Understanding Pig‑Butchering Scams
Key Points
- A “pig‑butchering” scam lures victims by building a faux friendship or romance, then pushes them into a high‑risk investment or money‑transfer scheme once trust is established.
- Variations include job‑recruitment scams that promise unrealistic remote work and pay, using similar “fatten‑up” tactics to convince people to send money or personal data.
- Both love‑ and money‑focused scams follow a predictable anatomy: initial contact (often via text or social media), gradual relationship‑building, and a final “butchering” request for funds or confidential information.
- Recognizing red flags—such as unsolicited invitations, offers that seem too good to be true, and pressure to send money—helps protect against these increasingly common frauds.
Full Transcript
# Understanding Pig‑Butchering Scams **Source:** [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSUUyxVwByg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSUUyxVwByg) **Duration:** 00:20:32 ## Summary - A “pig‑butchering” scam lures victims by building a faux friendship or romance, then pushes them into a high‑risk investment or money‑transfer scheme once trust is established. - Variations include job‑recruitment scams that promise unrealistic remote work and pay, using similar “fatten‑up” tactics to convince people to send money or personal data. - Both love‑ and money‑focused scams follow a predictable anatomy: initial contact (often via text or social media), gradual relationship‑building, and a final “butchering” request for funds or confidential information. - Recognizing red flags—such as unsolicited invitations, offers that seem too good to be true, and pressure to send money—helps protect against these increasingly common frauds. ## Sections - [00:00:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSUUyxVwByg&t=0s) **Pig Butchering Scam Explained** - The video details how scammers initiate friendly messages, cultivate trust with fake personal or job offers, and ultimately extract money by “fattening” the victim before the final “butchering” investment or employment scam. ## Full Transcript
you ever had a message exchange that
went something like this are you free
tomorrow no very expensive huh sorry I
don't recognize this number who are you
I'm Selena if you have no plans I'd like
to invite you to join us for a barbecue
sounds like a harmless case of mistaken
identity right well maybe not this might
be the beginning of your worst nightmare
we call this a pig butchering scam now
don't worry No Pigs were harmed in the
making of this video the reason it's
called that is because you the victim
are the pig and they are going to fatten
you up through getting in your good
graces developing a relationship with
you making you think they're your friend
then they're going to entice you into
some sort of scam probably an investment
scam and that's when the butchering
happens okay so maybe you're smart
enough and say I'm never sending money
to anyone over the Internet under any
circumstance that one's not an issue for
me how about this one you're an honest
person just looking for an honest job
the job market is not being favorable to
you and finally you get a message like
this on your professional social media
app and it says sorry to bother you your
background and resume have been
recommended by multiple online recruit
recruitment agencies therefore we would
like to offer you a great remote online
part-time full-time job helping
Merchants blah blah blah it pays this
much a day it pays all of this stuff is
just awesome it sounds too good to be
true well of course it is in fact this
is what we call a job recruitment scam
it's a similar version of the pig
butchering scam but there may be
different aspects to it so we're going
to take a look at both of these scams
and try to see what we can do to learn
to recognize them and what we can do to
prevent falling victim to
them these scams tend to Revol around
one of two things Love or Money or both
in many cases so let's take a look at
what the anatomy of these attacks are
like and how they end up leading you
into a bad place so first of all we'll
take a look at the the first one that's
the love or relationship related scam so
these can take one of a couple of
different forms one would be what's
called a romance scam and these things
tend to start they can start from a text
message like I just demonstrated before
and then they develop what you think is
a relationship with you it's not really
a relationship and in fact the the
person that you're talking to is not
probably who you think they are and
that's where some of these others come
in dating apps and sites are a good
example of where you see a lot of fraud
someone goes and finds uh pictures of
some attractive person on social media
puts that in a fake profile file and
then you start communicating with them
you think that's who you're talking to
you're not you're talking to someone
else who looks nothing like that and is
nothing like that but they start
communicating with you and you're having
this what you think is a relationship so
that's one path where this goes and then
at some point what is going to happen is
there's going to be some soab story uh
some situation where uh they got mugged
uh their money was stolen from them uh
they have a medical bill that they need
to pay they're going to come to visit
you maybe and they just need the money
for the plane ticket or for whatever it
