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.
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