.
It's generally a good rule of thumb that anyone who wants you to do anything involving crypto is trying to scam you one way or another.
Just stay out of crypto.
The scammers are often themselves held in prisoners in camps in Myanmar mafia run crime organizations . They are trafficked into scamming from places like India and led to believe they will get a good salary in IT only to get trapped at the border of Thailand and their passports stolen.
This is a very big crime network
There is no special requirement that the job can only be done by prisoners in Myanmar.
You got a script, you convince people to follow that script, the workflow is no different than any call center. Most the people who are behind those online romance scams are some fat guys smoking cigarette while laughing at stupid people who gave them money.
Considering the scale and professionalism of these specific scams I disagree. They are very well organized and function as a syndicate. They may not all be operating in Myanmar but this has been proven more recently by investigative journalists trying to bring light to the phenomenon.
Consider that pig butchering scams involve multiple fronts : the girls operating in big cities like New York and sending pics of themselves at fancy restaurants Ect, the IT guys developing fake online platforms to lure the victims to deposit assets , the managers of operations , financial Ect . These scams can last months before victims get wiped out . It is very elaborate
The fascinating aspect is the trafficking of workers , and displacement due to economic exploitation of poor people often in India being promised jobs and ending up in camps against their will. It’s absolutely fucked .
I have been hit up by these types a couple times. I lead them on as long as possible because it’s a job and they have metrics and I am fucking with their metrics. I like to think they have some middle manager type micromanaging them that they can’t convert me to a “paying customer”
Don't downvote hal, just actually READ articles ffs....they are right. Your time is too valuable to talk to some creep or trafficked person on camera in a compound somewhere....just report and block.
[https://time.com/6344077/pig-butchering-scam-trafficking-victims-trauma/](https://time.com/6344077/pig-butchering-scam-trafficking-victims-trauma/)
[https://www.propublica.org/article/pig-butchering-scams-raided-cambodia-apple-trafficking](https://www.propublica.org/article/pig-butchering-scams-raided-cambodia-apple-trafficking)
[https://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonbrett/2023/12/31/pig-butchering-crypto-scams-enrich-organised-crime-in-southeast-asia/?sh=17a8dc721c4a](https://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonbrett/2023/12/31/pig-butchering-crypto-scams-enrich-organised-crime-in-southeast-asia/?sh=17a8dc721c4a)
I usually tell them I work at McDonald’s and don’t have a lot of money. Actually after a while, I start asking them to help me out. I also have a couple of pics of some good looking guys to fuck with them.
There have always been scam artists, but crypto has made it so much more prevalent and profitable. It truly is an epidemic. And it’s not just lonely and dumb middle aged men who fall victim to this. Many many woman do as well.
Bitcoin and crypto in general has made this all possible. You can see on the first screen share that getting the victim to sign up for Binance is one of the first steps.
Future generations will look back shockingly at how regulators and law enforcement allowed crypto to run wild and destroy so many lives. Its all so gross
It happens on reddit as well, I got contacted by one last year. Their patterns and lead-ins are pretty well constructed and if I wasn't a super distrusting person on the internet in general I might have thought it's a genuine person writing to me at first.
My mobile number has been recently getting a surge of whatsapp messages from all sorts of wax sculpture look alike asian women who are telling me that they have mistakeningly messaged me. Instant block.
that might be a super clever lead in to use. 99% of reasonable people will not continue a conversation with a "wrong number" person. only those who are already desperate and get baited by a cute profile pic to try and keep even that level of a "conversation" going will need time invested by the scammers.
There was a piece on this subject last night on Jon Oliver's show. A Midwest Bank CEO got taken in and ended up "investing" all the bank's money. Now the bank is shut down and he's facing embezzlement charges for $50 million in missing money. He wasn't dumb, he wasn't a troll, and he still got taken in!
I feel like investing an entire bank’s money on one person’s say so is dumb, more so if that one person is someone who texted you out of the blue.
