https://www.cnn.com/2024/06/17...-intl-hnk/index.html

fattening up the mark then taking everything and leaving the mark in debt


Sitting at the kitchen table, Matt struggles to recount the events of the past few months. “As soon as I found out that it was a suicide, I was 100% sure that it was the scam,” he says.

“Our father was, from the day I was born until six months ago, always a positive, happy person. This was literally the only thing in his life that had happened, to where it changed him, and it just crushed him.”

On a horse farm in northern Virginia, surrounded by sprawling fields and stables, the family gathers at their younger sister Adrianne’s house - something they’ve done a lot in the three months since their father took his own life after falling victim to a so-called “pig butchering” scam.

The scams – mostly run out of Southeast Asia - are given that name because they involve “fattening up” victims before taking everything they have. The con artists behind them take on false online identities and spend months financially grooming their victims to get them to invest on fraudulent cryptocurrency websites.

Dennis Jones, an avid runner and photographer, was adored by his children and grandchildren. Described as “a bit of an activist” by his family, the 82-year-old spent much of his retirement working with refugees and debating politics online. But in the last few months of his life he withdrew from his family and, having been divorced for years, befriended a woman going by the name Jessie on Facebook.

The two had been talking online for months and built a close relationship. Eventually, Jessie convinced Dennis to invest in crypto.

Dennis complied. Without ever meeting Jessie in person, he spent everything he had, and when he had nothing left, she demanded more. Until one day the money disappeared, leaving him in ruin.

In early March, Dennis’ children scheduled a meeting to help their father get back on his feet after the scam. The plan was for him to move in with Adrianne and her family. “We wanted him to know that he was going to be taken care of,” Matt said.

But the morning of the meeting none of them could reach Dennis. Matt drove to Dennis’s apartment but he wasn’t home, and all calls went straight to voicemail. They figured he must be out on one of his long runs. An hour later, police knocked on Matt’s door to inform him that Dennis had taken his own life.

Dennis was one of countless victims of a massive global criminal operation predominantly run by Chinese gangs who have built a multibillion-dollar scam industry in Southeast Asia. There, they’ve assembled an army of scammers, many held against their will in guarded compounds and forced to con people all around the world out of their life savings.

It’s theft at a scale so large that investigators are now calling it a mass transfer of wealth from middle-class Americans to criminal gangs. Last year, the FBI estimates, pig butchering scams stole nearly $4 billion from tens of thousands of American victims, a 53% increase from the year before.

Today, city-sized compounds loom over the Myanmar side of the border with Thailand, with nothing but a dried-out river separating the two countries. Inside are what can only be described as scam factories — offices full of hundreds of slaves, working 16-hour days to befriend victims and convince them to invest in cryptocurrency on fake platforms that mimic legitimate crypto exchanges.

Those kept inside tell stories of torture and abuse, of scammers who don’t bring in enough money being beaten with electrical sticks and forced to do hundreds of squats as punishment.

According to FBI data, out of nearly $5 billion dollars lost to cryptocurrency fraud in 2023, $3.96 billion was stolen in pig butchering scams.

While Rosen’s office and the Secret Service have had some success in retrieving millions of dollars in stolen funds, no American law enforcement agency has been able to arrest a single suspected scammer.

Carina, who asked CNN to only use her first name, met “Evan” on Bumble in May 2023. His photos showed a blond man with piercing blue eyes. He claimed to be Dutch and showed off his wealth — expensive cars and Rolexes, though none of that appealed to Carina, a chemistry PhD and triathlete.

Their relationship moved fast. Right away he suggested they move their conversation to WhatsApp and delete the Bumble app to focus on getting to know each other. A few days later he started calling her “honey.”

“We’re doing that already?” Carina asked, in a text conversation seen by CNN.

Evan claimed he had made his money running a company with his uncle and investing in crypto. He told her she could pay off her student loans in a matter of months by investing. Carina was hesitant at first but eventually agreed to put in $1,000.

He told her not to use the official app of the Kraken crypto platform, and instead sent her a link to a parallel website which they used to trade in the coming months.

