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U.S. sanctions cloud provider 'Funnull' as top source of 'pig butchering' scams

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Re: U.S. sanctions cloud provider 'Funnull' as top source of 'pig butchering' scams

#31

Post by Auracle »

JKCalhoun wrote: post #29
abletonlive wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I experienced the same thing in my family. It sucks. I still haven't fully forgiven them (the supposed victim). As much as I agree it's partially mental decline, it's hard for me to imagine it's not at least also partially a character flaw that would get you into this situation

I, tiptoeing here, kind of agree. Am I missing something or do these scams operate on a person's greed? To be sure, I invest in order to see a return. That's greed, I guess? Or maybe not? I think having (unrealistic) expectations of doubling your money in anything shorter than ... about a decade ... should be sending up red flags for anyone. "Make money fast" should fire the same neurons as "Put it all on zero and sp…

My dad isn't a gambler. He invested in the stock market, but never anything like options. I've never known him to buy a lottery ticket. He's not greedy.

He is, however, pretty trusting. It took them months to get to the point where he was putting money in. I think he (naively) just trusted them. I wish he would have trusted us instead.

Re: U.S. sanctions cloud provider 'Funnull' as top source of 'pig butchering' scams

#32

Post by Auracle »

abletonlive wrote: post #16
Auracle wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It happened to my father. I told him he was getting scammed. My mom (divorced) told him. So did my sister. It didn’t matter. He lost all of his savings - 300k+. I wish I had taken his phone away, changed his passwords, etc. My mom didn’t want me to take drastic action because she was concerned that if he knew how much I knew he wouldn’t keep telling her things. It doesn’t matter once they’ve lost everything, of cours…

I experienced the same thing in my family. It sucks. I still haven't fully forgiven them (the supposed victim). As much as I agree it's partially mental decline, it's hard for me to imagine it's not at least also partially a character flaw that would get you into this situation

Sure, but we all have character flaws. I'm certain if he were 10 years younger it wouldn't have happened to him. There's a reason it's almost always older people that fall for scams like these. We need better ways to protect people of a certain age - my mom looked into it and apart from going to a judge to have them rule to give us complete control over his finances there was nothing we could do. Even an FBI office people could call where they'd call/send someone out convince them to stop would go a really long way.

Re: U.S. sanctions cloud provider 'Funnull' as top source of 'pig butchering' scams

#33

Post by Auracle »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #23
Auracle wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It happened to my father. I told him he was getting scammed. My mom (divorced) told him. So did my sister. It didn’t matter. He lost all of his savings - 300k+. I wish I had taken his phone away, changed his passwords, etc. My mom didn’t want me to take drastic action because she was concerned that if he knew how much I knew he wouldn’t keep telling her things. It doesn’t matter once they’ve lost everything, of cours…

One should not hesitate to attempt to obtain a conservatorship if they can when this happens. It’s the only thing that will stop someone from losing it all. Unfortunately, if a court deems them mentally fit, there’s nothing to stop them.

The bar to get that done seemed too high before he lost all of his money. Now that's done there isn't much of a point, apart from protecting his house. My mom is on the deed as well so there shouldn't be too much risk there, though I've tried to convince her to put it into a trust for multiple reasons.

Re: U.S. sanctions cloud provider 'Funnull' as top source of 'pig butchering' scams

#34

Post by toomuchtodo »

Auracle wrote: post #33
toomuchtodo wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One should not hesitate to attempt to obtain a conservatorship if they can when this happens. It’s the only thing that will stop someone from losing it all. Unfortunately, if a court deems them mentally fit, there’s nothing to stop them.

The bar to get that done seemed too high before he lost all of his money. Now that's done there isn't much of a point, apart from protecting his house. My mom is on the deed as well so there shouldn't be too much risk there, though I've tried to convince her to put it into a trust for multiple reasons.

Recommend setting up deed monitoring/property alerts if your local property records/recorder supports it, should notify you if any documents are recorded or transfers attempted without your knowledge against the property.

Sorry for your loss.

