I want to raise awareness on this Pig Butchering (Romance) scam or Sha Zhu Pan in Chinese. So called because victims are patiently worked on everyday for 1-3 months before scamming them big time, like fattening up a pig before slaughter. Basically, the scammer induces the victim into putting more and more money into a shady investment platform.
They are seriously well-planned operations (latter half of this post) and have really been successful in the Chinese-speaking world, so much so that Sha Zhu Pan has become one of the top Chinese buzzwords in 2019-2020. Victims are scammed on average $50k, and millions have been lost. It’s a huge cottage industry that Chinese police has had a hard time stamping out. There are scores of recent news stories, blogs, video clips, and other media online about Sha Zhu Pan victims and scammers. Sadly, almost all are in Chinese. I think the rest of the world has to wise up to this, because now as most Chinese are becoming aware of this Pig-Butchering Scam, the scammers are turning their skills more towards non-Chinese, more so this year.
This first half is somewhat detailed, because since everyone is generally aware of romance scams, being vague won’t convince someone who is in the thick of it and thinks that his/her online friend is THE exception. Exposing specific details of the Pig Butchering scam is most convincing to current victims that the “spontaneous” events are actually planned.
Common tactics of the Pig Butchering scammer:
1️⃣ Greets you “good morning” and “good night” every day.
2️⃣ Always asks/share pictures of food. Their “home-cooked” food looks restaurant quality.
3️⃣ Are sole owners of beauty salons/restaurants/hospitals/apartments/businesses etc.
4️⃣ Casually talks about spending tens and hundreds of thousands of US dollars like no big deal (makes you feel small).
5️⃣ Typically by 2nd-3rd week of talking everyday brings up an investment/trading website.
6️⃣ Studied finance/accounting, or have uncle/aunt/brother/professor who taught them Forex/Crypto trading.
7️⃣ Talks a lot about fate and destiny.
8️⃣ Asks what are your material goals and dreams, and say you’re not dreaming big enough.
9️⃣ Trade on irregular schedules, based on a day’s “data”/candle stick charts/insider info. Sometimes they say “tomorrow’s data is not good, I’ll just go by myself”, sometimes “today is a go!” (to intrigue you).
1️⃣0️⃣ Laughs at how “small” your investment is.
1️⃣1️⃣ When some event causes huge losses for both you and the guy/girl, he/she suggests you borrow from the website.
1️⃣2️⃣ When you’re compelled by the website to pay some ridiculous amount, the guy/girl offers to “help” you pay half or so. You never see their money though because they pay directly to your “account”.
1️⃣3️⃣ Guilts you, blames you, gaslights you, flip out easily, shames your manhood/adulting skills/commitment to relationship, accuses you of character defects.
1️⃣4️⃣ Always have an excuse for not wanting to meet up or do video chat — bad experience with exes, pandemic, etc. Actually, they really can’t. They’re not where you think they are.
Common elements of shady trading platforms:
1️⃣ Highly responsive “customer service” online or on WhatsApp, available to chat 24/7. They are always so courteous and never break character, no matter how much verbal abuse you dish.
2️⃣ When you’ve put <$10,000, you can take your money and earnings in and out.
3️⃣ Offers large bonuses if you invest 30-100% more by a certain date soon (like “this weekend”).
4️⃣ Once you put in substantial amounts of money, the slaughter: You’ll never be able to take anything out ever again.
5️⃣ To pay back “reserve loans”, “taxes”, “verification fees”, anything, you have to pay from outside; they cannot be deducted from your “account” inside (they never say so beforehand).
6️⃣ Your “account” gets frozen for defaulting on loans, not passing verification, whatever. You have to pay in 7 days before they start deducting 10% everyday from your investment and “earnings”.
7️⃣ One time you send a large payment, they hurriedly tell you that you sent to a “retired” address!!! Later they decide you can make up for it by paying a ‘reduced’ amount.