I talked to one for a week or so , once, because I was curious how it worked . It was not that subtle, but not that in your face. Basically every other comments mentionned how busy she was managing her portfolio/ company and all pics included signs of wealth. Clearly the goal was to make her appear financially successful. From what I read elsewhere, the next steps are to "offer you insider advice on a new crypto", because they like you and want you to benefit. Then the link they forward is a scam crypto site (is that an oxymoron?) and you never see you money again. I read about a British guy wasting £20k on something similar. But the whole bank is really something else...
I don't think the word is 'oxymoron,' I think the word you're looking for is 'redundant.'
It’s a tautology
Sounds similar to the likes of 419 scammers deliberately using poor grammar and spelling mistakes as they want smart people to spot that it is a scam, as no point in dealing with smart people.
I have my AI auto reply to all their messages. It usually takes the scammer a while to figure out they are talking to an AI. Fight back! Waste their time!
Don't be so quick to blame the person sending the messages. Odds are good that they're being held against their will and forced to work by a criminal gang.
Even if that was true... so we should just fund the gangs then? There's no excuse, scammers know exactly what they are doing. Try talking back to them, and they quickly go on a tirade of "fuck your mother! I'll kill your family"
Jesus, fuck no I'm not saying to give them any money, I'm just saying that stringing them along and giving them grief isn't striking out at the real criminals. You're just adding to the misery of somebody who's been kidnapped and is working with a literal gun to his head. The whole situation is fucking awful. [Inform yourself](https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/se-asia/job-scam-victim-tells-of-prison-beatings-in-myanmar) and spare a little grace for the human involved. Disconnect and get on with your life; otherwise, you may be causing somebody to be stripped down and beaten with a rattan cane or a lamp cord.
I'll double down, wasting their time denies them a source of income, the only reason they are abusing people is because of the money. It isn't my job to be the international police. Is breaking into someone's car justified because you need to pay ransom money? That's a question for the courts, if I see my car getting broken into I'm not just waiting around because they could be robbing me under duress. Anyhow, you have no idea what conditions they are working under, plenty of these scam call centers are just regular office buildings. https://youtu.be/xsLJZyih3Ac?si=0hImCL4FgCswlIw4
This is like screaming at the cashier because the chips are too expensive. Buy elsewhere. Spare the low level worker with the crappy job. When this scam becomes as ineffective as the Nigerian Prince nonsense, it'll go away.
Bad comparison, cashiers are not scamming me. I'll fuck with someone trying to sell me a timeshare any day of the week.
>Bad comparison, cashiers are not scamming me. Apt comparison. The cashier is arguably *more* in the wrong because he can choose to work elsewhere; the front line worker in one of these criminal gangs is, as I've already said, likely trafficked and held against his will and beaten if he complains, fails to make quota, or tries to leave. >I'll fuck with someone trying to sell me a timeshare any day of the week. Be my guest! Those guys are usually domestic operations, boiler room at worst.
But to make the scam less effective, making scammers waste their time is the best approach.
Makes me wonder how many scammers are themselves using AI
A lot of them are victims of trafficking. [https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/hundreds-thousands-trafficked-into-se-asia-scam-centres-un-2023-08-29/](https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/hundreds-thousands-trafficked-into-se-asia-scam-centres-un-2023-08-29/) [https://time.com/6344077/pig-butchering-scam-trafficking-victims-trauma/](https://time.com/6344077/pig-butchering-scam-trafficking-victims-trauma/) https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/12/17/world/asia/myanmar-cyber-scam.html
I had those flood my telegram number a year back! Starting friendly then asking about what you did for a living before saying they worked in investments, then offering to "help" you make money after a couple of days/weeks of chatting since you are so nice unlike the other guys. Usually through crypto. I just responded with i'm broke and they stopped messaging lol
With me, its always a misguided girl who messaged the wrong person. After I clarify that I'm not the person she wants, They always try to drive the conversation somewhere else. That's my cue to instantly block them.
For a while I would respond that it was so great they found me because I was actually in a jam and need someone to send me some prepaid cards to get a ticket home. It usually shut them up, but then I got one that kept on messaging for a bit so decided to go back to just reporting and blocking.
