I want to raise awareness on the Pig-Butchering scam or Sha Zhu Pan in Chinese. So called because victims are patiently worked on every day for 1-3 months before scamming them big time, like fattening up a pig before slaughter. They have extremely well-planned operations and have really been successful in the Chinese-speaking world. Sha Zhu Pan scam has become one of the top Chinese buzzwords in 2019-2020.
Victims are scammed on average $24k, and millions in total have been lost. It's a huge cottage industry that Chinese police has had a hard time stamping out. There are scores of recent news stories, blogs, video clips, and other media online about Sha Zhu Pan victims and scammers. Sadly, almost all are in Chinese. I think the rest of the world has to wise up to this, because now as most Chinese are becoming aware of this Pig-Butchering Scam, the scammers are turning their skills more towards non-Chinese, more so this year.
This first half is somewhat detailed because since everyone is generally aware of romance scams, being vague won't convince someone who is in the thick of it and thinks that his/her online friend is THE exception. Exposing specific details of the Pig-Butchering scam is most convincing to current victims that the "spontaneous" events are actually planned.
And how to Prevent it?
“Pig-Butchering Scam” is a fraud method that induces users to participate in various types of fraudulent investments such as financial investments, gambling games, foreign exchange and other types of fake investments through online dating. Scammers call the deceived users “pigs”.
Next, scammers will follow some established scripts and define themselves as rich and handsome / beautiful, then they will induce users to fall in love and try to gain trust. We call it “pig raising” during this stage. When it reaches a certain level of emotional foundation, scammers will start to lure the other party to invest, and the final stage of fraud is “kill the pig”.
Suggestions of The Prevention of “kill the pig” Fraud:
- “Don't believe it”, you need to be cautious when making friends online. Don't trust netizens, and don't believe in investment lies such as “stable profit without loss”, “low cost and high return” and so on.
- "Don't be greedy”, refuse the temptation of gambling and high-return investment, remember that only greed will be deceived because there is no such thing as a free lunch.
- “Don't transfer”, don't transfer money to unfamiliar accounts. When transferring money to acquaintances, you must also be cautious, and communicate more with your relatives and friends and ask more to prevent falling into a “trap”.
Common Romance Scams 2021: Pig Butchering (Sha Zhu Pan), Fake Investment, Sextortion, … and MORE!
Looking for love? Be careful, romance scammers are looking for people to target, and they are happy to break hearts to get money.
Common Tactics of Romance Scams:
- Investment opportunities - The scammer emails fake investments invitation with phishing links to gather their victim’s personal details. Also known as “Sha Zhu Pan”, pig butchering is the latest online dating scam. The scammers will invite their victims to invest in cryptocurrencies after winning their trust. Then they run away with all the invested cryptocurrencies.
- Requests of money for emergencies - Scammers request money for emergency purposes like medical expenses. After receiving the money, the scammer vanishes.
- Offers or gifts - The scammers ask for a tariff or shipment fee to send their gifts from overseas, but they disappear once they get the money.
- Intimate messages - After exchanging private photos, the scammers threaten to share explicit images with the victim’s contacts unless they receive money.
Sha Zhu Pan - AKA: "Pig Butchering" scam
As we all know, the pandemic has had a massive effect on all of us but it's also had a huge effect on your regular street scammers in China, no more incoming foreigners to scam. Thus online scams from China have increased exponentially. This particular one is nasty and probably one of the worst scams out there. It's a combination of the regular romance scam, a cryptocurrency scam and the advanced fee scam but with a few twists. I've put this here because people interested in China/Chinese language etc may find themselves here mid-scam or be aware of it.
The scam - A girl will contact you through social media, mostly dating or language learning apps but I've had a few contact me here on Reddit. Instagram and snapchat are also heavily used. If you have any interest in China you will inevitably run into one of these, this is why it's stickied here. These girls are real and will do video calls/pretend to be interested in you. They're usually paid by an employer to act the front. Everything will start off pretty benign and they will let you guide where the conversation goes, talk about China, send you photos, every day things, a bit of flirting etc. Usually after a bit of time (weeks, so at this point you 'trust' your new friend) the conversation will go towards money and she will say she's very successful but won't say much more. Over the next few weeks she will start to drop hints about cryptocurrency in the hope you take the bait.
