Damn, Pig Butchering is Brutal.
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After I wrote the post on the Cut writer who was scammed out of 50K and noted how despite how tempting it is to call her stupid for falling for such an obvious scam, we should take a holistic look into why she fell for it, I saw this video by John Oliver on Pig Butchering scams.
The pig butchering scam is a scammer seduces a mark before draining their money through a fake app, much like how a hog is fattened up before slaughter—a graphic yet frank description.
It starts simply enough with a random text which leads to the scammer romancing the mark and eventually convincing them to part with their money. As angry as I am with the scammers, it turns out that they’re also victims who have been traffiked and forced to carry out these scams by criminal enterprises.
Much like the Cut article, more systemic issues.
- Why don’t the police give a shit?
- Well, because you can bribe cops but why don’t the embassies give a shit? They’re in on it? Some representation.
- Why the fuck are obvious scam apps not just on the App Store but highly rated?
- How do tech platforms let this through? Do they like scams?
Sure, people are dumbasses (including smartasses who have a lapse in judgement), but that can’t be eradicated so we need to come up with a better plan.
Related Content
- Inside a Pig Butchering Scam [VIDEO 16:32] by the legendary grey-hat hacker Jim Browning. More behind the scenes than John Oliver. This one is based in Dubai which is marginally better than the Asian locations but it’s still brutal nonetheless.