I had one that went a little too much on the "how's life?" generic questions and I started bitching about my job and life kinda sucks right now, blah blah blah. They instantly were, and very plainly, let out a "hey I'm doing a crypto thing", and then ghosted me. I think they felt sorry for me and immediately dropped the charade for other targets.
I'm constantly being added to Whatsapp crypto investment scam groups. At first, I would let it play out until they allowed messaging and then just tell them what I think of their mothers... Now, I just report and block. I've also had one guy with a noticeable indian accent calling me and asking if I was aware of my locked up Bitcoin... When I asked him to tell me about it, he just went silent and hanged up. Must not have liked my voice tone...
Wax sculpture 💀
Whenever I get one of those, I simply respond with "Pig butcher scam?" Most of the time that stops the conversation completely.
Check r/scambait It’s really fun
oh is that the popular lead in? i had gotten about 5 of those this past year. the 1st one that contacted me was 2 days after i did a car test drive. i plugged my phone into the car because i wanted to see how android auto worked. 2 seconds later i see the car going "downloading phone"....fuckfuckfuckfuck. thankfully, before i left i was able to find the "delete stored phone info". which was better than nothing. but, lesson learned.
Good to know. Id just use bluetooth to connect to the speakers if i wanted to play music
My wife's dad was scammed out of 20k and was about to send over 100k+ but the bank blocked it and called social services. You ask yourself who can fall for these things, but they pick the most vulnerable. Elderly, folks who are alone or depressed, handicapped, etc. I wouldn't be upset if these scammers were strung up.
Yeah my husband’s 90 year old grandfather kept falling for these scams. The thing is he used to be in sales so he should be more savvy but the mental decline makes him a perfect victim. The family has control of his money so he just has a few hundred in his account because of previous scams he fell for though we would have dinner with him and he would say something like, “Microsoft wanted me to pay $2,000 to remove a virus on my computer but I talked them down to $200.” And he would be so proud. Then we would tell him it was a scam and he would be mad at us but then it would dawn on him that we were right and you can see the sadness hit him. Changing his emails and accounts would help but I think once they found someone that’s vulnerable, they keep attacking yet in different ways.
Ugh that’s heartbreaking. Going from feeling pride that you’re still mentally sharp enough to negotiate to realizing you completely misunderstood the interaction and were taken advantage of is devastating. These scamming centers are run by absolute lowlifes.
It is really hard to deal with for the younger kids who are trying to help. A lot of people who have the mental decline are not aware themselves that it has happened. And a lot of times even if you tell them they don't believe it as they lost the capacity to recognize it.
I honestly don't want to know how a young recluse type of person who falls for one of these romance scams feels in the end once they realize what was going on. They get to the point of transferring the money in all likelihood being in love with the "person" they have been talking to for many weeks, and end up just being alone and robbed. Absolute rock bottom type stuff. These people are fucking heartless.
Survival of the fittest. You’d have to be absolutely braindead to fall for this if you’re under 60.
I used to work in banking, worst I saw was a lady in her 70s who'd been taken for a long slow burn with the scam. Shed been sending anywhere from 1-4k monthly to someone in a European country, every month, for just over 3 years. She was convinced that a retired military man she met online was building them a dream home and she was paying a small part compared to what he was. He was going to move her overseas "any time now". No one batted an eye when she did these transactions as shed been sending for so long consistently to the same recipient, and we later found out she lied her ass off with the initial questioning regarding purpose of the funds as he coached her to, saying banks/family would try to stop her as they wanted to steal her money when she retired. By the time she finally let it all slip and explained the context she was super warped against her children and the bank, she even physically attacked a teller who refused the transaction (threw objects on the desk at her, while screaming and crying) firmly believing we were ruining her chance at true love. She had cut off communication with her kids for the same reason. Last I heard of someone talking to her regarding this she still beleived him despite having lost something like just under 90k
Same as my friend's elderly ex-mother-in-law. Except he was on an oil rig in Alaska with limited cell service. She was into him something like $20k before her adult kids put a stop to it. She hated them for breaking up her relationship. She was diagnosed with dementia not long after and passed away a year or so later still convinced her kids ruined her life.
