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A qualitative analysis of pig-butchering scams

arxiv.org

91–100 of 158 posts

Re: A qualitative analysis of pig-butchering scams

#91
Once I got suckered into at least texting one of these scammers. Had just got a new phone number, assumed it was the usual trying to reach the previous owner of the number, then all of a sudden they started talking about crypto, and it's ciao from my end...

Just blocked anyone I didn't know after that and after 3-4 numbers it stopped forever.

Re: A qualitative analysis of pig-butchering scams

#92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I saw a YouTube who had planted a mole inside one of these farms. Each guy ran something like 10 WhatsApp on his PC and when needed they had girls in a waiting room “on call” to do FaceTime.

Was it Jim Browning’s video? [0] (WhatsApp screencast starts at 5:42 [1]) [0]: https://youtu.be/vu-Y1h9rTUs [1]: https://youtu.be/vu-Y1h9rTUs?t=342

Yes it was. I don't follow the guy, so I had no recollection of the creator. Thanks for sharing the link and name!

Re: A qualitative analysis of pig-butchering scams

#93
post #6

I got sucked into reading this paper, and it has completely changed my perception of these scams. They are incredibly thorough and realistic. Here are some quotes that drove this home for me. "The bond phase showed that scammers had tremendous patience; this phase lasted anywhere from 3 to 11 months before the scammer moved on to the next stage of the scam." "When I spoke to her on a video call, it was the same perso…

> "It seemed legitimate, there was no reason to think that it could be fake – if she could be a scammer, so could any of my actual friends."

Which isn't that far from the truth, eh.

Tupperware and Amway might be legit MLMs (there is a product attached, after all), but there are sooo many "side hustles" preying particularly on women that are outright scams - and inevitably the victims of these lose almost all of their friends and even family because they're all sick sooner or later from them constantly attempting to shill whatever supplements, insurances, shitcoins or kitchen gadgets they're currently dealing. It's truly heartbreaking to see people you know fall for that bullshit and get sucked into the vortex with no way of pulling them out.

Re: A qualitative analysis of pig-butchering scams

#94

I have a family member falling for these on a regular basis. In their case it’s possibly tied to mental health issues. They are able to drive, converse, care for self, but are sending money to groups that are clearly not real (example: fundraiser for a celebrity supposedly in the hospital, when news shows they weren’t. Was convinced actually conversing with the celebrity). Rest of the family has taken some steps but…

Sounds like some form of guardianship/conservatorship is in order. Talk to a lawyer, if you haven't already (maybe that's what you mean by finances are already segregated ).

The question is, what can YOU do now to avoid risk to your own estate once you are old and start losing your mental faculties?

Re: A qualitative analysis of pig-butchering scams

#95
post #18

Estimated $75 billion stolen since 2020. These are mostly cryptocurrency investment scams. More crypto regulation would help, but the so-called crypto industry doesn't want to see that happen because their product has no other utility than enabling this stuff.

I doubt that, it seems the investment websites used are entirely fake, they probably just use crypto because it's well known and sounds good to many people. They might however just as well promote fake investments in stocks or something else.

Without convenient on/off-ramps this kind of scam would be much harder to operate.

Re: A qualitative analysis of pig-butchering scams

#96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I knew some Scientologists in the late nineties, and there are many parallels. Ironically, they were also devout Christians, and one later became a priest. Something very eye opening is know precisely who L Ron Hubbard is, what kind of person he was, and nonetheless seeing a real religion building up around him made me realise that all of the major religions must have started similarly. Watching Trump's followers tur…

Scientology has gone through phases. Up until the revelation of "Operation Snow White" [1] it was oriented towards recruiting large numbers of footsoldiers into "staff" roles and set prices that made their services accessible to a rather broad "public". Notably L. Ron Hubbard had written that it was immoral to ask for donations without giving something in return so it was all oriented around getting people to pay for…

This seems eerily similar to modern churches. A UU group I have some exposure to is on the brink of going broke and only sustained by 1-2 really wealthy members, and from what they say it's not a rare case.

Re: A qualitative analysis of pig-butchering scams

#98
post #20

We should teach/learn resisting scams in school. Far more useful than any other subject.

> We should teach/learn resisting scams in school. Far more useful than any other subject. A lot of people actually are scammers - and this is socially accepted. What is the difference between the "everyday scams" and the scams from this article is rather the scope. Thus, to make people scam-resistant, you have to make them insanely distrusting about everybody in society (or to express it more directly: make the peop…

This. "Scam resistance", in my mind, maps to critical thinking and a bit of pattern matching. Could definitely be taught, but critical thinking seems to be out of favor in (American) education at the moment (and has been for a while, honestly).

Re: A qualitative analysis of pig-butchering scams

#99
post #88
post #70

I got one of those scam texts last week that begin with "Dad save my new number..." it then escalated to where they asked for money. (I knew it wasn't genuine as I'm still paying for my daughter's cellphone) Anyway, I played a long for a bit but finally told them that I knew it wasn't genuine as my daughter is not that polite when she asks for money.

The age old "hey it's me ur brother" scam.

The oldest version I heard of was in Japan in the 1990s. Scammers would call elderly people, claiming to be grandchildren, and demand money or they would be arrested/scandalized.

It was called the "ore ore" (pronounced "o-ray o-ray") scam because they would typically use the word "ore" for "I", a familiar and often brusque or aggressive form of the first person singular.

Re: A qualitative analysis of pig-butchering scams

#100
post #52
post #3

Couple months ago I got message from random woman on Telegram, I'm sure from the account photo it self is AI generated, and start play along. After I got some photo of her, I start reverse search the photos and found some Russian forum [1] that some people share their experience about pig-butchering scam [1] https://pikabu.ru/story/temu_neponyatnyiy_razvod_11302944

I get presented with one or two of these a month. It’s easy to be calloused until you remember that these people are also victims, often in worse ways than you could ever be as one of their targets. The best thing is just to ignore completely. If you engage at all, you risk worsening their situation by wasting their time, while if you do engage you might be saving someone else at their expense…. It’s lose/lose to eng…

> If you engage at all, you risk worsening their situation by wasting their time, while if you do engage you might be saving someone else at their expense….

I don't understand what you are arguing for here? That they need to be allowed to scam someone else to avoid worsening their situation?

I'd say wasting their time is the best solution. It avoids giving the bosses info on what approaches works with who and helps makes runnning these sorts of operations uneconomical.

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