8️⃣ Even if you pay everything, they’ll keep coming up with reasons to prevent withdrawals. But your investment inside has already doubled! So you can’t give up… and they’ll never run out of excuses.
When I said well-planned operation, everything has been scripted and tailored to your stereotype. Whether you a new college grad who never had a relationship, a lonely urban professional, a midde-aged recently divorced doctor, they have scripts for that. Generally, if you’re a man, the scammer shows lots of sexy pictures and act hot & cold. If you’re a woman, the scammer showers you with corny cliches and sweet nothings. Even the timing of when to call you cute names is planned (~2nd week). They make you think you’re making all the choices and “mistakes”. Maybe you weren’t so greedy for money initially, but they know human psychology.
They’re not some small outfit but a sophisticated corporate operations linked to Chinese triads (mafia) syndicates. They have head offices and branch locations. They have IT/telecom department, finance/money laundering department, and a “sales” department — the biggest in manpower– who do the day-to-day raising of “pigs”. They are salaried, have time-offs and get 10-40% commissions for successful slaughters. They have training manuals and scripts they update every so often. New recruits undergo classes in finance terminologies and ‘brain-washing’. Progress is reviewed daily in team or company meetings. Of course, implementation varies by skill level. Employees are actually treated harshly, and those who don’t make enough get punished.
The Pig Butchering / Sha Zhu Pan industry is thriving so much there are markets for fake dating profiles (~$20 for basic authenticated accounts to ~$100++ for complete package with pictures and social media history). Most pictures are pirated. Hosts are typically late teens to 20s jobless young men from mainland China without college degrees, recruited or misled by “online shopping” firms in Southeast Asia.
1) It doesn’t have to be Asian-looking picture (though their English are awkward translations from Chinese) 2) They add you by “mistake”. 3) They form investing “groups” with many fake members. 4) Your own friend is duped into recruiting you to invest also.
⚠️ Reminder: If you deposited your funds on a platform and they ask you to pay a “fee” or “tax” in order to withdraw your funds do not pay anything! It’s a trick to steal more funds from you.
Thats exactly what happens to me !! all what it says in this page. This has to be posted in main Page internet so no more people Faul in this trap.
Yes, Please Get this information out to the Masses!!!!
Hello
I’m living something similar with what is published here ! I’ve not been scammed..yet, but there are many similarities from begining of the text..the 2 weeks period to say so. In my case I already play on crypto market so it came more from me than it came from her (chinese woman).
Thank you for youre articol, I’ll be verry carefull regarding this situation and I’ll go with the discussions just to see if it confirms it ! :)) ..and just that !
PS the platform involved in my situation is hft-dapp.com
Take care all and sharing is caring !
BTW I forgot to share her number +1 (323) 315-2730 and she goes by the name “Winnie” after you talk with her, because “her friends and family are calling her like that” . On her FB she goes by the name of Agatha Chan
She will tell you that she is working as a Interior Design in USA and that she have investements in land properties and that she also invested in crypto and she wants to invest in gold in the future, “without paying taxes” (some people may fall for this type of situations..cheating the guverment, or being “smarter” than the goverment..no worries, goverment have theyre ways to always shake you for a few bucks, so don’t swheat too much on this ideea ;)..just a friendly advice ! 🙂 ). After some time she will show you pictures , short movies with her in “high life” situations like restaurants, spa etc and perhaps, like in my case, a video call when you sleep that is ringing just enough short to not hear it and still to remain in youre history, so you can see that she was willing to speak with you “live”. After all of this she will drop the “bomb” by sending a picture with “her earnings” from the “crypto investment” : large amounts, like 250k and 30% revenue in just 10 days . From that moment you may be verry tempted to “follow her way” ..just DONT DO IT ! “Play” with her, consume her time so she can not have time to scam inocent people .. that is what we all can do ..to waste her time !
What is verry important is that she’s not telling you to go to hft-daps.com , she’s just manipulating you with a simple picture in order for you to self-convince that is “the deal of youre life” and she will help you with all the steps because she consider you a “good friend”..just after 2 weeks of internet small talks..geeez, people..we all have to wake up and return to reality in situations like that !
