‘Pig butchering’ scammers target BBC reporter - BBC World Service
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Published 2024-08-08
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The BBC’s Cyber correspondent Joe Tidy suspected it was a scam but wasn’t sure what kind. In the end, "Jessica’" turned out to be a "pig butchering" scammer.
These fraudsters refer to their victims as pigs, whom they fatten up to be "butchered" or conned, out of as much money as possible.
Knowing the profile for "Jessica" was fake, the reporter played along for more than two months to find out what psychological tricks the pig butchers employ to lure victims around the world into investing into fake crypto schemes.
Pig butchering scammers stole at least $3bn last year according to the FBI, with victims usually aged between 30 and 60.
0:00 "Jessica" says hello
1:08 "Jessica" says she can make me rich
3:23 Where is "Jessica" based?
4:15 Trying to get my money back
5:25 Confronting "Jessica" and getting the truth
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All Comments (21)
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Never assume who’s the other side of that picture, be vigilant and take care of yourself.
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Once again the poor innocent pig gets drawn into the nomenclature. The world is a vampire.
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"Much to my wife's relief" 🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣 💀
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"and much to my wife's relief" 😆😂🤣
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Sad. Never ever send money. It's probably a dude you are sending it to anyway.
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The sad truth is, no matter how many people see this, when "she" reaches out to them, they'll still fall for it. "I know I watched a video warning me about this exact woman and this exact situation, but this is a real woman, who really likes me!"
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wish these scammers would just scam each other lol
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Remember guys, if it sounds too good to be true, it most likely is. No woman will send you her pics upfront. Always be on the lookout for contradictions and inconsistencies in their stories. Remember, they are "grooming" several potential victims so they WILL get around to asking for money pretty soon - a day or two at the most. A lot of their pictures will appear either professionally shot or the other extreme - like they were taken with a 2012 phone camera. These are just some of the first red flags to look out for.
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As a banker in 2014 I had a woman come into the bank wanting to wire 5k to her boyfriend, a soldier in Iraq. Guess what? Met him online, never in person, and I had to explain it was a scam. She was pretty upset, but rather broken heart than broken life. I didn't care if she hated me.
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Simple rule of thumb which at this point is just basic common sense, ignore ALL messages from strangers on social media. It's not rocket science.
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The scammers didn't "earn" $200K last month; they ROBBED $200K last month.
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"Wait a minute, that's not the wallet inspector!" - Homer Simpson
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Tinder has so many of these. It's out of control.
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Crazy to think how many people fall for these ludicrous scams.
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these people also scam women on online dating apps!
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Plenty of these at dating sites 😂
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I usually tell the scammer that I inherited 50 million usd from an uncle in Nigeria. But that I need to pay a fee of 100 usd to get my money released. So if the scammer wants to pay the 100 usd, then I would like to invest some of my millions in his project.
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I got contacted by “Jessica”, and I am a woman, haha😂😅😂
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Every time they do this I always respond with “get a job” 😂