As their investments grew, so did their relationship. The two made plans for the future, romantic weekend getaways and family introductions, though they were yet to meet in person. “I’ve never met anyone like you before. Hard to believe I’m falling for a man I have never seen or spoken to,” Carina told him just a few weeks in.

The first red flag emerged when Evan pressured Carina to enter an “event” where she would have to invest $150,000 by the end of July to make extra profit. If she failed to reach the target, her account and money would be frozen.

Scared to lose the money she had already put in, Carina panicked. She took out a high-interest loan and borrowed money from friends and family to meet the deadline.

Despite all his purported wealth, Evan refused to help her, instead lying and telling her he was struggling to meet his target of $500,000 and needed her help, she said. At one point, Carina found herself consoling her scammer, telling him the money didn’t matter as long as they loved each other.

Carina didn’t tell her family about what had happened and the stress she was under until the very final moment. After hitting their event targets, Carina tried to withdraw some of her money, but was unable to do so, having violated platform rules by investing in the same account as Evan. After months of hiding it, Carina told her family, who suggested she speak to Kraken directly.

The next morning she called Kraken customer services, who informed her there was no account under her name.

“I realized I had been scammed at that point. And I broke down,” Carina says. “It was all fake. It was a fake profile. It was a fake story. The amount of time that he spent grooming and getting to know me was incessant.”

Reading through their conversations a year later, Carina barely recognizes herself. “It’s actually heartbreaking for me to see the state that I was in,” she says.

The emotional and financial entanglement had taken a toll on her, and she was left reeling from a breakup and bankruptcy at the same time.

In the aftermath, Carina had to move back in with her mother. It will take her at least a decade to repay her debts.

Scammers should be hunted down and terminated

If we can find one cow with mad cow disease why can’t we find scammers?

Call the beekeeper.

It's an old story. Technology just makes things more efficient.

I answer questions on Quora. Mostly from people that ask about military scams. The scammer claims his pay if frozen, or he needs to pay to go on leave, or pay for a replacement. Right now Yemen is the scammers favorite but Syria, and Palestine often come up.
The victims fall for this as they know nothing about the military and want to help.

If something seems too good to be true, it probably is. That goes for financial “investments”, and nebulous online relationships. I cannot begin to fathom how anyone could be so lacking in good judgement as to think communicating with a stranger online (no face to face, or even talking on the phone) equates to any kind of real relationship.

And I agree- scammers should be hunted to extinction. Dead. Worm food.

quote:

Originally posted by gearhounds:
I cannot begin to fathom how anyone could be so lacking in good judgement as to think communicating with a stranger online (no face to face, or even talking on the phone) equates to any kind of real relationship.

The scammers understand human behavior, not necessarily the people doing it but the people running it. They are able to search out people who are lonely and depressed and therefore vulnerable to these things.

These scammers are good and excel on playing on people's emotions, so they are not thinking straight. Show some interest in someone who is starved for attention and they'll do anything you ask.

As someone on the subreddit r/scams once wrote, your first defense against these scams is showing humility and admitting that you too can be a victim. That will help keep your guard up.

quote:

Originally posted by Broadside:

quote:

Originally posted by gearhounds:
I cannot begin to fathom how anyone could be so lacking in good judgement as to think communicating with a stranger online (no face to face, or even talking on the phone) equates to any kind of real relationship.

The scammers understand human behavior, not necessarily the people doing it but the people running it. They are able to search out people who are lonely and depressed and therefore vulnerable to these things.

These scammers are good and excel on playing on people's emotions, so they are not thinking straight. Show some interest in someone who is starved for attention and they'll do anything you ask.

As someone on the subreddit r/scams once wrote, your first defense against these scams is showing humility and admitting that you too can be a victim. That will help keep your guard up.

So true about the emotions, but especially about humility. Too many people think they’re too smart for these sorts of things to happen to them.

quote:

Originally posted by gearhounds:
I cannot begin to fathom how anyone could be so lacking in good judgement as to think communicating with a stranger online (no face to face, or even talking on the phone) equates to any kind of real relationship.

