Pig butchering scams take bits and pieces from romance and investment scams to create a larger, lethal kind of scam. The amount of time and energy scammers put into pig butchering is a big part of what makes it so dangerous.
Generally, scammers initiate contact through text messaging and claim to either be one of your old friends or someone who is looking for someone else.
But there’s many online places and websites where scammers lurk.
Pig butchering hotbeds
Pig butchering is most common where people are most vulnerable.
Dating apps like Match, Bumble, and Tinder have all been reported launching-off points for pig butchering scams in the past.
Social media apps like Facebook, LinkedIn, and WhatsApp are common hotbeds too, with scammers often preferring to take conversations to WhatsApp. Unsolicited SMS text messages are another popular gateway.
Fake financial, stock, and trading apps are also some common tools of the trade for pig butchering scams. They can come in any shape and form, including coming from trusted sources like the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.
The pig butchering process
The most common places where pig butchering starts are through unsolicited SMS messages and private chats on social media websites, such as Facebook and LinkedIn.
Scammers will use these outlets to initiate contact for the first time, and don’t usually like sticking around on them for long.
After building trust and a rapport, they’ll usually ask you to take your chat conversation to another platform, like WhatsApp. They’ll usually prefer an app that’s harder to track people on so that, if you fall victim to their financial schemes, it’s harder for you to get your money back.
The final piece to the puzzle is a financial website or app of any sort. Fraudsters will navigate you to a stock trading app of some sort, telling you about the deal of a lifetime.
If you or someone you know has met someone, and the conversation has headed down this path, cut things off as soon as possible.
Stay on alert for pig butchering
Not every instance of pig butchering is going to play out exactly the same. But the general idea is that scammers come from out of the blue to establish a relationship and introduce some sort of financial element to the relationship. That financial aspect of the relationship involves the victim giving them money or items of great value.
Keep a look out while you’re on these platforms, and keep your friends and family informed about pig butchering scams as well. If nothing else, be there as someone they can lean on if they've found themselves in the middle of one of these scams.
And keep your guard up, too. Pig butchering can happen to anyone.