Pig Butchering Prison Block Scamdemic
Heartbreaking.
Chiefly due to those struggling to make ends meet ensnared by the lure of making life that little bit easier at the hand of ruthless criminals.
But also because of how the bad name of such tactics can infect those of us trying to reach out in the commercial sphere for that potentially wonderful one extra brand new addition to our (and their) network.
Yes, I understand the counter.
'If something sounds too good to be true...' and all that.
There's even a mainstream media tv show right now I caught a glimpse of which I found astonishing; Scam Interceptors. Sleepless nights guaranteed.
Yet the victims appear so normal.
Defrauded of often life-affecting sums of money.
The perpetrators are worldwide. With a chilling evolution of the boiler room.
The prison block.
Yes, an actual place where workers are kidnapped and forced to work by gangsters in call centres preying on the vulnerable.
Despite thinking you know the routine, somewhere along the line you get hooked.
From first contact where the caller seems to be from an organisation known to you. They have all your details. Know your history.
The links sent that look legit so you click. Yet are fake.
The phone numbers you ring back pass your check. They're spoofed.
Such present day scams involve the promise of astronomic crypto returns (including 'liquidity mining'), help with setting up that loan you thought of or applied for, and government refunds from energy bills to tax and anything in between.
Tomorrow the list will grow, morph, and tempt a thousand more.
I read of one such incarcerated caller who managed to flee enslavement.
They repeated one of their frightful in-house mantras;
‘there is no one who can’t be deceived, only scripts that don’t fit’.
Pig butchering is apparently a favoured practice.
I also note the Chinese origins; Sha Zhu Pan.
Emerging from romance scams, where the victim is befriended - psychologically manipulated - before being taken for cash, they've slipped into other scam worlds.
For instance with the crypto related. Where a victim's account is actually fattened at first. Before being emptied.
Quite The Sting. (Although the crime boss from the 1974 Oscar winner only lost one big bet, not his shirt.)
What is true, is that there are honest mirrors of these kinds of tactics.
When we make first contact, we really don't need to know everything about our suspect and their work. Despite supposed 'best-practice'.
We too ought know that 'there is someone with the issue that we resolve for whom our 'script' will fit'.
We can ask someone to pay for an eval, or small scale use of our wares. Then success allows for full-scale purchase.
And we certainly don't need to hype our marvels and make them sound too good to be true. Simply plausible and desirable.
Hopefully, you are pursuing these noble routes. And track precisely how those buying into us are genuinely the better off, and for good.