Cybersecurity companies warn against scams to invest money that start as a love affair. It is called “Pig Slaughter” and consists of taking the initiative and contacting a third party to offer something and arouse interest in the other party. It’s not just phone calls, but emails and messaging apps as well. In some forms of online fraud, these contacts may begin with something as innocuous as a message that appears to have been sent by mistake. However, this “flaw” hides a malicious intent.

The romance scam that often starts in apps like Tinder, messages coming through social networks or on dating sites caused losses in countries like the United States to the tune of nearly $1.3 billion by 2022. There were nearly 70,000 people who reported being victims of this type of fraud with financial losses averaging $4,400. One specific victim lost up to $2.5 million after being tricked into investing in cryptocurrency. It should be noted that these figures do not fully measure the magnitude of the problem, as many victims do not file a complaint because they are embarrassed.

“In recent years, the number of scams has increased, using direct messages as a way to build a relationship with people and then trick them in some way. This type of scam is called Pig Butchering, which translates as “pig slaughter” in Spanish. The name comes from the use of fattening a pig to butcher it and consume or sell the meat. In digital terms, the “meat” would be money.”, said Camilo Gutiérrez Amaya, head of the research lab at security firm ESET Latin America.

Some examples of tactics to reach people used in pig slaughter scams include:

On the hunt for money: Pig slaughter scams rely on the combined use of apps, websites, web servers, and people (in many cases victims of human trafficking) to build trust with a random third party over a period of weeks or months; often feigning romantic interest.

This form of fraud borrows some tactics used in other deception schemes that have proven effective, such as romance scams found on online dating apps and sites or on social media. Once they establish the trust link, the cybercriminals introduce the subject of an opportunity to invest money, which can come from cryptocurrencies, a pyramid scheme or any other way that presents itself as an attractive opportunity, and in this way they give a unexpected twist to the conversations.

In this way, the scammer starts talking about an investment opportunity from which he has made big profits and invites the victim to participate. Often, victims take the bait for fear of missing out on something good.

The fake investment opportunity: Once the victim deposits money, the scammers will initially allow them to withdraw money to make them believe it is legit. But then an account freeze will force a deposit of a percentage of the investor’s balance to regain access. However, what happens is that after making the deposit, the scammers will come up with new reasons for the victim to send more money and get as much as possible until they disappear.

Global Reach Scam: In 2021 alone, pig scams caused a loss of $429 million. These are industrial-scale scams involving thousands of people. The situation has become so serious that both the European Union and the United States have started to focus more on this problem, tracking down and prosecuting people suspected of committing this type of scam.

Today, online machine translators have reached a level of quality that makes it easy to create convincing scams in different languages. Add to that the advent of new machine learning-based chatbots, such as ChatGPT, and scammers have more tools to generate even more persuasive messages and at a faster pace than ever before, perhaps opening the doors for even more operations worldwide.

Security company ESET shares tips to avoid falling victim to pig slaughter scams:

· Beware of unsolicited messages, including messages that appear to have been sent “accidentally”.

· Be skeptical: Even if you decide to respond to such messages, don’t trust anyone you’ve just met online just because they seem nice.

· Do not discuss your personal financial situation with strangers who have met online and be especially wary of alleged investment opportunities that present themselves without your asking.(I)