Over the past ten years, a highly distinct kind of fraud known as the “pig butchering scam” has surfaced. Because of the entire approach, the con artists used, this swindle is as bizarre and horrifying as its name implies.
We will provide you with a quick overview of this scam in this post, along with information on how it operates, so you can protect yourself from falling for it.
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How The Scam Starts?
The Pig Butchering Scam follows the same logic as its name, which derives from the custom of farmers fattening hogs before slaughter. In a similar vein, con artists deceive people using any social media or dating app while remaining undetected to the victim.
The perpetrators of the Pig Butchering Scam fabricate an online persona on dating and social media sites. This persona is sophisticated and appealing, and it includes an incredibly seductive profile photo on each site where the account was made.
The method by which con artists approach potential victims is by sending messages to them on dating or social media sites, claiming that the communication was intended for someone else and not for them.
Due to the fraudsters’ incredibly attractive profile photos being posted on the sites where they communicate with possible victims, they become interested in their fictitious profile and start a conversation.
Scammers have developed a bogus online persona that includes extremely deceptive content, such as photos of the person flaunting their lifestyle and visiting pricey places—all of which may persuade a normal person to believe in them.
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Pig Fattening Begins
Potential victims initiate conversations with con artists after becoming enthralled with their fictitious identity and lavish lifestyle. The con artists then establish a connection with the possible victims.
Now that they have established a legitimate relationship, the con artist informs potential victims how they become wealthy and how you can. They present certain fictitious investment plans with large returns on investment to potential victims.
They are told by scammers that they can participate in those scams and become wealthy too. Victims choose to sign up for those schemes because they have developed a close relationship with the scammer acting as a wealthy individual.
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Carrying Out Scam
The pig butchering scam is a large-scale operation, thus the con artists had to pull in a lot of money, which is why they had to convince the victims to invest money in those scams several times.
For this reason, to win the trust of their victims who have invested in fraudulent schemes, scammers initially only provide extremely small returns to them. As soon as the con artists gain their trust, they demand large amounts of money.
And as soon as the con artists obtain the required amount, they break off communication, leaving the victim with nothing. Fraud has been so common lately that many victims have lost their entire life savings to it.
It is, therefore, crucial to recognize the Pig Butchering Scam.
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How To Identify This Scam?
The most powerful component of this hoax is the victims’ avarice, which allowed them to fall prey to it by just conversing online with some strangers they didn’t know.
Therefore, it is concerning if an unknown person contacts you by chance on dating apps or any other social media platform and flaunts their opulent lifestyle in their profile photo and other characteristics.
Furthermore, be mindful that, particularly when using dating apps, you ought to notice that something may be wrong if an extremely attractive individual diverts the conversation away from dating-related topics and towards investing choices.
Finally, the best defense against this scam is to communicate with strangers online using common sense and to have a basic understanding of economics, since con artists entice victims with investment plans that promise astronomically high profits.
You need to understand that all ethical investment plans are designed to provide adequate returns over an extended period.
Therefore, the only people who offer extremely large returns in a short amount of time without disclosing the workings of their investment plans are scammers.