An Explorative Study of Pig Butchering Scams
Bhupendra Acharya, Thorsten Holz

TL;DR
This study comprehensively analyzes pig-butchering scams, revealing their social engineering tactics, scale, and impact, and emphasizes the need for multi-stakeholder efforts for detection and prevention.
Contribution
First extensive multi-source analysis of pig-butchering scams, combining social media, abuse reports, news, and surveys to understand their scope and characteristics.
Findings
Over $521 million in losses from scams
Identified 146 social media victims and 2,570 abuse reports
Scams involve sophisticated social engineering tactics
Abstract
In the recent past, so-called pig-butchering scams are on the rise. This term is based on a translation of the Chinese term "Sha Zhu Pan", where scammers refer to victims as "pig" which are to be "fattened up before slaughter" so that scammer can siphon off as much monetary value as possible. In this type of scam, attackers perform social engineering tricks on victims over an extended period to build credibility or relationships. After a certain period, when victims transfer larger amounts of money to scammers, the fraudsters' platforms or profiles go permanently offline and the victims' money is lost. In this work, we provide the first comprehensive study of pig-butchering scams from multiple vantage points. Our study analyzes the direct victims' narratives shared on multiple social media platforms, public abuse report databases, and case studies from news outlets. Between March 2024…
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Taxonomy
TopicsAnimal Behavior and Welfare Studies
