There’s a new financial scam in town.
Did you receive a friendly note from a stranger over the holidays? Perhaps an old colleague you’ve completely forgotten, or someone who messaged you because your number is “in their contacts.” If this sounds familiar, you aren’t alone — and if you’ve been talking to them since, you should almost certainly end the conversation, stat.
We’ve all heard of the cryptocurrency market, and the vast sums of money made and lost on it. But if we’re really honest with ourselves, most of us don’t really understand what cryptocurrency is, or how trading with it really works. Now, a sophisticated network of scammers is taking advantage of our collective ignorance with a cruel, highly-evolved racket known as “pig butchering”.
How does this scam work?
Pig-butchering scammers “fatten up the pig by getting the victim to think that they’re investing in something and get them to move money into cryptocurrency,” Santa Clara County, California, district attorney Jeff Rosen tells CNN.
The concept is simple: The scammer contacts the victim out of the blue and engages in relaxed conversation with them. Typically, the scammer will have a fake profile set up, using stolen photos to create an attractive image. As the victim divulges more and more details about their life, the scammer will feed back their own “relatable” stories — usually ones that suggest they can empathize with the…