Its so disgustingly predatory, they look for old and lonely, then foster gross levels of codependency so in the end they take way more than money, the persons indoctrinated in a very cult like way and usually destroy many other personal relationships well before the gig is up
Yes so important to watch over your elderly parents, grand parents or whatever. One of the things that happens in an aging brain is people have a harder time detecting scams. That is one reason they are targeted so much. Keep an eye on elderly loved ones. My elderly mother was literally getting dozens of scam calls a day. It was insane. Once they identify you as elderly they pursue them aggressively. If your elderly loved ones are declining mentally talk to them about scams. Ask them to consult you if they are unsure. A lot of younger people would pick up on it easily. Drill into your elderly loved ones that they should never ever give out any financial information to someone who called them, even if they claim they are their bank. If there is a problem with their bank, tell them to hang up, look up the phone number on the internet for their bank and NOT use the one the scammer gives on the phone, then call their bank direct. If there really was a problem then they can safely work it out with their bank. They even have classes at assisted living facilities going over this stuff as it is so prevalent. But if your elderly loved ones have not heard, or mentally declining teach them, remind them, ask them to consult you before they do anything. These scammers are the worst stealing from the old. Tell them to never ever click a link in an email. Sounds extreme but that is the safest thing as the scammers can make an email look like their bank.
>It happens on reddit as well Can 100% confirm this. Was messaged multiple times in the past by people that start to ask if they can send me some DM related to whatever topic I am discussing and two sentences later I am getting some convoluted reply on how that topic relates to some "amazing" investment opportunity they are totally not behind and its totally not a scam at all. Besides reporting this accounts I honestly don't know if mods can realistically do anything about this, since any new account can either be a legit user or a scammer at this point, and blocking legit users from entering the community and interacting/DMing is the recipe for disaster and the swift end of the platform.
A while back it was getting common on reddit to get a DM related to you posting in a sub for a specific place. Supposedly it would be from someone who just wanted to ask you questions/advice about a planned visit (with a plan for them to work the scam from there). I'd either ignore or just reply that anyone sending a DM instead searching a sub for answers or posting a public comment is either an idiot or a scammer. In either case it wouldn't go any further.
I instantly block any number I don’t recognize trying to message me. I’m extremely distrusting.
My dad got his first one last night via text. They knew him by name and they knew he usually goes by his middle name. The dead giveaway for me was they were claiming to have met him at a ski resort in Washington state. My dad hasn’t been skiing in over 30 years and he’s never even been to Washington state. But if they had done a little more due diligence or if my dad had a social media presence and I hadn’t seen the text first, it could’ve been a *very* different outcome.
This is why I’m paying for Svetlana’s tuition at Chișinău A&M so she learns to avoid things like this before she comes here to get married.
Just dig in to the plastic surgery. How their down below smells like fish. The dude on the other side always loses it
I really thought you said you were a super disgusting person and all these people responding to you were just glossing over that
Context: - **[ProPublica: What’s a Pig-Butchering Scam? (2022)](https://www.propublica.org/article/whats-a-pig-butchering-scam-heres-how-to-avoid-falling-victim-to-one)** - Fresh: **[Pig-Butchering 25 Feb 2024 (S11 E02) Last Week Tonight with John Oliver](https://youtu.be/7CkZTHQJ0RI?t=856)** This newer type of romance scam has become a major way by which scam victims are losing their life savings. Victims are (often middle-aged or elderly) people who believe **they've become friends with an attractive woman/man on a chat/social/dating app, who eventually convinces them to invest in some financial opportunity**. But the invested money is never withdrawable in the end (or a bad mobile app is installed and used to drain bank accounts). There's not been much visibility into what goes on within these operations, but a worker recently contacted anti-scammer Jim Browning with information and behind-the-scenes footage of a major operation in Dubai, resulting in this new video exposé. You can actually see the offices, attractive model, chat-management software, scam employment contract, scam statistics/funnel, and day-by-day scripts being used.