If you take the bait she introduces you to her advisor who will tell you all about bitcoin and how he makes the girl money, and you'll invest. Usual pushy sales tactics, they've got a legit looking website, a full (fake) cryptocurrency exchange with logins etc running. They'll ask you to do some 'practice' runs before investing real money. The girl will usually ask you to do that out of 'concern for you'. Eventually you'll invest real money, and even get a small amount back to 'prove the system'. Over the next few months they'll take everything you have through various fees, taxes, withdrawal limits, government bribes, etc - it's all fake, in reality you'd better taking your money and literally burning it... at least it's warm. Once you're out of money the girl and the exchange will move on and you'll never see them again.
The pig-butchering scam: Con artists who come for your heart and wallet
Fraudsters spend months cultivating a relationship with the victims before urging them to invest in bogus investment schemes. PHOTO: PEXELS
Victims in Singapore have lost more money to investment scams than any other ruse in the last three years. It hit a record high last year, with $190.9 million stolen in such scams, more than five times the $36.9 million lost in 2019.
A recent variant that has appeared here is the pig-butchering scam. Fraudsters spend months cultivating a relationship with the victims before urging them to invest in bogus investment schemes. According to news reports, pig-butchering scams started in China in 2016. Back then, scammers groomed their victims to place bets on fake gambling websites.
The Chinese term "sha zhu pan" - it means to fatten a pig before slaughtering it - was coined by the perpetrators themselves to describe their scam. The Chinese government cracked down on illegal betting in 2018. But fraudsters then targeted Chinese speakers in South-east Asia. As the demographic expanded to include Europe and the United States, scam tactics evolved to keep abreast with the growing popularity of cryptocurrency investments.
Woman in S'pore lost $240,000 in 'pig-butchering' scam after fraudster courted her for months
This hybrid of romance and investment scams see fraudsters pretend to be a love interest to swindle unassuming partners. ST PHOTO: GIN TAY
After six months of trying to pay back banks, moneylenders and creditors, Christine (not her real name) finally started bankruptcy proceedings over a huge debt. The 37-year-old Malaysian nurse working in Singapore is a victim of a pig-butchering scam.
This hybrid of romance and investment scams see fraudsters pretend to be a love interest to swindle unsuspecting partners.
With a total debt of $270,000 and no recourse, Christine attended a court hearing on Thursday (Feb 17) to declare bankruptcy.
Singaporeans fall prey to Chinese-origin 'pig-butchering' crypto scam
Victims in Singapore have lost more money to bogus investment schemes than any other ruse in the last three years, especially falling prey to Chinese-origin "pig-butchering" cryptocurrency scam, losing SGD190.9 million last year, over five times the SGD36.9 million in 2019.
Fraudsters spend months cultivating a relationship with the victims before urging them to invest in such schemes, according to a report in The Sunday Times. A recent variant that has appeared in Singapore is the "pig-butchering" scam, said the report, adding that the Chinese term "sha zhu pan" means to fatten a pig before slaughtering. It was coined by the perpetrators themselves to describe their scam.
Fraudsters spend months cultivating a relationship with the targets before urging them to invest in bogus investment schemes.
Online ‘pig butchering’ love scams have gone global after getting their start in China
Online scammers try to build months-long relationships with their victims before convincing them into fraudulent investments. Photo: Shutterstock
A scamming strategy called “pig butchering” that started in China is spreading beyond both border and language, transforming into a global fraud racket.
According to the Global Anti-Scam Organisation, a volunteer-led advocacy group, the primary victims of the scheme outside China are Chinese nationals or ethnically Chinese people living in Southeast Asia. But more than a third of the duped people were non-Chinese people in North America and Asia, showing how the demographic targeted is rapidly expanding.
Called sha zhu pan in Chinese, or “pig butchering” in English, the scam involves the perpetrator building a relationship, often romantic but not always, with the victim over months, akin to fattening the pig, before convincing them to invest money into a fake venture, slaughtering the animal.
The Butchering the Pig (Crypto/Forex) Scam
Our international litigation team has been seeing a vertible ton of a particularly sinster crypto/forex scam: The “Sha Zhu Pan” (Chinese: 杀猪盘) or, “Butchering the Pig” scam.
This scam is called “Butchering the Pig” because targets are engaged daily for several months before large amounts of money are sent to the scammers; in other words, it is like fattening up a pig before the slaughter. The scammers, using a profile of an attractive (usually) Asian man or woman, lead the target (the pig) through carefully scripted conversations. Once the target has sent an initial “investment” deposit, the account will show impressive gains. Sometimes the scammer will allow the target to withdraw a small amount of money to prove its legitimacy. The target is encouraged to send further funds to maximize this investment opportunity. Eventually, the scammers cut off all communication, leaving the target without their money or their “profits.”