Re: U.S. sanctions cloud provider 'Funnull' as top source of 'pig butchering' scams

#35

Post by Auracle »

jerry1979 wrote: post #13
Auracle wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It happened to my father. I told him he was getting scammed. My mom (divorced) told him. So did my sister. It didn’t matter. He lost all of his savings - 300k+. I wish I had taken his phone away, changed his passwords, etc. My mom didn’t want me to take drastic action because she was concerned that if he knew how much I knew he wouldn’t keep telling her things. It doesn’t matter once they’ve lost everything, of cours…

This is horrifying. From your perspective, what's the hook that gets a person to hand over the money? Is it to make return on investment, or is it because they think the scammer loves them, or some other reason?

I think in his case they simply built up trust, and made it seem incredibly casual. It's hard for me to know exactly because I wasn't super privvy to what was going on, but by the time I talked to him about it he effectively trusted them over me.

It all would have been so clearly a scam to anyone with any internet sense at all it blew my mind he would have been fooled.

Re: U.S. sanctions cloud provider 'Funnull' as top source of 'pig butchering' scams

#36

Post by Auracle »

silisili wrote: post #21
Auracle wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It happened to my father. I told him he was getting scammed. My mom (divorced) told him. So did my sister. It didn’t matter. He lost all of his savings - 300k+. I wish I had taken his phone away, changed his passwords, etc. My mom didn’t want me to take drastic action because she was concerned that if he knew how much I knew he wouldn’t keep telling her things. It doesn’t matter once they’ve lost everything, of cours…

Sorry to hear that. Makes me angry just reading it, I can't imagine how it makes you feel. I've mentioned before here wondering if there is a name for this phenomenon, it's similar to sunk cost fallacy, but more emotionally charged. Like, the thought of having been scammed makes you put on blinders and keep going hoping you weren't. It doesn't make a ton of sense to me, but it happens all the time, to people of all a…

Oh, I definitely think that's part of it. Nobody wants to be betrayed, or made the fool.

Re: U.S. sanctions cloud provider 'Funnull' as top source of 'pig butchering' scams

#37

Post by gavagai691 »

whimsicalism wrote: post #26
naet wrote: post #25

Cryptocurrency enables a big part of this. Not saying that there weren't any wire scams before crypto, but crypto has made it much easier for average people to make anonymous international money transfers that can't be reversed. Not to start a big argument, but to my eyes the main usecases of cryptocurrency are to bet on them as a speculative asset or to use them for various forms of crime. Someone will probably tell…

i bet heavily using crypto against AI progress on coding to hedge my career

Is your job developing AI coding tools?

Re: U.S. sanctions cloud provider 'Funnull' as top source of 'pig butchering' scams

#38

Post by dehrmann »

abletonlive wrote: post #16
Auracle wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It happened to my father. I told him he was getting scammed. My mom (divorced) told him. So did my sister. It didn’t matter. He lost all of his savings - 300k+. I wish I had taken his phone away, changed his passwords, etc. My mom didn’t want me to take drastic action because she was concerned that if he knew how much I knew he wouldn’t keep telling her things. It doesn’t matter once they’ve lost everything, of cours…

I experienced the same thing in my family. It sucks. I still haven't fully forgiven them (the supposed victim). As much as I agree it's partially mental decline, it's hard for me to imagine it's not at least also partially a character flaw that would get you into this situation

> character flaw

It's usually greed. The aphorism isn't entirely true, but you can't cheat an honest man.

Re: U.S. sanctions cloud provider 'Funnull' as top source of 'pig butchering' scams

#39

Post by [deleted] »

duxup wrote: post #2

This stuff makes me so mad. I know a friend who told me about a loved one getting scammed. Dude meets some girl from a foreign country online. Next thing you know he thinks she got him into some great cryptocurrency, and nothing anyone can tell him will make him realize he is getting scammed. Sad stuff.

[deleted]

Re: U.S. sanctions cloud provider 'Funnull' as top source of 'pig butchering' scams

#40

Post by alexey-salmin »

naet wrote: post #25

Cryptocurrency enables a big part of this. Not saying that there weren't any wire scams before crypto, but crypto has made it much easier for average people to make anonymous international money transfers that can't be reversed. Not to start a big argument, but to my eyes the main usecases of cryptocurrency are to bet on them as a speculative asset or to use them for various forms of crime. Someone will probably tell…

Whether you see international money transfers outside of the government control as a positive or negative force largely depends on how much you trust your government. How much it should limit things for your own safety?

I suspect that for majority of the earth population the trust level is rather low, even though in some countries it could be different.

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