The term Pig Butchering refers to the victims of scammers. The scammers
nurture relationships with their targets before luring them in for the kill.
Armies of scammers operating from lawless corners of Southeast Asia—often
controlled by Chinese crime bosses—connect with people all over the world
through online messages. They foster elaborate, sometimes romantic,
relationships, and then coax their targets into making bogus investments. Over
time, they make it appear that the investments are growing to get victims to
send more money. Then, they disappear.
This is not a new technique, but it is a problem for societies all around
the world. It was used by Nigerian scammers during the war on terror who would
pose as US servicemen and target gullible victims with fake photos and love
letters often coaxing the victims to send money.
There are regions around the world whose strengths lie in language,
targeting/scamming societies more closely related to them. The border region
shared by China with Myanmar sounds like the problems the US southern border
experiences with the Mexican cartels. The differences are there is not the
endless stream of unvetted, unvaccinated migrants streaming into China, plus
China is doing something about it. I mean who wants to go to communist China
anyway?
The link below to a WSJ article in today's paper details the issue and how
China is trying to shut down the illicit scam centers.
India with its large English-speaking population is home to villages whose
sole industry is internet scamming. I watched a documentary about this. The
internet and smartphones have brought the tools for scamming to very smart and
desperate people. The gulf between haves and have nots is very great in India
even with-it growing prestige and power. Whether its right or wrong does not
mean a lot to a poor village.
India has long held a reputation as a home to online scammers targeting
victims in far richer nations such as the United States. Last year, federal
prosecutors in Georgia announced the indictment of multiple India-based call
centers and their directors, charging them with conspiring to forward tens of
millions of scam calls to American consumers.
In summation, be extra vigilant and check the email, test message sources. Check
that the email address used by the sender is the correct address associated
with that sender if possible. Check the spelling of the domain name in the
email address.
Your email address is on hundreds if not thousands of devices. Every client,
firm, or friend you deal with has your email address and phone number. All internet connected devices should have
anti-viral software installed but sometimes that is not enough. My larger
clients have SonicWALL, anti-virus as well as MS365 protections in place. Does
everyone you deal with have the same protections in place?
Be careful.
BTW, I run a Sandbox which is a Virtual Machine that I monitor email for my
larger clients 24/7. If an infection occurs within the VM, I can shut it down
without any consequences to my machine. If you need help verifying an email,
feel free to contact me.
