Crypto investment scam hog slaughter delivered “massive losses” to victims
An emerging and fairly complex form of investment scam known as “pig slaughtering,” in which flirtatious strangers convince unsuspecting users to invest in crypto trading platforms that eventually seize funds when victims try to withdraw, has reportedly robbed victims of millions of dollars in crypto assets. .
The term “pig slaughtering” refers to a sophisticated and human-intensive process of using fake profiles on social media platforms and dating sites to lure people into investing in suspicious scams.
“The scam is named for the way scammers feed their victims promises of romance and riches before cutting them off and taking all their money,” Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) warned in April 2022.
The most widespread form of pork butchering scams involves promising crypto platforms that offer unprecedented returns within a short period of time, according to a recent report by security news and investigative website KrebsonSecurity.
These scams often start with what appears to be a random SMS and are also prevalent on dating sites and apps, the report said. As soon as the victim responds, they ask them to continue the conversation via the WhatsApp messaging platform.
“The people who are forced to carry out these scams have a guide and a script, where if your victim is divorced, say this, or a single mother say this,” said Erin West, assistant district attorney for Santa Clara County in Northern California. .
West said there are “horrific stories” of victims who have fallen prey to this scam, ranging from young women early in their careers, to retirees and even people working in the financial industry.
In the report, Courtney Nolan, a divorced mother of three daughters, was presented as one of the victims who lost more than US$5 million in such a scam. Nolan said it all started with a direct Twitter message from a “crypto enthusiast”, who promised to guide her on how to make reliable profits using major crypto trading platforms XTB.com.
The scammer made Nolan create an account on the xtb market[.]com, a duplicate of the original site that was created to be confusingly similar to XTB’s official platform. The site promoted various investment packages, including a “starter plan” that asked for an upfront payment of US$5,250 in return for over 15% returns.
According to the report, she initially made small investments and generated high returns. Nolan said she was even able to withdraw amounts from US$10,000 to US$30,000 on several occasions.
However, after investing more than US$4.5 million, she found her account frozen. Nolan then received a tax statement saying she owed nearly $500,000 in taxes before she could reactivate her account or access her money. After paying the “tax bill” her mentor and the entire website disappeared.
In general, pork slaughter fraud has four elements. These include social media or dating apps, WhatsApp, no video (scammers will come up with all kinds of excuses not to make a video call), and investment chat, KrebsonSecurity’s report said.
As previously reported, romance scams have seen a steep rise in recent years. In May 2021, a South Korean woman drugged a man she met on a smartphone chat app and stole $87,000 in crypto from his phone.
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Learn more:
– Top 7 NFT Scams to Watch for
– 7 DeFi risks you should be aware of according to CoinShares
– Crypto exchange that hosted a fraudster’s wallet is ‘not liable’ for victim’s losses, court rules
– Police Investigate Ethereum, Bitcoin Mining ‘Pool’ After ‘Scam’ Allegations
– SIM swapping, other crypto-related crimes are going to increase in South Korea, says SK
– MetaMask aims to help crypto fraud and phishing victims take legal action against fraudsters
