Pig Butchering Scam
Well, this is a very troubling story. If you’ve been reading our channel for the last few years, you’ve seen a lot of uh videos about what’s called Pig butchering, which is a form of an online scam. It’s a fraud; it’s financial theft. The reason it’s called Pig butchering is because it’s a way to get victims to trust a scammer by asking them for a small amount of money first and then gradually building up the amount that is owed so you get more money in the end.

How the Scam Works
They do with livestock; you feed them and feed them until they get fat, and then you butcher them. So the way it works is normally a victim will find something online that says, “Hey, you can make some profit on an investment on a um some type of financial um opportunity like Bitcoin or like bonds or real estate.” They ask you for a small amount of money; “Hey, just give us 100 bucks, give us 200 bucks,” an amount that almost anybody would agree to because even if you lose it, it’s not a big deal. They show you a big return; you send them 200, a month later they say, “Hey, your account was up to 400,” so you doubled your money.

Escalation of Trust and Investment
They say, “Well, if you had a th000 in your account, you’ll get triple your money in a month.” So now you put in 600 more to get to a th000, and now they show you a statement of 3,000. Right? So they keep doing this, ramping it up until you eventually trust them. You see these statements that look real, and you put in lots of money—tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands. We’ve had clients that have lost millions of dollars.

The Aftermath of the Scam
So what happens is, once it gets fattened up for the kill, they basically stop answering you, or you ask for money back, and you say, “Hey, I want to take out money,” and they say, “Well, now you have to pay taxes; you have to pay audit fees; you have to pay some type of um money laundering investigation,” something like that. And of course, you realize you’ve been scammed.

Current State of the Scam
Well, the question has been for the last 6 months, since the beginning of the year really, what’s going on with this? Is it getting any better or any worse? Well, according to this article, it’s getting worse, and we’re seeing more inquiries. We get dozens of inquiries every day. Your video will be back in 8 seconds. In the meantime, remember you have access to live one-on-one consultation, undivided attention of a licensed certified expert in this subject and many others. We want to listen to your story; we want to hear your questions and give you expert advisement of your options. We want to tell you what we know about your situation and what options you have now.

Global Reach of the Scam
Back to your video from people who are asking about this. Um, it started out in Southeast Asia; they were in Thailand, they were in Malaysia. Now it’s around the world, and they’re taking billions of dollars. In fact, at a recent conference for fraud investigators that I personally attended, there was an FBI agent who said that the amount of money from Pig butchering that is earned by the country of uh I believe it was Vietnam is more than the um gross national product because that’s a big industry for them. It’s a huge, huge drain on consumer finances. Some people have lost their entire life savings, their retirement, their children’s college funds.

Red Flags to Watch For
So be very careful about these inquiries you get or these things you find on social media. If a scammer tries to get you to talk to them on Telegram app or WhatsApp instead of by regular email or phone, that’s a red flag. If they’re offering you huge returns, that’s a red flag. If the amount of investment keeps escalating, that’s a red flag. Check with your bank, check with an attorney, check with an investigator. Our website, you can do a consultation with a licensed private investigator to review your case to see what might be happening with your investment.

Recovery Options and Awareness
Also, there’s uh recovery efforts; if you catch it soon enough, you might be able to do a recovery of assets, a financial fraud kill chain, or maybe you report it to IC3, or maybe you do asset recovery or funds recovery. You really have to pay attention because these scammers do this for a living, so they know exactly how to push your button, so to speak, to get you to basically send them all your money. Sometimes it starts out as a romance scam on a dating app; sometimes it starts out on a forum for you know, vehicle, you know, classic car enthusiasts.