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Citing the growing popularity of crypto scams, the United States authorities put out warnings regarding potential crypto scams. They termed the scams as ‘pig butchering’ that are increasing and this brings heavy concerns.
Public Information Officer from Lakewood Police, John Romero stated that the widely used term is inspired from the standard procedure that any farmer follows before slaughtering a pig. Farmer would feed his pig, fatten him and then slaughter it. This is quite similar to the scenario where the illicit actors fatten up while luring their victims before cheating on them.
Further the officer also detailed that such pig butchering scams generally follow the similar procedure. They start from social media platforms like Linkedin or Tinder like dating sites. Scammers lure and convince people to provide them money. The process further moves ahead with the money getting invested into some crypto account that shows growth in terms of value with time. This encourages the victim to add more money to the account and then eventually the scammers end up getting away with the whole money.
One victim of such a scam noted that he had his hands on the withdrawals of his funds into the crypto account. Considering there were no problems, the project appeared legit to him. After some time he received a message asking him for more money. The demand was of over 204,000 USD in order to regain access of his own account.
The victims end up investing their entire life savings in a matter of days after they see how simple it is to invest, according to the U.S. Secret Service Special Agent Shawn Bradstreet. The money may appear to be going to respectable websites, but it is actually being sent directly to criminals, he added.
For assistance with pig butchering victims, the Global Anti-Scam Organization, a non-profit with offices in Singapore, is manned around-the-clock. According to Grace Yuen, a Massachusetts-based spokesperson for the group, they are witnessing an inflow of victims from the Bay Area, the con keeps getting more sophisticated, where fake platforms are created and impersonate reliable cryptocurrency trading websites.
Steve Anderson is an Australian crypto enthusiast. He is a specialist in management and trading for over 5 years. Steve has worked as a crypto trader, he loves learning about decentralisation, understanding the true potential of the blockchain.