is and that is of course where the scam
part comes in now A variation on this
relationship is not so much about
romance uh but it's more about
friendship and in this case uh these
tend to start off because we don't have
friend apps so much but these will tend
to start off like the example I showed
you that's it's a text message that
comes down out of the clear blue that
looks like one of these uh mistaken
identity situations but then what you
know is wrong about this is they
continue why would they invite a total
stranger who they have no idea who they
are they don't even know what city you
live in at this point and they're
inviting you to come to a picnic or a
barbecue or trying to start up a
relationship with you you know look if I
was trying to reach John and I ended up
with Jeff why do I want to just continue
the conversation with Jeff when I was
really trying to have it with John that
should be your your your clue that this
is not legit so the text message
exchange you continue with all of this
then eventually they're going to involve
you in some sort of probably an
investment scam of some sort they're
going to say oh here's a picture of my
new home my new car my new boat and
start showing you a lot of things and
say hey would you like to be able to get
these things too and here by the way I
just made a ton of money in the last 20
minutes I doubled my money on some sort
of fake crypto scam because in fact
there's no real investment that's even
happening they're going to tell you that
they'll let you in on the deal if you
will just send the money to them and
then they'll show you fake results that
make you think you're winning you will
invest more money and more money and so
forth and this all uh and by the way
these dating scams can also do the same
thing these can end up moving to a fake
investment scheme but as you can see all
of them end up in the same place you
losing money somehow or another now
let's take a look at the other side of
this the other is a job offer that comes
in and in this case they're going to
lead you through a different process
they're going to ask you to do some sort
of job application fill out this form uh
maybe even goes through some interviews
which will all be faked uh these will be
individuals who are not working for any
company they are scammers and they're
just trying to get information out of
you a couple of different variations and
by the way there are a lot of variations
on a number of these I'm just trying to
show you what a few of the most common
ones are but in this case what do we put
on a job application personally
identifiable information your name
address maybe social security number
because after all if you're going to
work for these people they have to know
that in order to to do the taxing and
things like that where they going to
send their paychecks to your paychecks
this kind of information so it seems
like uh a plausible case that they would
need if they're going to be your
employer they would need that kind of
information what could that lead to well
how about identity theft so if I have
all of that information about you in
fact I now have the ability to do a lot
of things with that information
including steal your identity and do
fraud with it another example on this
one is maybe we say congratulations
you've been hired in fact I know a guy
who got one of these and in that case
what they said is here we're going to
send you a check and you deposit this
into your account so we're going to
front you the money but in order to do
your job you're going to need to buy
some supplies so we'll send you the
check you put that in your account but
in the meantime you go ahead and buy
these supplies from this special website
well guess what the website is not a
place where you can buy supplies it's
just a place that's going to collect
your credit card and then they're
they're Off to the Races so this is
going to lead from what should have been
uh work supplies in order to get your
your job done into yet another case of
you losing money and you notice what's
common about both of these they end up
in the same dead
end so how could this situation that I
just outlined actually get worse I'm
glad you asked let's take a look so what
kind of information could the scammer
glean from you well a couple of
different sources for instance one the
text message exchange that we just
talked about so some things that they're
going to find out automatically or then
through a little more conversation with
you they can tease out some information
for instance one of the things they know
is what your phone number is now you say
well they kind of had to know that
already in order to text me no they
didn't they could just pick a random
number but what they discovered when you
answered is that this is a valid number
and that it's active so they know the
status of that number so it's a
legitimate number and there's a real
person on the other end now what else
could they find out well
again they say I'm Selena you know
they're going to eventually ask you
what's your name and you're going to
tell them if you're following along with
the scam tell them your name maybe not
your full name but it it gets you know
it starts small and it builds then oh
yeah well I live they'll say I live in
Los Angeles so where do you live and
then you're going to tell them because
again you think there's a possibility
for romance or friendship uh seems
harmless enough then oh yeah I'm working
in this field what kind of work do you
