What's it like being "pig butchered" online? That is, being scammed out of money by total strangers offering deals that seem too good to be true, but then you see others seemingly raking in the readies so you might be tempted to give it a go.
Online scamming is big business, with billions of dollars being lost globally. A particular form of it is known as "pig butchering" which originated in China, called sha zhu pan and which has spread to other parts of the world.
The long and short of it is the scammers offer "investment deals" in cryptocurrency, often through a seemingly attractive handler who gets personal really fast in order to relieve you of your money. Like 27-year-old "Corin" from Singapore who runs a gym and a coffee shop there, but doesn't know the names of any local kopi. A personal assistant gave her the wrong number (mine), and she uses a New Zealand one herself.
At the same time, I was joined to a WhatsApp group by a UK +44 number, and the scam here is much simpler and cleaner. You sign up to do crypto currency trades, and make a huge profit on them.
It's supposedly run by a "Mr Glenn Hutchins", with his helpful personal assistant Sophia taking care of all the details for him. This is a known scam so don't fall for it; the assistants' names vary, but it looks like it's a China-based scam.
For the avoidance of doubt: there's absolutely no legit trading organisation, brokerage, anyone, who'd sign up random people on WhatsApp to help them make money. Please speak to other people first before you even think about signing up for something like this.
The group I was joined to has 288 members. At first, I thought I should just report and block the group, but as most of the group members were listed with +64 mobile numbers, 020 and 021, with no other prefixes that I could find, my curiosity was piqued. Even Mr Hutchins had a New Zealand number.
Mr Hutchins did not pick up when I tried to call him, and none of the other numbers that I tried answered their phones. (If you're a real person who has been tricked into this scam, please contact me).
Only people made into "community admins" are allowed to post in the WhatsApp group. The posts that flew by were a mix of patsy questions from "new members" asking how to start trading because ooh, it does seem complicated, and existing people posting screenshots about the huge profits they've reaped and what they bought with them.
Sophia explained what to do:
1) Sign up for a trading account; the scammers use btcs-alpha.com and the form there asks for your personal email and phone number, which under no circumstances anyone should give out, online particularly. The spelling of the domain name is similar to btc-alpha.com, which appears to be a legit site with a proper front page; whereas btcs-alpha.com only has a form, and looks like a spoof of btc-alpha. Sophia also used alphas-btc.com which doesn't lead anywhere now, possibly having been removed.
2) Once you're registered, transfer Tether (USDT), a cryptocurrency stable coin that's pegged to the US$ dollar exchange rate, into the trading account.
3) Wait for the "trading signals" from Mr Hutchins, and buy another crypto currency, Ethereum or ETH. Once a certain rate is reached, the trader closes the position and enjoys a sizeable profit.
That all sounds amazing, doesn't it? What do Mr Hutchins and Sophia want in return? Only a mere 20% commission.
"Commission payments are collected on a certain day of the month, usually the last day of the month," the ever helpful Sophia said.
Sophia really wants to encourage people to get in on the trades.
"Please believe that Mr Hutchins' trading signals are highly accurate, so the chances of making money will be high. And commissions will only happen after profits are made, we need a long term mutually beneficial relationship!" Sophia added, and tried via WhatsApp messages to get me to start trading.
That's as far as my curiosity took me, and I didn't invest in a long term mutually beneficial relationship. I suspect I won't regret that decision. Other instances of pig butchering mention victims trying to withdraw their money, but being pressured into leaving them in the accounts, or paying fees and "taxes" that are steep.
It's hard to tell how many people have fallen for the scam, but from the group I was joined to, you could see that Mr Hutchins operated at least four more, using a simple serial number system to keep track of them.
How many actual, real Kiwis with genuine phone numbers are involved in the group is impossible to work out as scammers can get local SIM cards and put them into specially designed devices (SIM boxes). For scam victims, it looks like the group participants are locals, and there are lots of them too, making the whole thing more credible.
Looking up the named members of the Mr Hutchins group on LinkedIn, not one was found to have a New Zealand connection.
Overall, the scammers operate in a very calm and disciplined way, making the fraud seem like a legit operation, an online investment club that you were lucky enough asked to join, out of the blue.
At the same time, the scam seems so totally banal and unbelievable. There's not much friction involved to become roped in though, just setting up a few accounts on the Internet and you're done. No identification, no awkward know-your-customer and anti-money laundering hoops to jump through, just some joyful people in an online group making heaps of profit from Mr Hutchins' "trading signals".
Absolutely do not ever go along with anything like the above, no matter how easy it seems and how desperately you need money. Chances are high that you'll be fleeced, and of large amounts as well, as you're drawn into the scam.
