I have written this blog post to try and help people avoid scams, it may be overly detailed so I hope that the content is useful to stopping someone from being the victim of a scam.
Social Media scamming – looking out for yourself and others, it is no secret that today (tomorrow too!) there are more ways in which to spend your money than at any other time in history, it is also no secret that we have more free time than humanity has ever had in the past as well.
Its your money
Spending on what you like to improve your living experience is no problem at all, after all it is your choice and your money. What may be a problem to your bank balance though is the number of Social Media scams across the many platforms today: Facebook, WhatsApp, Youtube are full of scams waiting to catch you unaware, fatten you up through kind / romantic gestures and then butcher you for someone else’s profit, a term known as Pig Butchering.
Even if you are wise to these disgusting schemes, you may be a part of a partnership with shared finances and could still lose if your partner is scammed, so always watch out for transactions etc that you didn’t make, it could be a scammer, or it could just be the Bank charging a fee for something else you didn’t know cost you (illegal vs state sanctioned scams, can’t fight them all! /s).
Pig butchering or Sha Zhu Pan as it is know in Chinese, is a way in which criminals build up a rapport with you (the victim) over a short time (sometimes a longer timeframe) to ‘fatten’ you up, by fattening, I mean build themselves up as either a trustworthy colleague or a sexy woman who just happens to have an immensely wealthy lifestyle who wants to be with you (in the future) by first showing you how to trade in crypto currency and make the insane returns that they claim to be making.
Here is a link to a Pig butchering scam factory and it is worth watching:
starts with Facebook
Every wonder why Facebook doesn’t do anything about these scammers? probably not, right? All you need to know is that to a Social Media platform, you and I are not their customer, we are the product, it is our information that is being sold, analyzed and assessed for advertising to be targeted at us, the advertiser pays for access to view the products (you and I).
Don’t agree? have you ever tried to contact Facebook or Youtube to dispute a decision? if you are not paying them for a business account or are not a significant advertiser then there’s no way to get to a human, the decisions that these platforms make about whether you should be penalised for an ‘infraction’ are often made by an Algorithm where you have no control of the outcome and can not dispute the findings either.
What to look for
Anyway, Facebook is the platform of choice because of its low cost to entry (create a FB account) and lack of policing or any care from Facebook corporate towards these miscreants, Facebook like the major tech giants have integrated Generative Artificial Intelligence in the form of a Large Language Model (LLM) to give their ‘products’ (you and I) access to tips and tricks related to anything we find on the platform, because that can net the platform money through your query being related to something that Facebook can sell about you. Ask Facebook Llama about “pregancy” and your targeted advertising from that point onwards is going to be pregnancy and baby related, so will your web browser (Chrome) content now be targeted towards that.
Anyway the point here is that an LLM like Llama could very easily point out and flag Facebook scams and why this isn’t happening is that it is not profitable for Facebook to do so, everything that happens is down to profit and it is simply more profitable to let you be scammed than it is to prevent these activities, very little difference to the major telecoms and banks who also do not put simple controls in place to block these Pig Butchering scams.
These advertisements all start out in a similar way, the scammers want your email address and contact number at a minimum, but if you share your Facebook information, then they will also take that detail – this information is used to build as much of a profile about you as possible, see we may not respond to a stranger asking us to ‘help’ them, but we will be more compliant when the same ‘stranger’ shares a hobby we enjoy or a location, having more information about you makes it easier for them to build rapport with you to steal your money.
In the examples above (all captured within 60 minutes) the common theme is greed or sympathy, sympathy for cleaning business not doing well (this will also be air clean ducts too) and looking for your custom, or greed in that the salaries are too good, or free money – who doesn’t like free money!
How to know it is a scam
In my formative years my parents used to say something to me and it has stuck ever since.
“If something looks too good to be true, then it is most likely too good to be true”
— Kicksec.io’s Parents
Remember a few core principles and you will be safe from a scam, these are your “spidy senses” tingles that should give away a bad actor.
- If a stranger reaches out to you to offer an opportunity, run away! this goes for cold calling sales and door knockers too!
- When someone you don’t know very well asks you to trust them, don’t! Trust is learnt not spoken, this goes for paying deposits for Items on Facebook marketplace too! Never ever pay a deposit to someone you don’t know unless you are comfortable losing the money.
- When a Facebook Post does not give an address that is real, a Mobile number and if a business an ABN then be very worried, businesses want you to contact them, by requiring you to complete a “Google sheet” is a scam right there, there is no reason a business does not want you to contact them if they want your custom.
- When you see comments turned “off” for a post that is offering a product or service, again they are not looking for your custom, they are seeking your email address and Phone number.
- When you see any item on Marketplace that is too cheap, or many items (deceased estate) it is a scam, proceed with caution and do not under any circumstance pay a deposit on something you have not seen in person.
- A scammer will typically not reply to any comments on their posts either, the process is an automated one so no one is watching for replies, they simply want you to fill in a google sheet with your valuable personal information.
- In any Facebook post where there is a bracketed value (1234) or (suck12) – this is a scam fingerprint.
