If you get a lot of emails, like we do, you may have noticed a change in recent months, from friendly Nigerians who have come into vast wealth via a series of bizarre events – and only a middle aged white man sat in damp Cheshire can help extricate this money from the country – to a more friendly message, often brief.
“Hi, it’s Alan can we talk?” or “It’s Mary, have you got a minute?” seems to be the theme of more recent missives, clearly spam of some sort. We’d have guessed (correctly) that if you reply, they know you exist and can start to reel you in.
The podcast “Search Engine”, a sort of glorified “ask any question” programme, has solved the problem for us, and looked at this issue in its latest episode – and the reality is darker than one might imagine (though it is a scam, obviously).
It is a warning both for people who might fall for the scam and those who know it’s a scam and have some fun at the scammer’s expense.
The programme looked at a text message a listener had received. He had followed it up because he was a tech journalist and wanted to see where the scam led.
The original message said: “I’m Vicki. Don’t you remember me?”, and the listener, Zeke, a writer on crypto currency, had heard that a lot of the scams related to crypto, and decided to play along.
He had seen reports that the scammers would often ask people to send a cryptocurrency called tether, and one leaked text message from a Russian money launderer who was arrested by the FBI recommended tether.
The scam itself goes by the delightful name of pig butchering: the scammer fattens up the victim like a pig with promises of money -or fake romance – and gets them to invest in their scams. They might even let the “pig” make some money, just to keep them on the hook. Meanwhile the scammer is sizing up the victim, to see how much money this person has got and how much they can be scammed for. Once they get to the maximum they think the victim will stand, they cut off their head – take it all and disappear. The run-up to the butchering may take some time.
So Zeke replied and “Vicki” responded, sending a photo (attractive, obviously) and engaging Zeke in chat. Zeke was waiting for the scam to get to the crypto but it took ages – the plan is to develop a level of confidence. Vicki did refer a lot to her wealth – playing golf, having a Ferrari and owning a chain of nail salons – and eventually mentioned in passing that she made some income from crypto trading, eventually saying she could predict fluctuations in the price of Bitcoin and every so often made a trade and got a 25% return.
To cut a long story short, Zeke was correct – eventually Vicki gets him buying crypto via a dodgy app, and he sends some money, which he sees appear in his account. But the price gets real, Zeke fesses up and “Vicki” disappears.
Zeke knew it was a scam, and his expertise mean he could see the crypto trail, huge sums of money flowing from the wealthy West to wherever it was going. Millions of dollars.
But then it turned darker. Zeke wanted to better track the money, and seeking help on that came across groups that work to free the scammers – for the people who are trying to scam Westerners are themselves victims of human trafficking, often held against their will and beaten if they lose a victim – as indeed may have been “Vicki”.
Not that there was a “Vicki” – original texter Vicki I would have been replaced by Vicki II when Zeke replied and possibly a Vicki III when they started to talk crypto.
The lowest level workers have 10 or so phones, each with different identity. They troll the world sending spam messages, texts, LinkedIn messages, DMs on Insta on Tinder and everything else. Once somebody is hooked, the victim gets passed up the chain.
Workers who consistently don’t meet their quota of mugs are sold to another scammer. The only way to leave is to pay a ransom, between $5,000 and $30,000.
The scammers are mostly based on Sihanoukville, Cambodia, and the callers are either trafficked or lured in – France 24 reported on one man who saw an advert for a construction job that was in fact working 12 to 16 hour shifts, trawling social media and dating apps on a hunt for victims, and no way of escape. Others are lured by promises of office jobs.
Sihanoukville previously made money from casinos streaming games (dubious itself), but a change in the law made live streaming even less legal and the scammers moved in.
The casinos are Las Vegas style with central courtyards, now fenced and with armed guards to stop people escaping. A lot of the buildings have restaurants, barber shops and cafes with signage in Chinese, because are lot of the victims are Chinese; the stores are divided by metal bars so the workers can’t get out. Ambulances are common sights, after an operator has lost a mark and gets beaten more badly than usual.
It was a sobering tale. If you get a friendly message – or someone with geographical uncertainty on a dating site – just remember the term for this: pig butchering. Don’t be a pig. On the other hand, if you’re tempted to reply for some sport – and it can apparently be fun, stringing the scammer along – just remember that they person you’re having sport with may be a prisoner, and get a severe beating in return for your fun.
• To hear the full story, listen here