Update: A spokesperson for Meta said the company won't comment on this case, but referred me to the channel of the head of WhatsApp, Will Cathcart. In the channel, Cathcart talks about a new safety feature called Context Cards that provides more information about groups you're added to by people you don't don't know. The feature makes it easier to exit and report the groups, Cathcart said.
Cathcart also mentioned existing safety features like being able to silence unknown callers, privacy check-up, and controlling who can add you to groups.
13 Comments
Please, people, just stay with the reputable banks. Do not dabble in this online nonsense. Do not speak to nice sounding gentlemen or ladies on the phone. Get rid of your landline. Don't answer unknown numbers on your mobile. They can leave a message or TXT. Stick with your banking app and check it daily. Stay highly suspicious at all times.
I used to go to a New World in town for my morning coffee and pastry. There were a large number of very old people using that supermarket. It was scary the number of times one of them would be along the lines of 'Oh I'm not very good with these keypads, could you type my PIN in for me please?'
The money stolen from Aussies and Kiwis by boiler rooms operating out of Asia is likely to far exceed crypto scams.
Why?
1. The boiler rooms have been operating since the 90s, way before crypto emerged (https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12081065/Boiler-room-scammed-A…)
2. Boiler rooms use primarily cold calling sales techniques - much more persuasive to the gullible. Watch Wolf of Wall St again.
3. Organisations like ASIC and FMA have been hopeless, In the case of the former, they've ignored property scams (until it's too late) pushed through legitimate IFAs, many of whom prey on the expat market. You can't go wrong with bricks and mortar kind of pitch (https://www.afr.com/companies/financial-services/asic-victory-in-high-c…)
4. The media has been largely uninterested.
I found even the police did not faze them. What did seem to hit a real chord in the sensitive spot was saying they are cursed and they dishonor their family and that their family should disown them for the harm they do to other people. Immediately effective. However nowadays it is far more likely to be AI, so working out ways to trick the AI to set up large computationally expensive tasks or release data is possible. There is always the option to send them into an automated honeypot but sometimes (even though you miss every single cell and unknown call) it is easier just to block all numbers or fraud attempts not from your contacts list. The downside is losing access to medical, trades, business calls from mobiles in the process. Also there is still a significant risk that your contacts have been compromised or that they have had their numbers spoofed.
However for me the original scam caller would not have been an issue if the real estate customer data was more securely kept and protected, (which is when all fraudulent scam calls started and had customer info only provided to the agency). Sometimes it is just better to have one phone for businesses for private matters, one phone for business for business and work calls, and one for family & medical. Then you do not need to worry about the contact details leaking too much to begin with and dealing with the hassle of changing contacts for everything under the sun.
I'm sure this is mostly accurate but it's very incomplete.
'pig-butchering' scams are called that because the scammer will fatten you up like a pig, slowly, before slaughtering you.
They often start with a wrong number text or whatsapp. "Hi bob ready for our golf game?" "Oh sorry I must have the wrong number, you sound kind. Please message me more. Do you like movies?". The person messaging you then presents as attractive and successful. Kind, thoughtful. Has photos, eventually hints at a romantic connection, and can even video call you. Scammer businesses have whole teams of chatters and video models working in slavery conditions to execute their scam. And each day they send thousands of these automated conversations so they don't lose out from any "wasted time".
This then eventually will turn into a romance scam, or crypto scam. Successful ones only speed up months and months later. There is no rush from their side. Romance scams ask for money to help your true love out of problems. Crypto scams suggest they like you enough to share their investment scheme. It will include a website or crypto app. But the key thing is that this is a fake app controlled by the scammer - just numbers on a screen. The victim sends a bit of money, sees a profit generated, and is very likely allowed to withdraw real money back to their bank. A small amount. But now they trust the scammer and are ready to be slaughtered.
The next 'investment' is for higher stakes. And then fees and taxes will start to appear. Deposit more money to get your money back. If the scammer has really earned that trust then people lose tens of thousands to this.
It is a slight difference to be dropped into a scammer group chat / discord where investors are talking about their gains. The author says some of the messages are from other patsies but this is very likely not the case - a scammer business has bots/secondary-accounts sending all sorts of convincing messages and you are the only victim.
And very importantly, you are directed to "btcs-alpha.com" but there is a similar website "btc-alpha.com" and both are probably not trustworthy and are set up to display numbers on the screen saying "you bought crypto!! $$$ profit!!" There is no way that you are in a scheme where real crypto has been purchased with your money and the scammer is just taking the cut. Impossible. The scammer is always asking for you to pay some money to access this pretend money they've convinced you is yours. It could be true, right, maybe it's worth the risk!
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