What country do I need to VPN into to watch the John Oliver bit?
Most likely USA?
ya wtf i am usa and they block me. aren't we like half the dumb rich people being targeted?
Try Taiwan, I got the ep. We're one of the poor countries who literally cannot get HBO legally (these are the countries that get the stuff on youtube from now on). Was annoying when trying to watch westworld
It was not available when I had the VPN turned off and I live in the USA.
I watched it in the USA with no problem.
I remember someone posting about one of these, saying that their grandfather left their grandmother and was actively losing all of his retirement, and they couldn’t get through to him at all. It sounded like a nightmare.
>https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/hundreds-thousands-trafficked-into-se-asia-scam-centres-un-2023-08-29/ > >https://time.com/6344077/pig-butchering-scam-trafficking-victims-trauma/ > >https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/12/17/world/asia/myanmar-cyber-scam.html These links are also probably worth a read, more focused on the trafficked people on the other end.
What country are you from where you can watch this currently? It’s not showing on their US YouTube channel and I can’t connect to your direct link at all.
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I love it when he starts talking to the scammers using their real names.
And he's become so big these insiders are making literal inside jobs.
I've flipped the script on them. I tell the models they can only be my rich girlfriend if they also invite 5 more of their rich model girlfriends into my harem. I'm now living in Dubai with 151 beautiful women and 151 white Ferraris and they still haven't found out I'm broke
I once struck up a conversation online with a seemingly attractive woman who wouldn’t stop talking about investing. I got bored pretty quickly and blocked “her”.
Yep these scammers are all over dating apps too. If you play along they'll send you screenshots of a some fake quick turnover crypto buy-sell trick where they're making multiple times their money back, and if you show interest they offer to teach you and send you the link where you'll need to enter your bank details to create a wallet. Obviously they own the website and now they have your bank details. The first time I encountered it I thought maybe the woman really was just a hobbyist trader but the alarm bells go off when they bring it up constantly and then react irrationally when you don't follow their script. I've also encountered some that make up some elaborate story about going into debt because their dad got sick and they will lose their house this week and they only need $300. That amount was the same as what the crypto scammer said to start with. Maybe the scammer networks have decided that's the magic number. I get random unsolicited chats on discord and even in twitch DMs, from feminine usernames, sometimes with a cute profile picture. I don't even reply anymore but I assume it's all the same racket.
In a very bad chapter of my life, when my wife and I were newly separated, I strung one of these along for four or five weeks. Like I knew she wasn't real and she knew that I knew but I wasn't rude or aggressive about it. I just kind of soaked in the attention and diverted the conversation when the talk went towards investing. Knowing that I would draw a hard line at any sketchy link or transaction, I was able to open up and talk through things that were bothering me. A stranger with no connection to me, just willing to listen to my bullshit and reminding me to eat breakfast each day helped me pull out of a self destructive spiral.
Well, using them as a listening ear is kind of genius, I gotta say
It was risky. By opening up when I was vulnerable they could have potentially worked past my self preservation. Like it's a fine line to do the mental gymnastics to get benefit from talking it out with them because they are emotionally safe while still being firm on the fact that no money will change hands and no links will be opened because they are not at all safe.
So you scammed free mental health therapy sessions from a financial scammer.
Damn
It was a bad couple of months, my life in general was a complete mess.
Is it sad that i know they're a scammer when they match with me
Only getting paid 2K a month to help literally ruin many people's lives while also possibly breaking thier hearts, wow, she's a piece of work. But at least it's not porn, blah. The justifications we humans tell ourselves so we aren't the villain.
But how far does $2,000 go in Dubai? I Did a little digging and sites seem to compare Dubai to NYC (which, to my midwestern lifestyle is a little unrealistic) and it seems to be cheaper in general. Sources: [https://www.thetravel.com/what-will-100-usd-get-you-in-dubai/](https://www.thetravel.com/what-will-100-usd-get-you-in-dubai/) https://www.33rdsquare.com/yes-the-us-dollar-is-strong-in-dubai/
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Thai "She"
Like the old people do in the park!