- Any cold contact reaching out to you or accidentally sliding into your “DM’s” and building rapport – ok this could be a lonely guy / girl too, but do not trust and if the conversation turns to “trading” or “I need help to pay for x”, run away because that is a scam!
There are many more warning signals as well, so be aware of these simple ones:
Too Good to Be True, adulting requires hard work, there is no cheat mode…
Offers great financial returns with no work, if it is so easy why isn’t everyone rich!
Stranger building rapport for no apparent reason, ask why?
If I think I am being scammed…
If you are already involved with a “pig butchering scammer” or a plain old romance scam, you need to stop, take a break and assess. It might be that your family and friends are aware and have told you already, or you may have spoken to no one yet, but you are advised to stop and assess where you are right now and decide on a next step.
As humans we are wired quite specifically to want to help people but also we like to feel wanted and connected to someone – we seek partnership and warmth, these scammers know this because that is what they are trained to respond to, build a connection with you first, offer a possible outcome of love (the fattening part) before turning you into “meat” (stealing your money), in many cases innocent and naive victims will continue to ‘invest’ because of how much they have already spent, this is known as the “sunk cost fallacy” (not advertising this book, the description is very relevant).
Listen to those people around you and even if you don’t believe your family and friends to be correct, think why would everyone be telling me the same thing? there is always three sides to a story: your side, the other side and the truth – listen to all sides and work out the truth.
Some samples of Pig butchering scams from my WhatsApp
The scams will often start with your personal information gathered from a fake Facebook post but it will have to progress to another platform, my experience is that normally regardless of where the scam starts, it will progress to WhatsApp but I have had Facebook messenger scams and LinkedIn scams too.
I have not included the full message transcript as it is pretty boring, but “Barry” started as “Lisa” on Facebook Messenger before moving me to WhatsApp so that Barry could start the “fattening” process – this from an innocent Facebook post, I played along with the process as I wanted to understand how it works, to save you the time of doing the investigation for your selves!
I also included a few other ‘random’ connection invites that I receive regularly, all are the same thing, too good to be true and a stranger reaching out to me – these will always result in the same thing, me losing money to someone else.
- – The fattening process will start with the “scammer” asking you to set up a Bitcoin account and wallet for yourself, at this stage, app is probably a legit app and they will ask you to do some trading on that account, win or lose, this part of the process is done to familiarise you with the process and also to lower your guard for the next part of the scam (though sometimes the scam starts immediately so watch out!), after a short time, they will show you the returns that they make on their trading app, and they will push you to join them where they manage your trading, THIS IS A RED FLAG – just as in any cyber security field, never give your password to anyone and never trust anyone who you do not know extremely well your credentials!
- During this phase it is very likely that they will suggest that you can take money out of the account so to prove that this is legit, this is done to ensure you continue to build trust in the scammer.
- – The second stage is where you lose control, the new app, website that you are invited to join is a ‘front’, there is no trading happening at this stage of the scam, any money that you deposit is gone forever, the trading app will show great returns, you will be provided with updates etc but there is no money (well not your money anyway) as it has been stolen from you already.
- If you are already here or suspect that you are then DO NOT under any circumstances put more money in, there is never a situation where you must put more capital in to keep afloat in an investment.
- Stop, contact the authorities and do not engage with these criminals further, you have already lost whatever has been traded.
Summary, what can I do?
Firstly, remember the rules: Too good to be true, Great financial freedom, Someone reaching out to me etc – these are all hallmarks of a scammer.
When you read a post on Facebook, I recommend that at the very least you apply an “Angry face” emoticon to it which causes others to question, better yet, report it to the “group admins” as “Spam” (there is no scam option, probably because it would cost Facebook to fix the problem) and if you want then add a comment calling it out as a scam, remember if there is no address, no ABN, no mobile number to contact then it probably is not legit as businesses want customers.
If a job is being offered on Facebook, first remember that no employer in this market is looking for 7 employees! or great salaries! or flexible hours! etc if the advertiser doesn’t say who is hiring and give a mobile number or business email then they are a scammer.
Never give your personal details out or fill in a google sheet for a job application, these details are harvested from you to target you later, a mobile number allows someone to target you from WhatsApp, an Email allows a scammer to find your details and pursue taking your money.
Unpopular opinion here, but if you are being targeted by a sexy beautiful woman (which is often also a man who has a library of IG pics from an influencers account), take a look at yourself (this is a question for you and you alone) and consider why they are interested in you. If you pursue them then, seek to meet, do not give money for anything, airline tickets, sick mother etc etc unless you know them and can trust them – this can be harder than you think!
No one will protect you from these scams except yourselves, we all need to look out for people looking to take away what is hard learnt for all of us.
Finally, the scammer targeting you could very likely have been kidnapped and is being tortured, what is happening in some places of our planet is absolutely disgusting and needs to stop, so have some empathy, do not fall for it, do not give money but be aware.
Stay safe online and if you have anything to add then please leave a comment or send us a message here.
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