Remember, her job is to gain youre trust..that is the most important factor in her/theyr scheme…. YOUR TRUST ! From there is only your choice..if we even think about, she is not even guilty in front of the law !!! “She only showed you her income and her way to make money and you decided to go further, therefore you are responsible for youre actions and losses !” That is what police may say to you when you are going to file a complaint ! 🙁
Stay safe folks !
Best regards,
FromEuropeWithLove
I got scammed for 100 usdt. We matched on Tinder and talked for 2-3 weeks. I allready had crypto so i transferred to ethblockchain.site. i allready had a bad feeling but it was not much and money i allready wasted. She wanted me to invest more i told her yes i will do when my salary came, when my salary came she asked me again if i had invested yet. I allready had a bad feeling so i told her next month xD at that point she snapped and told me i was stupid wasting something like this. And then i told her “you just proved me right”. We both blocked each other, but i was not finished with her. So i told my sister to write her a message and that i thought this was one of my better investments in life, and that im glad i could waste 3 weeks of her life. I also told her i would never work for 33dollars aweek myself and that i hoped she could keep it all to herself. She also then asked about my girlfriends big zize surgery, if she should pay for it. Then i could tell her it was all a lie because i dident want to get scammed. Kinda feelt good owning her at the end 😀
I’m in the same situation right now. I’ve invested $2k so far and almost invest $20k but I read this. I’m in the process of withdrawing my money, hopefully they let me. I’ve already purchased a ticket to Singapore to go visit my girlfriend in June 26 lol, but I can cancel the ticket and get a refund. She uses a translator and we only text. The site is the non existent selling platform Tiktokglobalselling and they take USDT. After I pulled out the money I’ll tell her about this, she is either a scammer or somebody scammed her too.
Am very curious about what happened since. They have accepted my withdraw ( another plateform) and they have put me in a queue line reimbursement
私は合計53000USTDを騙し取られました。
初めはテレグラフからメッセージか入りとても親切で友好的な話し方
などから毎日テキストの交換をする様になりました。
ある日コインビスのことを勧めてきだしたので
私はもう絶対その手のことはしないと言い続けていましたが
毎日毎日の優しいテキストで根負け言われるまま投資を初めてしまいました。
入金後1週間足らずでログインもできなくなりました。
尋ねても私も同じ被害にあっているから知り合いのハッカーに依頼して
お金を取り戻せる様依頼するからあなたも2500USTDいるから払ったら
全額戻してくれるはずだと言われわらおもつかむつもりで
新たに2500払いましたが、次またってきたのでこれはおかしいとおもい
ブロックしましたがもうあとの祭りでした。
総額55500USTDの被害にあいました。
涙涙です。
私は始めテレグラフでとても友好的かつ親切に友達になって欲しい
と言う様なテキストから始まり毎日毎日優しいテキストが来る様になって
次第に仲良くなっていきました。
2週間ほど立った日にコインビスの自分のしている投資話を話してきました。
私はその手の事を信用しないから大丈夫と言ってことわっていたのですが
毎日毎日自分の投資トレード結果を送ってくる様になり少しぐらいは。。
の気持ちでやり出したらその金額では夢に近づくのに時間がかかりすぎるから
と言う事で結局53000USTDを入金してしまいました。
今から思えば言葉巧みに心を操られていたと言うのかマインドコントロールされていました。
結局1週間足らずでログインできなくなり
それを言ったら自分も被害にあっていてログインできないので
知り合いのハッカーに依頼してお金を取り戻すそのためには
ハッカーの給料がいるからあなたも2500USTD必要だと言われ
新たにわらおもすがるおもいで2500USTD支払いました。
合計55500USTDという大金を騙し取られてしまいました。
完全なプロの仕業でたとうちできませんでした。
涙涙の老後資金です。
Experienced simililar behaivior as described above. She told me to guide me throughout the process of investment. Claimed to be an American girl (California) with pictures on Instagram . She claimed also that she had been living in the UK. She Directed me to birminingcotrade.com and explained how to invest with crypto currency. I started small to try it first. All what is described above got going. Asking to invest more. Big, to get more out of the trade. When I wanted to withdraw the shown as “profits “ amount they were asking for additional down payment to unlock the payout. She was explaining to loan me the half of the amount after I explained that I have no money left to invest. She asked me if I am able to borrow it from one of my friends. Reading all of the Blog and your posts reminds me what happened during chat last 7 days.