do and you're going to tell them and
that's going to get a lot of information
just out of the text exchange now what
could all of that stuff lead to well
with that now we can go off to social
media uh if I'm the scammer and I could
also do a public record search with some
of this information and start to learn
even more about who you are for instance
some of the things that I might be able
to find would be what your ual home
address
is by taking some of this and putting it
all together and doing the right
searches I could find out what your work
history is go into of course there are
social media sites that are
professionally oriented and they will
show work
history they'll also show educational
history why would that be interesting
we'll take a look back in just a few
minutes but these kinds of things will
be useful later all of this information
is being revealed might also figure out
from these sources your relationship
status they could also find out things
like who your family and friends are so
who are your
Associates um and those would be useful
to further attacks against for instance
them as other victims potentially U
other things they're going to learn from
social media your favorites because
after all in social media we tell the
whole world what my favorite color is
what's my favorite team what's my
favorite pet this kind of thing so all
of that kind of information gets filled
in here from social media and then other
things like the city you were born in so
your birth city uh and so forth now that
is a ton of information that really came
from what seemed like a pretty benign um
conversation over text and all of this
information fed together leads to more
of this kind of information and all of
that information then used to further
the attack what could they do from an
attack perspective well as I mentioned
already identity theft so if we're going
to do an identity theft case I need to
know a lot of this kind of detail so
that I can open a credit card in your
name so that I can get a loan in your
name and therefore the attacker is able
to get this kind of money from you and
do damage to your credit along the way
another another big one pay close
attention on this one
atto uh is account
takeover if you think about this if you
forget your password how do you go get
back into your account again well you
have to answer some questions and what
kind of questions do they ask you oh
yeah what city were you born in where
did you go to High School uh what was
your favorite pet who's your favorite
sports team in other words the answers
to most of these things will be the
things that allow someone to take over
your account by doing a password reset
once they've been able to do that and
they can take over your email account
then it's game over because the email
account is where I'm then going to be
able to go to all these other sources
and do even more damage so I can get go
to your bank and have your password
reset and it's going to go to your email
address which now the bad guy is in
control of now they're able to basically
do whatever they want what else might
happen here well look people tend to
choose the same password for everything
if they can get away with it because
it's simpler and easier to remember so
it's not just your personal stuff it's
the company as well who you work for
your password to log in there might also
be compromised in this so this is where
it brings it back to not just you but
the place you work now has a security
threat that could occur uh some other
things with this kind of information
that could be done is more convincing
social engineering attacks so I could do
this against your co-workers the people
you work with if I knew all of this
about you I could call your coworker and
say hey look I am Jeff's cousin or his
friend and uh he's been in an accident
and uh we need your help and blah blah
blah so there's another pretext for a
different type of scam that's called
social engineering where someone is
basically abusing the tendency people
have to trust each other other examples
Merchants so it could be a place where
you buy stuff from if I have all of this
information maybe I can take over your
account on that online ordering site and
then I can order all kinds of stuff and
you pay the bill and I get the stuff um
other examples here your bank which of
course is where all the money is we
think and if I get that kind of
information here I can use this to
socially engineer the people at the bank
say hey look I lost my password my
computer blew up you know whatever my
phone was stolen I need to be able to
get back into my account and they're
going to ask you a bunch of questions to
prove that you're who you claim you to
be going to be these kinds of questions
all this kind of information that seemed
to begin with something very benign and
very simple a casual conversation leads
into more and more detail and the
further you go down the rabbit hole the
more the attack gets
dangerous so what can you do to make
sure you don't fall victim to one of
these scams the first thing you should
do is something you shouldn't do and
that is respond don't respond when you
get that random text message from
someone you don't know that seems to be
trying to start a conversation with you
just don't respond because that way you
don't validate what they're doing they
don't know then if your number is valid
or not is active or not and they will
eventually leave you alone and move on
the next thing is be skeptical uh