What makes this scam so insidious and so successful is that while the amounts stolen usually range between USD$10,000 and $2,000,000+, the sheer number of scams occurring is overwhelming. We recently heard from a prominent lawyer who lost more than $5 million on this scam. He eventually decided not to pursue his claims because he feared the publicity would destroy his legal practice. Between January and July of 2021, the FBI alone received nearly 2,000 complaints of cryptocurrency-focused Sha Zhu Pan scams and there is little doubt the number is considerably higher. The police in China don’t really care because they have more important things to do and they are not all that fund of Americans and Europeans (the usual victims) in any event, especially those of Chinese etnicity, who seem to make up a good chunk of the victims. The police in the foreign country (usually in North America or Europe) have too many cases and more important things to do and so they usually don’t do anything either.
Pig Butchering Crypto Scam
A technique known as ‘pig butchering’ has spread globally as a cryptocurrency scam
It looks like we will have to learn some new cryptocurrency scam lingo. A scam technique known as ‘pig butchering’ – a reference to how a target is ‘fattened up’ before being butchered or slaughtered – that started in China is now spreading across borders and countries. languages, evolving into global fraud. In Chinese, it is known as “sha zhu pan”, which translates to “pig butcher” in English. It is essentially a cybercrime, including relationship and investment fraud. The offender builds a relationship with the victim for months, often romantic but not necessarily fattening a pig, before tricking them into investing in a bogus business and, metaphorically, shooting the victim.
According to Global Anti-Scam Organization, a volunteer-run advocacy group, scammers on dating apps and social media groom targets for weeks to interest them in investing in cryptocurrency, forex, gold and other commodities. The scammers do not ask for money directly, but lead victims to a fake investment website or app that they control. Scammers coax and harass victims into depositing more money into their own “account” inside the fake platform using a variety of schemes in the name of “customer service”. In the end, the victims are not able to withdraw their money.
The Global Anti-Scam Organization even uploaded a video to YouTube titled “What’s Behind Today’s Wave of Online Relationship and Investment Scams?” The caption states that the scammers “originate from the cottage industry of telecommunications and online fraud in Southeast Asia and are run by Chinese labor unions.” The caption adds that reports of the scam began “pouring in in China in mid-2019 and it quickly became a smash hit for the scam industry, which dubbed it ‘Pig Butchering Plate “.
Anti-SMS spoofing registry to shut and be replaced by full-fledged system
A registry meant to combat SMS spoofing will be shut down and replaced by a full-fledged system in response to the recent spate of SMS phishing scams, said the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) on Monday (Mar 7).
The SMS SenderID Protection Registry, which was initially piloted in August 2021 by IMDA and the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), was done in collaboration with the UK Mobile Ecosystem Forum (MEF) as a commercial service provider. "MEF had informed that IMDA’s requirements to meet Singapore’s needs going forward are not consistent with its business model," said IMDA, in response to CNA's queries. "As IMDA will be moving towards a more fully-fledged SSIR, the MEF and IMDA have therefore jointly decided to conclude our pilot which has provided us with useful inputs to move on with our new model." It added that the
recent spate of SMS phishing scams in Singapore warranted a "strong response".
The authority said that the "full-fledged" Singapore SMS Sender ID Registry (SSIR) can identify spoofed messages using protected SMS sender IDs, and block these messages upfront. "This more proactive stance to better protect consumers is a regulatory requirement going forward.
SMS providers, telcos to be required to block spoof SMSes from unregistered senders
The Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) will require short message service (SMS) providers and telecommunications companies to check SMS senders against a national registry aimed at curbing scams, Communications and Information Minister Josephine Teo said. The SMS service providers and telcos will have to block spoofed messages sent under a registered sender ID when the sender’s details do not match the registry’s records, she added.
Mrs Teo, who is also the Minister-in-charge of Smart Nation and Cybersecurity, announced this in a ministerial statement in response to 39 parliamentary questions filed by Members of Parliament on online phishing and spoofing scams in the wake of the recent OCBC phishing scam. Sender IDs are names that identify the sender of an SMS message so that a word or phrase (such as "OCBC"), instead of a number, is displayed on the recipient's mobile phone.
All organisations seeking to send SMS messages using IDs registered with the SMS Sender ID protection registry must also have a valid unique entity number (UEN), which is an identification number issued to a registered entity. This, she said, will help the police with investigations in the event of a scam. However, even with the extra safeguards, Mrs Teo warned that the SMS system was never designed for secure messages and urged organisations to practise more restraint when sending such messages.