On an online dating app (Tinder) a Chinese girl was very forthcoming and over time we developed a relationship over WhatsApp, unassuming I was then introduced to this platform from here eth.infonet.io, where the promise of profits to be made through mobile phone mode mining, initially she showed me how to set up my wallet and account with Binance and start out with 500usdt. With this money I allowed the platform to have access to it with my Trust wallet and over a few weeks I gained some profit from this which I was able to withdraw freely. I then thought this was safe to add more funds to gain more profit from the mining then one day I noticed to funds were no longer in my wallet (3300usdt) equivalent to that in USD. I was then unnerved by this and was told to contact the customer service within the app by my Chinese “friend”. It turned out I had been randomly selected as a lucky user to be part of staking which my funds would be lock for 14 days and I would be able to access once my stake mining period was over. After 14 days had my account had funds within the platform of around 9000 USDT, this was a surprise to me. I then asked to withdraw my funds and I was met with fee which I had to pay “rental access fee” for around 2000usdt thinking that would be that and I would be able to access my funds. Low and behold I was then met with another fee for around 3000usdt , then another, then another and then another, finally I was at a point where I’d spent around 12000 USDT in fees and was met with a security deposit I have to pay for 5500. At this point I realise this is too much and I do not trust this platform as there’s no way of knowing they won’t add another fee to release my funds which puts me in a vulnerable position, financially and mentally. Only having to accept that I may never see my 15000$ ever again
The same thing happens to me, they start by contacting me about Real State as I am a Realtor.
Became very friendly with the morning emails and good night ones too
Start by showing you how much she can do with very little initial money telling you that the analytics calculate your profit and if you double your investments you can double your profits.
I invested 150K she wants me to go to 200K I did not have it she offer to give me 50K from her wallet so I can get a profit way higher.
with him less than 30 days my initial 150K with her 50K became 637K
I decide to withdraw 500K to pay her back and leave 137K to continue with the trade nodes. so trying to complete the withdrawal they keep adding penalties of 34K for not paying on time you pay penalties they came up with 54K because the person that I meet here gave 100K to pay the remaining taxes and they told me that is the VERIFY fee to be refunded within 3 days but they need to make sure is not a MONEY LAUNDRY
so I came up with my final 15K and she was going to put in the 39K so we can get the funds to pay her back and she will come to Florida to meet
after payment, of the 15K and the platform confirmed she went silent I try to contact the platform which also went silent .
So adding up all my cash it was close to 400K US Dollars.
But is not over yet we need to be united against them so it will be nice
if we can create a group for it .
Because according to US government organs, you need to be at 1 million or over for them to get involved and that is absurd .
So what you say is we all get together so we can recover our funds i believe it can be done. so contact us.
Yes, I was scammed the same way as you were. We do need to be United to get these heartless criminals!
The scammer in my case Lunneta Moon +66 99 347 1527
The scammer in my case was Lunneta Moon
Hello,
With this post i want to warn other people for the Trustwallet mining scam. And i want to prevent they make more victims. Because i have been scammed myself, i know how they work and have some details about them.
At first, they start to connect with you via Social Media. In my case it was a girl who called herself Lunneta. She called herself Irene on social media, asks quickly to talk on whatsapp, tells you her real name is Lunneta ( Facebook ) then starts a long conversation with you and asks after some subjects if you want to make money through mining. She helps patiently with installing all the apps.