throughout all of this with any of these
kind of of attacks you need to keep
thinking does this sound too good to be
true has has some beautiful person
suddenly wanted to become my friend uh
as a company now starting to make a job
offer to me that is too good to be true
be skeptical about those things in fact
do some research especially on the job
hunt scams where you're looking for a
job go look up that company make sure
they really exist although even if they
do that doesn't mean scammers aren't
using the name of a wellknown and
existing company to hide behind so make
sure if you can that in fact these
people work for that company in fact
here's an idea before you start giving
out personal information to that company
go look up the company and make sure
that looks like they have a legitimate
history other than just their website
look at other websites as well
surrounding it and then call the company
up and say is there a person working for
you that is under the name of this
recruiter and are you offering a job and
and just validate all of that so do your
research and don't just look at one
point uh of data for that um other
things that you can do is a preemptive
strike is lock your credit in the US
there are three credit bureaus and you
can go onto a website make sure you get
the right one because there's a a lot of
scam websites that claim that they will
lock your credit and all they're going
to do is Harvest your personally
identifiable information which is worse
make sure you get to the legitimate
websites and there you can for free lock
your credit so if anyone runs a credit
history report on you it will fail you
have to unlock it first that also makes
it so that someone who's trying to open
a credit card in your name is not going
to succeed because the credit card
company is going to want to run one of
these reports and if your credit is
locked it's not going to work work so
that's a way to lock some things down as
well another thing you should lock down
and tighten up are your privacy settings
on social
media so all of that information I
talked about that someone might glean
from your account make sure they can't
make sure that only people who are your
friends on social media can see that
kind of information now by default a lot
of the social media sites share
everything because that's what works
best for their business model but for
your business model it's best that you
don't share everything you put only the
minimum available to people who are not
your friends and then for friends make
sure you only friend people that you
know in the real world and that you
trust so don't accept every friend
request that comes in from someone no
matter how attractive or interesting
they might be if you don't know them in
the real world don't accept it so that
way you keep that information out of the
hands of the bad guys some other things
you could do to help use a password
manager if you're going to have to be
using passwords use one of these things
uh there are tools that you can buy
there are tools that are built into some
of the operating systems these days that
will assign complex passwords and allow
you to have a different password for
every website keep them all straight
that's a really good one for companies
as well to make sure that their
employees are doing so that way if an
employee does in fact fall victim to one
of these scams and their password is
compromised it's not the same password
that's getting them into the corporate
website so making available a password
manager to your employees is actually a
smart investment uh other things you
should do is every chance you get a
chance uh every time you get a chance
use multiactor authentication if a
website offers you that or a two-step
authentication they go by different
types of processes but use those things
uh multiactor authentication combines
something you know with something you
have something you are some combination
of those things and it's a lot harder if
someone just steals your password that's
something you know they still wouldn't
be able to to log into your account and
then something if you watched my V
videos in the past you know I'm a big
fan of are phto pass keys and if you
think that means you have to have a
separate hardware token in order to do
it you're sort of right but mostly wrong
with the new PH2 standard you're able to
in fact use your phone your mobile phone
you don't have to carry around a
separate security key a separate
security device in order to do these
things and and these are even better
because then I don't need a password
manager uh to manage all my passwords
because I don't have passwords I could
use a password manager just to manage my
pass Keys which are much more secure
watch my video on that if you're
interested in learning more and then
finally especially if you're an a
corporation or an organization do
training of your employees you do annual
security training at least I hope you do
this is something that should be
included in that annual training make
sure that your employees are aware of
what these scams are like because some
of them may be looking for jobs and they
could be very vulnerable and they could
end up unknowingly making your corporate
information available to bad guys as
well so the bottom line is I feel like
if this video helps only one person
that's one win for the good guys and
I'll take that any
day if you like this video and want to
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