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DOJ seizes $15B in Bitcoin from 'pig butchering' scam based in Cambodia

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Re: DOJ seizes $15B in Bitcoin from 'pig butchering' scam based in Cambodia

#401

Post by refurb »

cogman10 wrote: post #310
unyttigfjelltol wrote: post #260

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pol Pot probably was more proximally at fault.[1] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pol_Pot

It's a giant mess. I don't think Pot would have gained the support/power that he did without the US indiscriminate bombing. Much like the creation of ISIS and the strengthening of the Taliban in Afghanistan, it turns out people don't like the people dropping bombs on them. They'll turn to whoever is fighting the bombers. The US involvement in Vietnam would have already been over before the uprising of Pot had Nixon a…

It’s not like Cambodia was a stable democracy before the bombings.

The Khmer Rouge and other opposition groups were fighting the government in an armed conflict since 1950. The Khmer Rouge controlled almost half of Cambodia’s territory 10 years before the bombing.

In the grand scheme of Cambodias civil war, the US bombing didn’t play that big a role at all.

Re: DOJ seizes $15B in Bitcoin from 'pig butchering' scam based in Cambodia

#402

Post by fyolnish »

theragra wrote: post #386
jjangkke wrote: post #305

Earlier quoted context omitted.

also this isn't a "lawless" region that OP is talking about they are in city centers in Cambodia and the Cambodian police and government officials are all getting paid off to let them operate freely. it really is disgusting to see this level of corruption and that its going to have long term economic impact on Cambodia and Cambodians abroad.

Makes you think that idea of spreading democracy is not just a cover for power struggles, but something really important

Makes you wonder if not blowing the country to bits and helping the Khmer Rouge gain power would have been better for its development

Re: DOJ seizes $15B in Bitcoin from 'pig butchering' scam based in Cambodia

#403

Post by thenthenthen »

nomilk wrote: post #206

Seems organised crime is taking advantage of less-policed (or lawless) regions in Cambodia and Burma. The spectre of a similar scam has resulted in lower Chinese tourism to Thailand. Basically Chinese (among other nationalities) tourists were led from the airport by fake immigration staff, put into cars and driven to Burma and forced to work 18 hour days in scam call centers. A chilling but extremely worthwhile read.…

Recent bust of a crime family complete with army in Myanmar, possibly related?

https://m.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_31797410 (sorry Chinese)

Re: DOJ seizes $15B in Bitcoin from 'pig butchering' scam based in Cambodia

#404

Post by FuriouslyAdrift »

aurareturn wrote: post #395
FuriouslyAdrift wrote: post #266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And we dropped more bombs on poor Laos (mostly because pilots weren't supposed to land back at base with bombs still on board) than on Japan and Germany combined... they estimate it will take about 600 years to removed all the unexploded cluster bombs and children regurly get maimed and killed by them (they look like tennis balls). The Chin, Hmong, and Lao are some of the nicest people you will ever meet, too.

Reading stuff like this and Cambodia, I truly wonder why so many Americans still hide behind "freedom" for every single atrocity their government representatives have done. Why can't Americans (and to some extent Europeans) just come out and say, "Yea, we are often assholes and we have self interests. That's why we do these atrocities. It's not because of 'freedom'"? At least be honest. Just because you have freedom…

As an American (3rd generation), I assure you that many of us are firmly aware that this nation was built upon violence and committed violence on a grand scale. In my personal opinion, we have done a lot of good, but also a lot of bad. A lot of our statecraft was learned from the British and the French. This did not really change until after the southeast Asia debacle and things started to shift to a less cynical and more nuanced view of the world.

Unfortunately, 9/11 slammed us hard back into being angry and defensive. COVID just made it worse...

It will probably be a generation until we calm back down. Or Putin/Xi dies. Whichever comes first.

Re: DOJ seizes $15B in Bitcoin from 'pig butchering' scam based in Cambodia

#405

Post by Throaway152 »

theragra wrote: post #386
jjangkke wrote: post #305

Earlier quoted context omitted.

also this isn't a "lawless" region that OP is talking about they are in city centers in Cambodia and the Cambodian police and government officials are all getting paid off to let them operate freely. it really is disgusting to see this level of corruption and that its going to have long term economic impact on Cambodia and Cambodians abroad.

