What is ‘pig butchering,’ the financial scam Meta is warning about?

If you’ve ever formed a trusting relationship with someone online that forced you into a fraudulent investment scheme, you might have been a victim of “pig butchering”.

Pig butchering is at the heart of a booming industry worth tens of billions of euros in losses, coming largely from “scam compounds” cropping up in Asia targeting thousands of people around the world, according to an October report from the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC). 

Once the “pig” – the scam victim – has been “fattened” through trust-building, the scammer starts to drain the victim’s bank account. 

When the money’s been drained, the pig is considered “slaughtered” and the money disappears. 

Social media giant Meta said in a post earlier this month that it has taken down over two million accounts linked to these pig butchering scam centres in Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and the Philippines. 

Euronews Next takes a look at this billion-euro scamming industry to find out how it happens and how you can avoid becoming a victim. 

How does pig butchering happen?

The first reported cases of pig butchering go back to China in 2018, according to a May report from the United States Institute of Peace (USIP), but the COVID-19 pandemic lead to an “explosion” in this type of crime. 

Scam compounds in southeast Asia lure workers in with fake job advertisements only for them to be forced to work as online scammers, often with the threat of physical violence, Meta, who is raising awareness of the crime, said. 

An estimated 300,000 scammers are working throughout Cambodia, Laos, and Myanmmar, the USIP report said. 

Workers at these compounds often mask themselves as attractive single people,  representatives of government agencies, or trusted public figures, Meta continued. 

One tactic of these scammers is to “spray and pray” by sending generic text messages to a large number of accounts either by text, dating apps, or over social media, in the hope that someone responds. 

Once a user responds to the scammer’s initial text, a more targeted response to each user is worked on to build trust “over weeks and months,” Meta continued. 

Then, the scammer will casually bring up a lucrative investing opportunity and often encourage you to ‘start small’ to avoid any risks. 

The conversation then moves to scammer-controlled crypto accounts or fake investment websites. The type of scam can also vary; from investments in crypto, to gambling and fake loans. 

The scam target might be allowed to get small amounts of their initial investment back so the scammer can maintain trust, Meta continued, but once they clue into the scheme, the scammers leave with all the money.

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How to stop it

Meta shared for the first time what strategies it is taking to counter the cross-border criminal organisations that are behind these mass pig butchering scams. 

Crucial to the social media giant’s efforts is its Dangerous Organizations and Individuals (DOI) policy that bans entities from Meta’s platforms and subjects them to a “wide range of enforcement tools,” if they’re caught leading illegal activity. 

Meta goes after those with a “violent or hateful mission” or that are engaged in violence either on the platforms, it says. 

They identify these entities with a combination of trained AI that finds malicious content, research and human expertise with the over 40,000 people the company says is working on safety and security. 

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Meta’s also putting out warnings on Facebook Messenger and Instagram Direct Messages to show you what could be suspicious activity or cold outreach from people you don’t know. 

On WhatsApp, a new context window will also appear if your phone number is added to a group chat by someone you don’t know. 

Other ways that users can avoid scams are to add two-factor or selfie identification before logging in to accounts, check messages for spelling errors, and verify the source of what could seem like a lucrative deal.