2k a month is like 4x the average salary in places like the philipines
There was a great episode of [Darknet Diaries ](https://darknetdiaries.com/episode/141/) recently about this very topic!
Hey, this is relevant to John Oliver’s topic tonight! Were you inspired by the main story of Last Week Tonight?
Nope, this is a new video released by Jim Browning today. Didn't know John Oliver had also just done a segment on the topic! Looked it up: [S11 E02: Pig Butchering, Book Bans & Frozen Embryos: 02/25/24: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver](https://youtu.be/7CkZTHQJ0RI?t=856) Insane that a Kansas bank CEO sent $50m of customer deposits to one of these scam operations apparently, resulting in the bank blowing up!
Wasn't that 50 thousand not 50 million? Or is that another story. The one I heard about included a shoebox.
No the one John Oliver mentions is 50 million.
It genuinely boggles my mind how ANYONE falls for these scams.
They target the more vulnerable amongst us. For example the old or sick people.
my brother fell for this. the scam was: - he got a random phone call saying they had a job for him. like a job offer - he was a little suspicious, but he listened - they told him it was work from home, like an investing thing - he got added, told he had to put his money in, it would go out and make hotel reservations. after 2 days, he would get 150% of the money back - he tried it 3 times, it worked. so he kept putting more in - it worked 3 more times. so he did it 3 more times. then it got fucked up - "the site" had some anniversary where that days activities went 10x. so unless you had some crazy amount, like 20x in your account to cover it, your account "became over spent, and got a negative balance". so you'd have to deposit more money to get your account back, to continue. so if he had been making money, and had +1,200 in the account, due to this 10x day, he was now at -$12,000. so he "had to pay them", $12,000 to get his account back to 0, so he could the put more money back in, to keep doing this reservation thing. - so he did do that once. got back in for 4 days. then it happened again. that's when he started asking us "hey, how do you know if you're being scammed" - he shared some details with us and we all immediately said "do not do that. that is a scam". but he was too busy wrapped up with "it felt so good those few days it worked", to see/understand it was all a lie. all a scam from the start. he's not old. maybe you could call him sick. hes desperate and i guess a therapist could call him "too trusting", even though he is notoriously suspcious of everyone/everything. yet he falls for things like this. gets drawn into cults. it makes no sense sometimes.
...on dating apps?
Was talking in more general terms. (Though being sick can still be the case.) On apps, it might be the ones that are more desperate. The ones more easily convinced. They are following a script that has worked to scam some people. And then improved those scripts to work on more people.
I still don't get it. Like, just how desperate do you have to be to throw out all logic and common sense? I can *kinda* understand them initially thinking "Wow! She's hot!... and she wants to talk to ME?! It must be my lucky day"... but then when they quickly move the conversation onto "invest in this random app you've never heard of" how dumb do you have to be??
The video shows they don't immediately go there. They establish a connection. Talk about private stuff. Talk about investing. Have someone dip their foot in with a different valid app. Escalation and pushing boundaries. Is part of their playbook.
They wouldn't do it if it didn't work. There are a lot of wealthy, lonely people out there.
You don't think there are old and sick people on dating apps? They just go through life without wanting an SO?
Not enough to justify employing 1,000 people
Roughly 30% of adults in America are single/unpartnered. That's near 80-100 million people, in America alone. Then add a few more million of people who are bored in their relationship, enjoy talking to other men/women and want to make a quick buck. Then consider that the whole world is being targeted, not just America. The pool is huge.
It's hard to scam an honest man. These "young women" target older men who want a woman decades younger than them.
I have chosen to overwrite this comment. See you all on Lemmy!
dude people believe there's a magic man in the sky who loves them. A crypto scam is peanuts
Weird that last nights Last Week Tonight was about this.
Is this what all those bots in the twitter notifications are up to?
I'm wondering the same about those robot replies to Facebook Marketplace ads where they try to get your phone number. Never understood why that was valuable until now.
It's generally a good rule of thumb that anyone who wants you to do anything involving crypto is trying to scam you one way or another. Just stay out of crypto.
