The dating app profile has a photo of a gym flex while the job field has only the elusive “crypto” as an answer.
While it may sound like the much less luxe start of Netflix (NFLX) – Get Netflix Inc. Report‘s “Tindler Swindler,” online scams are often easier to recognize after the fact. While many are getting exposed, new versions of some crypto scams seem to be popping up daily.
The latest fraud to be making the rounds carries a particularly gruesome name and targets people on dating apps and social media platforms. It’s known as “pig butchering” or “pig slaughtering,” in a reference to “fattening up” a victim before doing the damage.
Authorities have long been drawing attention to criminals who use the hype around bitcoin and ethereum’s success to get people to invest in other tokens that turn out to be little more than Ponzi schemes.
Why Is It Called Pig Butchering?
The latest scam, however, is more nefarious in that it doesn’t rely on shady emails about “buying some crypto.” Instead, the scammer finds a person who is already looking for love and friendship and builds trust by conversation over the course of weeks or even months.
“The criminal is fattening [the victim] up for slaughter by building trust,” Brent Campbell, managing director of the NXS Crypto Fund, told TheStreet in an interview.”[…] They have a script for the college kid and a script for those in their 20s as well as those in their 50s and retired. They know exactly how to make that person gain…