Makes you think that idea of spreading democracy is not just a cover for power struggles, but something really important

Cambodia is not really a democratic country. It still an Autocracy.

Re: DOJ seizes $15B in Bitcoin from 'pig butchering' scam based in Cambodia

#406

Post by dunkvg »

Saline9515 wrote: post #398
dunkvg wrote: post #383

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can point the fingers everywhere, you can also say the French were at fault because of the core of the Khmer Rouge group were scholarship students who were sent to France to study socialism, came back with that education and used to to establish the Khmer Rouge.

It's not exactly true, Pol Pot went to France on a scholarship to become an electrical engineer. When he came back to Cambodia, he worked as a literature teacher. The ideological content of the Khmer Rouge is very poor overall, and is a mix between nationalism and communism aiming to "clean" the nation from western influences. Which is kind of ironic given Pol Pot's background.

While true, that's where he picked up his political views, which became radically communist.

Re: DOJ seizes $15B in Bitcoin from 'pig butchering' scam based in Cambodia

#407

Post by acdha »

jwpapi wrote: post #390
acdha wrote: post #380

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s not about “smart” as much as perfect execution. Bitcoin’s design is very brittle, so he had to do everything perfectly every time but they only needed a single opening. People try various things to split up wallets but those are complicated for a criminal who doesn’t have many people they trust and targeted attacks by nation-state level adversaries are extremely hard to stop (e.g. for an operation of this level,…

You can just send it to a cold wallet, bury it and say oops lost ?

Bitcoin is designed to make it easy for everyone to know you did that. It’d be bad if you had to convince prosecutors that you really lost it and much, much worse if you had to convince your fellow mobsters.

Re: DOJ seizes $15B in Bitcoin from 'pig butchering' scam based in Cambodia

#408

Post by fragmede »

aurareturn wrote: post #395
FuriouslyAdrift wrote: post #266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And we dropped more bombs on poor Laos (mostly because pilots weren't supposed to land back at base with bombs still on board) than on Japan and Germany combined... they estimate it will take about 600 years to removed all the unexploded cluster bombs and children regurly get maimed and killed by them (they look like tennis balls). The Chin, Hmong, and Lao are some of the nicest people you will ever meet, too.

Reading stuff like this and Cambodia, I truly wonder why so many Americans still hide behind "freedom" for every single atrocity their government representatives have done. Why can't Americans (and to some extent Europeans) just come out and say, "Yea, we are often assholes and we have self interests. That's why we do these atrocities. It's not because of 'freedom'"? At least be honest. Just because you have freedom…

> Just because you have freedom of speech

Well, they're working on that one...

Re: DOJ seizes $15B in Bitcoin from 'pig butchering' scam based in Cambodia

#409

Post by fragmede »

ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #231
cjonas wrote: post #228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's an interesting "Search Engine" podcast (in English)[0]. Apparently a lot of the people doing the actual scamming are human trafficked and being held in compounds against their will. [0] https://www.searchengine.show/whos-behind-these-scammy-text-...

From what I understand, a number of them are Chinese nationals. I suspect that taking Chinese slaves might not be a great idea. China tends to carry a big stick; especially in that region. Wouldn't surprise me, if the DOJ had some "under-the-table" help from Chinese sources, but not in any way that anyone can prove. If you don't want to sign up for a podcast, John Oliver did a fairly decent bit about it: https://www.…

Except it seems it's Chinese Nationals running the operations in the first place, who undoubtedly have connections to the CCP to tacitly look the other way.

Re: DOJ seizes $15B in Bitcoin from 'pig butchering' scam based in Cambodia

#410

Post by fragmede »

codedokode wrote: post #378
gosub100 wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is no honor among pig butchers.

There is no honor among people in general.

Sorry you've not met enough honorable people to have that level of cynicism.
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