Banks to remove clickable links in emails, SMS sent to customers as part of new security measures
New measures for digital banking are to be rolled out for banks in Singapore, after a recent spate of SMS phishing scams affected at least 469 of OCBC's customers
Banks in Singapore will be removing clickable links in emails or SMS messages sent to retail customers and set the threshold for funds transfer notifications to customers by default at S$100 or lower. These are part of several measures to protect account holders from phishing scams. The changes, announced by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and the Association of Banks in Singapore (ABS) in a joint statement on Wednesday (Jan 19), will be implemented within the next two weeks.
The new measures came after at least 469 customers were affected by an SMS phishing scam targeting OCBC bank customers, with losses totalling at least S$8.5 million. The fraudsters had sent out fake bank alerts that spoofed the bank's official SMS channel, duping many of them into clicking on web links and giving up their personal account information last month. In the joint statement, MAS and ABS said that these measures will bolster the security of digital banking, given that it will lengthen the time taken for certain online banking transactions and also provide an added layer of security to protect customers’ funds.
Other measures that banks will be putting in place include:
- Delaying activation of a new soft token on a mobile device by at least 12 hours
- Sending notification to a customer's existing mobile number or email registered with the bank whenever there is a request to change a customer’s mobile number or email address
- Introducing a cooling-off period before executing requests to important account changes such as in a customer’s key contact details
- Having dedicated and well-resourced customer assistance teams to deal with feedback on potential fraud cases on a priority basis
- More frequent scam education alerts
How to spot an investment scam
Find out how you can spot an investment scam and what you can do to avoid falling prey to one. Key takeaways:
- All investments carry risks. Be wary of opportunities that offer high returns at little or no risk.
- Don't take everything at face value, or rush into committing your money.
- Always ask, check and confirm before you invest.
Scammers use increasingly sophisticated and effective tactics to get you to part with your money. Even though some investment scams may look like a real deal, there are some red flags you can spot to help you steer clear of them. All investments carry risk. The greater the promised investment returns, the higher the risk. Be wary when you encounter an investment opportunity that claims to guarantee or protect your capital while promising high returns. Many investment scams offer such lucrative promises in order to lure investors in.
It is important to check how the investment scheme can generate such high profits with low or no risk. Benchmark the returns - find out what other investments offer the same returns and see what the risks are like. It is unlikely that the investment you are being offered can provide the same returns without the same risks at least. Pressure tactics:
- "Limited time only! Invest before it sells out!"
- "Special rates for first 50 investors. Don't miss out on this golden opportunity!"
- "More than 2,000 people have invested - what are you waiting for?"
- "Invest today and get extra 10% credit with many other benefits."
How You can Avoid being Scammed
Scams have been increasing of late. Here’s how to stay safe
Ever received emails from “royals” seeking help to transfer money out of their country in exchange for a percentage of the loot? Or phone calls informing that you’ve won a seven-figure overseas lottery and the only way to receive the payout is by providing your banking details? These are just some examples of classic scams that have been around since mobile technology became a part of our everyday life.
Scammers, though, have been evolving in recent years, becoming sophisticated cons who not only target individuals but businesses and organisations as well. The first half of 2020 saw the number of scams in Singapore jump by 140 per cent compared to 2019. More troublingly, a survey by the Home Team Behavioural Sciences Centre found that 45 per cent of scam victims reported being scammed more than once. According to the Singapore Police Force, last year saw a whopping $201 million lost to scammers, much of it online as Singaporeans turned to websites and apps to carry out activities like banking and buying groceries due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Scammers have also begun to target people working from home through robocalls, as well as seniors who are unfamiliar with the Internet.
The rising number of scam victims is testament to the increasing psychological sophistication of scammers’ tactics in crafting false proof, impersonating the victim’s close friends and using the victim’s shame about possibly falling for a scam to continue extracting money from them. Romance scammers are especially adept at identifying victims who are lonely, vulnerable and easily manipulated — a group that is increasing in size worldwide, due to COVID-19’s impact on social lives. Ensure your safety and that of others by familiarising yourself with common methods of fraud. Here are the top 10 scams in Singapore (in no particular order):
- E-COMMERCE
- SOCIAL MEDIA IMPERSONATION
- INTERNET LOVE
- CREDIT-FOR-SEX
- CHINESE OFFICIALS IMPERSONATION
- TECH SUPPORT
- BANKING-RELATED PHISHING
- NON-BANKING-RELATED PHISHING
- LOANS
- INVESTMENT