Loneliness is a very powerful emotion.

In addition, they most often target older folks, knowing they aren't as savvy to modern scam techniques or stuff like cryptocurrency.

As I get older, and have friends 20 years older than I, I see how older people are vulnerable. Lack of technological knowledge and a lack of awareness play into the problem. I'm hoping I won't fall for these when I'm in my 70's and 80's.

My local PD posts a crime blotter and almost every week an older person is scammed out of money. I despise anyone who preys on the weak.

quote:

fraudulent cryptocurrency

A redundancy.

My neighbor was scammed fairly recently by a threatening phone call claiming to be an FBI Special Agent. They told her that her identity had been compromised and convinced her to wire a good chunk of her savings to an account for "safe keeping." She's retired and lives alone. I wish she'd have texted me and let me get on the phone with them. Honestly, fuck the third world pieces of shit who make their living preying on the elderly. The true numbers of victims are probably understated because so many people are too embarrassed to come forward.

It's bad, my Dad age 78 unfortunately is in the demographic they are targeting, the Baby Boomers who are more likely to believe something "official" or an "authority" or just these get rich quick schemes.

He's constantly asking me about the emails and texts he gets from "UPS" about his package "not able to be delivered" and to click a link to fix it. I ask him was he expecting a package? Usually it's no and I tell him it's a scam and just delete it and NEVER EVER click any link he's unsure of.

I’m on FB and I’ve seen an uptick lately in single and or divorced women half my age finding my posts “witty and entertaining” and such either sending me a friend request, following me or asking me to friend request them.

Strangely enough these “women” have posted “likes” to posts I’ve made several years ago. All I can think is that they are seeing if the account is still active and building their potential scam lists from them especially if they can potentially put enough information together and if they feel that the poster is older or possibly vulnerable they start.

quote:

Today, city-sized compounds loom over the Myanmar side of the border with Thailand, with nothing but a dried-out river separating the two countries. Inside are what can only be described as scam factories — offices full of hundreds of slaves, working 16-hour days to befriend victims and convince them to invest in cryptocurrency on fake platforms that mimic legitimate crypto exchanges.

Those kept inside tell stories of torture and abuse, of scammers who don’t bring in enough money being beaten with electrical sticks and forced to do hundreds of squats as punishment.

It's a great thing I'm not president. I'd send in special forces or level the entirety of the compounds. It's not like Myamar could do a damn thing about it.

quote:

Originally posted by mrvmax:
As I get older, and have friends 20 years older than I, I see how older people are vulnerable. Lack of technological knowledge and a lack of awareness play into the problem. I'm hoping I won't fall for these when I'm in my 70's and 80's.

My local PD posts a crime blotter and almost every week an older person is scammed out of money. I despise anyone who preys on the weak.

My parents are now in their 80s. They used to be so strong. My father ran a successful business. But he's been retired for 20 years and they've become weak and unsophisticated in the current ways of the world. It's sad to see the stuff they will fall for that they never would have when they were younger.

I was hesitant to post this, but will anyway.

I was recently summoned for Federal Jury Duty, a 3 week trial. I wound up being selected and served and we reached a verdict. The 2 defendants were involved in a mail fraud scheme from about 2005 - 2017. They weren't the actual fraudsters themselves, but instead supplied mailing lists to the fraudsters. They targeted people over the age of 65.

The Feds have cracked down on the direct mail fraud located here in the U.S.

While not the actual evidence presented at trial, the mailers were very similar to the example below. The fraudsters collected millions of dollars.

We found them guilt.

In their final years, my parents were frequently targeted by these scum. Fortunately my siblings and I were there and prevented our dad from falling for anything. I know first hand how the elderly can be scammed.

me too

My dad was 91 in a very nice assisted living place. On one of my visits, he told me someone called him and said he owed them money. The person said my father's social security number.

My dad proudly told him: That is NOT my social security number. My social security number is xxx-xx-xxxx And he said some things about letting the person know he was wrong.

Had a delicate talk and strongly advised to never even talk to strangers on the phone.