HONOLULU (KHON2) — The pig butchering scam. It’s a whole new way of scamming victims out of money that seeks also to inflict emotional and psychological torment.
To learn more about this scam and how to recognize and avoid it, KHON2.com caught up with Cameron Nakashima, the media engagement and digital campaigns manager at the Better Business Bureau (BBB).
The BBB is an independent, not-for-profit organization dedicated to helping consumers make smart and safe decisions in the marketplace, both online and offline.
Nakashima delved into the alarming and increasingly prevalent “pig butchering scam”, a deceptive scheme that manipulates and devastates its victims both financially and emotionally.
Despite its grotesque name, the scam has nothing to do with actual pigs. Instead, it involves scammers “fattening up” their victims by gaining their trust and encouraging them to invest increasingly larger sums of money, only to “butcher” them by stealing everything in the end.
The scam begins with the creation of fake accounts, typically on social media or dating websites.
These accounts, adorned with attractive photos and boasting a significant number of followers, are entirely fraudulent.
“Usually, they’ve used maybe AI or they’ve stolen somebody else’s profile photos,” Nakashima explained. The scammers initiate contact with an unsolicited message, often something as simple as “Hi, how are you today?” or a more direct approach like “Fate has brought us together”.
Sometimes, they even reach out via text message, bypassing social media altogether.
Once the conversation starts, the scammers quickly shift to making it personal, forging an emotional connection with their target. This emotional bond is crucial, as it sets the stage for the next phase: investment.
Nakashima described how the scammers then morph into a mentor role, claiming to have achieved their apparent wealth through savvy investments. They offer to teach their newfound “friends” how to invest, particularly in cryptocurrency through a fake brokerage website.
“They’re going to tell their target, ‘Hey, here’s a great opportunity, very high returns, very low risk,’” Nakashima recounted.
The scammers pressure their victims to convert their money into cryptocurrency and invest it in these fake accounts. To build trust, the scammers allow initial small withdrawals, encouraging the victims to invest more substantial amounts over time.
The devastating part of the scam is the relentless pressure the scammers apply to their victims.
“They’ll convince people to do some really terrible things financially,” Nakashima said.
Victims might be persuaded to liquidate their retirement accounts, take out liens against their property or max out credit cards. The goal is to extract as much money and put the victim in as much debt as possible.
Once the scammers have drained their victims of all available funds, they move in for the final blow.
When the victims attempt to withdraw their money, they are hit with demands for exorbitant fees, supposedly for brokerage services, taxes or handling. Even as the victims pay these fees in a desperate bid to recover their investments, the scammers continue to invent new charges to squeeze out every last dollar.
“And once the scammer realizes that they’ve gotten as much as they absolutely possibly can from their victim, then they turn around and they reveal, ‘Hey, this whole thing was a scam’,” Nakashima said.
In some cases, the scammers even taunt their victims, asking how they could have fallen for such a scheme. The psychological and emotional toll on the victims is severe, compounding the financial devastation.
Nakashima shared a harrowing example from Hawaiʻi, where a single individual lost over $300,000 to a pig butchering scam. He emphasized the importance of recognizing warning signs to avoid falling victim to such scams:
Poor grammar in messages: Many scammers do not speak English as their first language, resulting in messages with grammatical errors.
Unsolicited messages: Receiving a message from someone unknown, especially in the form of a text message, should raise immediate red flags.
Too-good-to-be-true investment opportunities: Be wary of strangers offering investment advice, especially if they promise high returns with low risk.
To stay safe, Nakashima advised against engaging with unsolicited messages.
“The best thing you can do is not respond because once they get you to respond, they start to build that relationship, and things move quickly,” he cautioned.
For those interested in investments, he recommended seeking advice from trusted individuals met in person rather than strangers online.
The BBB offers several resources to help people learn more about such scams and protect themselves. Their website features blogs and articles on crypto investment schemes and other scams.
Additionally, the BBB’s Scam Tracker allows individuals to report scams and find tools to recover both financially and emotionally from these manipulative schemes.
Nakashima’s insights highlighted the cruel and manipulative nature of pig butchering scams, contrasting sharply with the more benign catfishing scams of the past.
The conversation left a lasting impression, underlining the need for vigilance and education in the face of increasingly sophisticated and ruthless scams.
Nakashima expressed BBB’s commitment to continuing the important work of protecting consumers in Hawaiʻi and beyond.
“We are here to help protect the consumer and educate the consumer,” he affirmed, emphasizing the BBB’s role in fostering a safer marketplace.