International Romance Fraud Grows to Industrial Scale Under the Name of “Swine Killer”

As a kind of ' international romance scam ' that deepens the relationship with the person you met on the Internet over a long period of time and eventually deceives the money, a method called 'pig killing' that invites the other party to invest and withdraws a huge amount of money is used in Southeast Asia It is reported that people in detention are forced to commit fraud.

From Industrial-Scale Scam Centers, Trafficking Victims Are Being Forced to Steal Billions
https://www.vice.com/en/article/n7zb5d/pig-butchering-scam-cambodia-trafficking

The Chinese word ``killing board'', which means ``pig killing'', has been used since around 2017, and by April 2019, there were 876 victims in China, and the total amount of damage was More than 200 million yuan (about 4 billion yen).

The process of fraud is called `` pig killing '' because it looks like `` raising and killing pigs '', and the steps are as follows.

1: A scammer creates himself as a ``boar area (pighouse)'' with an SNS account
2: Search for victims on SNS ('Senbo')
3: Deepen trust with victims ('boar farming')
4: Lure victims into fake projects such as investments and persuade them to participate
5: After giving a small reward to the victim, invest a large amount of money and take it away ('killing boar')

The complication of the industrialized 'pig killer' is that the 'scammers' do not operate alone, but are part of a large organization, and are people who are somehow recruited and forced to work. It's a point.

Jess, the founder of the Global Anti-Scam Organization (GASO), a non-profit organization that supports, organizes, and speaks for victims of ``pig killing'', is also one of the victims of ``pig killing''. Jess, a woman in her thirties from Singapore, lost $ 16,000 (about 2.2 million yen) after being victimized by a man who matched her on the dating app Tinder.

However, 'I am curious and want to know who scammed me. Until I get what I want, until I get an answer,' Jess said I took it, built a more open relationship, and learned how the 'pig killer' worked. At GASO, 80 volunteers who also 'seek answers' gather and are facing 'pig killing'.

Brian (46 years old) from Tennessee is a person who lost $ 190,000 (about 26 million yen) in business talk via LinkedIn and participated in GASO. 60% of GASO's volunteers are women, and most of them are college graduates, which matches the profile of a 'pig killer' victim. does not match. However, by turning its capabilities to solve the “pig killer”, it has traced the address of a crypto wallet to a major money launderer in Cambodia. Furthermore, it seems that they are extorting information by pretending to be both the victim and the fraudster, or 'converting' the fraudster who is trying to escape.

In this way, a member of the 'pig killer' organization that Mr. Brian contacted said, 'Can you help me escape, I will be killed if I find out,' while sending me pictures and videos of the hideout, so GASO It shares inside information with embassies and local police to help rescue victims of human trafficking.

Although the exact amount of damage caused by ``pig killing'' is unknown, the syndicate that GASO deals with alone is more than 285 million dollars (about 39.25 billion yen) from 1652 people, that is, 173,000 dollars per victim It seems that it is winding up (about 23.83 million yen).

According to information from an NGO working for victims of human trafficking and forced labor, it is estimated that there are tens of thousands of people in Cambodia's 'fraud centers.' Thai police have announced that 800 Thais have been rescued from this fraud center in just a few months in 2022, and 1,000 people are still detained. In addition, Vietnamese workers have testified that 300 of their compatriots are being held captive in a high-rise office building.

Mr. Bryce Tan from Malaysia applied for a job with a monthly salary of 12,000 ringgit (about 374,000 yen), which he had passed through the recruitment site screening when he visited Cambodia, 'Victory Paradise Resort and Casino'. It seems that he was taken to a resort called, his passport was confiscated, and he decided to do a job that was completely different from the job offer, ``a job that makes you intimate with strangers on the Internet.'' Mr. Tan managed to escape from the facility in three weeks, but about 7,000 people testified that they were 'working.'

In Cambodia, as well as in Laos and Myanmar, where similar fraud centers are located, there are occasional raids, but operations are carried out calmly and have not caused any damage at all.