By Kotie Geldenhuys
Photo courtesy of Pixabay
Criminals make millions of dollars from scams such as business e-mail compromise fraud and other scams. But the newer kid on the block is a scam called “pig butchering” – it links investment schemes often involving cryptocurrencies with online romantic relationships (Titterington, 2024). Also known as a “sha zhu pan” scam, pig butchering involves scammers creating fake online identities to draw victims into fraudulent investment schemes. The term reflects the scammers’ method of “fattening up” their targets by gaining their trust before “slaughtering” them by stealing their money. Similar to the way that pigs are raised over time before they are slaughtered (Whittaker, Lazarus and Corcoran, 2024). In a pig butchering scam, fraudsters invest significant time and effort into building trust with their victims, sometimes over weeks or months. This patience sets it apart from many other scams, where perpetrators seek quick financial gain (Titterington, 2024). While this scam gained attention in 2019, its origins trace back to the early 2010s, when Chinese authorities first documented it (Whittaker et al, 2024).
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[This is only an extract of an article that is published in Servamus: October 2024. This article is available for purchase.]