BANGKOK – Human “pig butchering” scams have stolen billions of dollars from Americans rendering them financially devastated, heartbroken from fake love, and in worst cases suicidal, according to a new US Institute of Peace ( USIP ) report on Chinese-dominated transnational crime based in Southeast Asia.
In a sad bend, many of the estimated 300, 000 lying, sweet-talking scammers – largely from developing nations – likewise suffer because they are supposedly imprisoned and brutalized by the Chinese-run groups.
The armed groups trap or steal them to Myanmar, Cambodia, and Laos and “deploy abuse to employ victims in driven criminality”, the USIP statement said.
There are presently no reports of any Americans being trapped in these facilities, but there have been a small amount, according to USIP visiting specialist Jacob Sims in an interview.
” A couple of years ago, an American was in a compound]in Cambodia ] – and treated as a criminal once he got out, by the Cambodian government – and eventually found his way back to America.
” And there was another who was repatriated to Thailand and then returned to America from a mixture on the Thai-Myanmar border.
” That one was I think more just, maybe three months ago, something like that”, Sims said.
” He was released during a large release of some, like adjacent to a thousand persons, that were being held. ” Some of them ended up getting released, and some ended up getting deported,” back home in China.
He claimed that he was allegedly brought up to the US after being slowly brought back to Thailand.
According to Sims,” It is actually highly probable that there are Americans or British people working willingly in these compounds, but the incentives do n’t work out against Americans ]against their will because the US government is then going to be more aggressively reacting against the compounds.”
According to USIP Burma ( Myanmar ) country director Jason Tower,” there are a lot of law enforcement representatives from all over the world who have traveled to that area,” where compounds are clustered along Thailand’s Myanmar side.
” The 30-some-odd materials which are there, are all smuggling people and keeping citizens enslaved”, Tower said.
Beijing is one of the nations attempting to stop the organized crime that started years ago when illegitimate net Chinese gambling sites discovered heinous methods of money transfer.
” China’s government and law enforcement, after failing to take this issue seriously for years, are now using the reputation of Chinese-led violence groups in other countries to support dramatic increases in the presence of China’s authoritarian authorities around the globe”, said the 68-page report.
” The United States and China ]are ] the two most strongly affected victims of the online scamming industry”, it said.
Deceitful, scripted attempt at relationship resulting in stolen funds through online scams and fraudulent financial applications and websites, are known in China as” sha zhu dish” – animal killing.
Individual Americans and other foreign survivors who fall in love with their con artists and invest in fake opportunities frequently experience extreme emotional and financial stress as a result of the deceptive con.
According to the Washington-based USIP report,” this scamming industry could soon rival fentanyl as one of the top dangers that Chinese criminal networks pose to the United States.”
” I am on the ground, listening to what victims are actually experiencing in the United States”, said Erin West, an international cross-agency Rapid Enforcement Allied Computer Team ( REACT) prosecutor and Santa Clara County, California, deputy district attorney.
” In the United States, and in many other countries around the world…this particular scam does n’t end until they ]victims ] have lost every last penny they have”, she said.
The pig butchering scam is similar to that. And I refer to it as devouring our victims from snout to tail.
They are using the courtship period to find out exactly how much our victims have and where the assets are located, she said.
West made the remarks at the Foreign Correspondents ‘ Club of Thailand in June during a Transnational Crime in Southeast Asia panel discussing the release of the USIP’s May report.
The cyber gigolo knows “exactly how much is still available that they can get these people to invest,” she said when the delusional one-sided romances turn into dreams of big profits being made through cryptocurrency investments.
These fake relationships start with a cold call made by an unidentified person who attempts to meet cute with the patsy online and patiently cultivates them until the victims agree to invest an initial US$ 5, 000 or so in cryptocurrency.
Their funds are transferred to an online crypto account that the con artists control. Soon, the victims of love-struck are instructed to be brave and aim for much bigger profits by depositing more and more.
When victims try to withdraw their investment, the scammers tell the now-panicking dupes they must first pay a 25 % tax bill” from new funds.”
” They’re mortgaging their homes, they’re taking high-interest loans, and borrowing from everyone they know,” West said.
Then the scammers disappear into cyberspace.
Today, thousands of criminals are posting counterfeit profiles of non-existent, good-looking, romantic people on Meta, Facebook, Linked In, Tinder, Whats App, Telegram, and other online social media to fool victims.
Thieves fabricate images to resemble their fictitious personalities to mimic the lifestyles of their targets.
Pig butchering call centers have smaller operations in the US and other countries, but are primarily located in Southeast Asia, according to investigators.
Eager job seekers, who are primarily from Asia, are frequently conned into visiting Myanmar, Cambodia, and Laos through websites and chat groups describing fantastic positions at hotels, casinos, and other locations.
Those three relatively impoverished countries, clustered around Thailand, are ideal because widespread corruption enables the gangs to operate.
” Thailand offers the enclaves reliable energy, stable telecommunications, and easy access to a major financial center,” USIP said.
When new, unsuspecting employees arrive, they are captured, brutalized, and forced to work in guarded, hidden buildings using the gang’s computers and encrypted telecommunications, USIP said.
Because of their language prowess, Indians, Malaysians, and other English-speaking people are regarded as pig butchers in the US and Europe.
According to USIP,” China-origin criminal networks” that are “running the scams from Southeast Asia during 2023” are estimated to have lost$ 3.5 billion.
Worldwide, up to$ 64 billion was stolen from millions of people last year, they said.
Sean Gallagher, a senior researcher at Sophos, a cybersecurity firm, said he investigated pig butchering in 2023 by pretending to be a potential sucker.
A 40-year-old woman posing as a 40-year-old woman allegedly lied to Gallagher as a Hong Kong-based con artist who instructed him to download and use secretly infected software to upload his signed identification papers and deposit money into an account holding gold.
In Gallagher’s second test”, a Cambodia-based Chinese organized crime operation” tried to lure him into a cryptocurrency scam, Sophos reported.
In 2023, Sophos discovered two “malicious” apps on the Apple and Google Play Store, prompting Apple and Google to remove them.
One of the bad apps was” Ace Pro” which disguised itself in the app store as” a QR code-checking application.”
The other fake app was” MBM_BitScan” which offered” a real-time data tracker for cryptocurrencies “and” a fake crypto trading interface,” Sophos reported.
According to USIP, “pig butchering scams have also exposed vulnerabilities in the US financial system,” with one instance involving the closure of a state-owned bank in Kansas and the prosecution of a victim facing criminal charges.
Richard S Ehrlich is a Bangkok-based American foreign correspondent reporting from Asia since 1978, and winner of Columbia University’s Foreign Correspondents ‘ Award. Excerpts from his two new nonfiction books”, Rituals. Killers. Wars. &, Sex. — Tibet, India, Nepal, Laos, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka &, New York “and” Apocalyptic Tribes, Smugglers &, Freaks “are available here.