The generation to lure other people into romance scams is becoming sophisticated, involving online dating apps, cryptocurrencies, foreign criminal organizations, and, in some cases, modern slavery. While would-be lovebirds have turned to virtual interactions since the COVID pandemic, scammers have made more vulnerable targets.
Joel Khalili, a crypto and technology journalist at Wired, recently spoke with 50-year-old Angeleno, whom he calls Evelyn (not her real name), who has been a victim of “pig butchery. “She lost $300,000. The police and her bank weren’t going to help her, so she asked Wired for help.
“This implies that the victim is fattened and finally euthanized. In this context, Evelyn reached out through Bruce on a dating app, Hinge. . . The two spent several weeks. . . to communicate about normal things. ‘What are you doing? What do you like?’ And so on.
After gaining her trust, Khalili says Bruce told her about being a spouse at a venture capital firm and running a crypto trading studio. He introduced himself to teach you how to invest in cryptocurrency, suggesting $4,000 in the first place. Later, expressing discomfort with the amount, he recommended part of that amount, or $2,000.
The two traded in combination on a fake cryptocurrency exchange, Khalili explains, where Bruce would tell him what to buy and trade. At one point, his fake account contained around $500,000. The situation changed when he tried to withdraw a significant amount of that money.
“[Bruce] got defensive. It has become useless. She tried to do it herself, without his help, and learned that the visitor was of no help and suddenly the online page was glitchy. That’s what set off alarm bells.
Finally, the retirement savings of the tired Evelyn.
“The $300,000 worth of cryptocurrency that I had sent to the CEG platform, as soon as you sent it, disappeared a long time ago. But those pantomimes were another facet of the scam, or some other way to convince you to stick around and invest more and more money. Basically, the concept is to completely sell someone before moving on to the next victim.
The Psychology of Scams
Khalili says this is an example of “hijacking” human emotions, where sufferers are manipulated into making bad decisions.
“The most brutal thing about these scams is that they take advantage of your vulnerability. By necessity, when you’re in the dating group, you want to open yourself up to meet new people and experience new things. And that’s part of how those types of scams work.
The scam also relies on a confirmation bias, where the victim assumes that the user they are connecting with is trustworthy. “Once that call is made, it can be quite tricky to convince them otherwise, which gives the scammer the freedom to push the envelope in a way that they might not otherwise be able to get through the door. “
Khalili emphasizes that intelligence plays no role in whether a user is vulnerable to such pranks. In Evelyn’s case, she had just gotten out of a two-decade relationship when she met Bruce.
“It’s more about the scammer’s ability to take advantage of their private context. In Evelyn’s case, it’s a recent and very nasty breakup. Because of that, she is inherently vulnerable in that state.
What makes those scams “even sadder,” Khalili notes, is that perpetrators occasionally fall victim to other crimes.
“They are trafficked to countries like Thailand, Myanmar, Nigeria and other countries in Africa and South Asia. They are lured in by promises of tasks. But at the end of the day, they’re forced into those call centers and they’re not allowed to leave them. And once they’re there, we give them a script and your task is to communicate with them in that context through Hinge. But it can be done in multiple mediums, right? This can be done through email or messaging apps. etc.
A small percentage of those who suffer “pig butchery” get their cash back, Khalili says. In Evelyn’s case, the Los Angeles Police Department said there wasn’t enough data to move forward with the case, pointing to fraudulent knowledge that was likely false.
“The truth is that crypto tracking experts are more likely to be in the personal sector, where salaries are higher than in the public sector. And secondly, I think it’s a question of resources. I think a lot of police departments around the world. . . incredibly under-resourced. And the truth about scams like this is that the volume is so huge that it can be overwhelming.
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