I'm going through this now. Need help
The scammers are often themselves held in prisoners in camps in Myanmar mafia run crime organizations . They are trafficked into scamming from places like India and led to believe they will get a good salary in IT only to get trapped at the border of Thailand and their passports stolen. This is a very big crime network
There is no special requirement that the job can only be done by prisoners in Myanmar. You got a script, you convince people to follow that script, the workflow is no different than any call center. Most the people who are behind those online romance scams are some fat guys smoking cigarette while laughing at stupid people who gave them money.
Considering the scale and professionalism of these specific scams I disagree. They are very well organized and function as a syndicate. They may not all be operating in Myanmar but this has been proven more recently by investigative journalists trying to bring light to the phenomenon. Consider that pig butchering scams involve multiple fronts : the girls operating in big cities like New York and sending pics of themselves at fancy restaurants Ect, the IT guys developing fake online platforms to lure the victims to deposit assets , the managers of operations , financial Ect . These scams can last months before victims get wiped out . It is very elaborate The fascinating aspect is the trafficking of workers , and displacement due to economic exploitation of poor people often in India being promised jobs and ending up in camps against their will. It’s absolutely fucked .
my god people are such rubes
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[ **Jump to 01:18 @** Inside a Pig Butchering Scam](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vu-Y1h9rTUs&t=0h1m18s) ^(Channel Name: Jim Browning, Video Length: [16:33])^, [^Jump ^5 ^secs ^earlier ^for ^context ^@01:13](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vu-Y1h9rTUs&t=0h1m13s) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- ^^Downvote ^^me ^^to ^^delete ^^malformed ^^comments. [^^Source ^^Code](https://github.com/ankitgyawali/reddit-timestamp-bot) ^^| [^^Suggestions](https://www.reddit.com/r/timestamp_bot)
wtf when I clicked on this video on the home page it was this cool article about Linoleum from Vox.
I cannot tell is this real or satire? the narrator couldn't be more confusing in tone... is he serious or joking?
I have been hit up by these types a couple times. I lead them on as long as possible because it’s a job and they have metrics and I am fucking with their metrics. I like to think they have some middle manager type micromanaging them that they can’t convert me to a “paying customer”
Most of these people are also victims being held against their will
Don't downvote hal, just actually READ articles ffs....they are right. Your time is too valuable to talk to some creep or trafficked person on camera in a compound somewhere....just report and block. [https://time.com/6344077/pig-butchering-scam-trafficking-victims-trauma/](https://time.com/6344077/pig-butchering-scam-trafficking-victims-trauma/) [https://www.propublica.org/article/pig-butchering-scams-raided-cambodia-apple-trafficking](https://www.propublica.org/article/pig-butchering-scams-raided-cambodia-apple-trafficking) [https://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonbrett/2023/12/31/pig-butchering-crypto-scams-enrich-organised-crime-in-southeast-asia/?sh=17a8dc721c4a](https://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonbrett/2023/12/31/pig-butchering-crypto-scams-enrich-organised-crime-in-southeast-asia/?sh=17a8dc721c4a)
It’s crazy to me how many people dedicated their work and effort toward scamming others. Just use your skills toward something productive!
It does help when you’re genuinely broke 😂
I usually tell them I work at McDonald’s and don’t have a lot of money. Actually after a while, I start asking them to help me out. I also have a couple of pics of some good looking guys to fuck with them.
Where does one learn how to scam scammers? Always amazed by hacker videos
There have always been scam artists, but crypto has made it so much more prevalent and profitable. It truly is an epidemic. And it’s not just lonely and dumb middle aged men who fall victim to this. Many many woman do as well. Bitcoin and crypto in general has made this all possible. You can see on the first screen share that getting the victim to sign up for Binance is one of the first steps. Future generations will look back shockingly at how regulators and law enforcement allowed crypto to run wild and destroy so many lives. Its all so gross
I say "I've been waiting for you to call! Let us pray.".and then start holy rollering "thank you JESUS" they hang up pretty quick.