Be warned, scammers are very patient if they think there is a small chance you could fall into their trap. After some days and failures i finally got the app installed. So far, so good, because there wasnt any scam at that point. The scam starts when they tell you about mining and the real money you can make there. Dont believe the amounts of money, they are too good to be true, i wasnt 100% at the time so i didnt investigate and didnt think twice.
You can access the mining pool through a direct link into the app and thats where the scam starts. They have build it all very professionally. You start with investing a high amount, in my case it was Eth and usdt. They have build a fake site where you can see all profits going up, a withdraw button and some statistics. But be warned, everything is fake. The withdraw button is only to let you think a withdraw is possible, but every investment and every fee you pay is for them and you will never see it again.
While the mining takes some time, the girls mostly try to make you believe there is a meet up possible in the future, maybe even a relationship and all other good things. She tells you she wants to become rich with this mining and wants you to become it too. Sbe tells you she will donate to charity when she becomes rich, well she is richer now but not as rich as she wants, so lets hope she donates my money to charity but i doubt it. A good moment to recognize is that most scammers will show a fake pic they are mining too, but they hide their Trustwallet ID.
I hope you have been warned. Dont go into this. If i can save at least one person from sending them ( more ) money i am happy.
If the person on the picture is NOT the scammer, she can contact me with proof and i will delete you. But i still decided to publish as there is a high chance she is a scammer and uses her real pictures, so its very important to warn people for me. And if the is not the scammer then she at least knows who is using her photos.
PS. Cant post pictures of her here unfortunately but her phone number is from Thailand +66 99 347 1527
So Glad I came across this article, as I hav e been going through this exact type of nightmare.
In my case the name she goes by is Aurora, she Korean living in L.A.
The strange thing is that she contacted me by my own mobile phone number.
I have no idea how she got it, so I suspected one of my Korean friends recommended me to her, as I have many Korean and Japanese friend through my activities.
Then she recommends we communicate on WhatsApp, later onTelegram, 1(442)204-9364
She started by forming a casual friendship, then subttly mentioning that I must have a wonderful wife since I am such a nice guy. Upon me stating Im not married she started with little words like Dear, and Honey, darling, and started to talk about travel and attraction, started sending me photos etc.
Then she started asking about my financial and work plans, and if I though my work provides me with enough security.
When I said not really, she proceeded to tell me how she has been investing in currency crypto trade and real estate and how I could do it too, either for some extra☺️ funds or so I could not have to work regular job, just invest a couple times a week.
SoShe introduced me to some online wallet apps, like Crypto.com and Metamask, and especially Enkuu.com where the actual trading was done.
Metamask is for bringing in funds from bank accounts, then moved to Enkuu.com for actual trade in ETH/USDT then the profits can be moved into crypto.com to be put back into my bank account.
We did a few trades starting with about $500, making good returns, went up to 2k the $5k. Made about15% profit on every trade. She then said she makes tens of thousands on every trade, and that I’m trading to small.
Upto this point I had no trouble moving funds back into my account.
Then she recommends that I get credit card money on loan to invest then pay the loan off immediately.Or even better I ask Enkuuu.com for a loan of 20k.
I do, They give it immediately, it just appears in your Enkuuu wallet.
So now I was trading with about 15kUSD .
Made over 33k USD. in 2 weeks of trading. About 4 or 5 trades. So my total funds in enkuu.com are 58,800. USD
After 2 weeks the loan starts to charge 2.5 % interest per day, So I wanted to pay it off. When the girl, Aurora, started disappearing, ghosting, and not being helpful in going with moving my funds.
She suggested I visit Enkuuu customer care.
They said I need to pay $300 fee. and the I would have to pay 20k from my bank account to have access to my funds in enkee.com
So my funds are stuck, pretty sure I won’t get it back.
All I wanted to do was pay back my loans. Now I have to just accept the loss of a months salary, and lots of wasted time.
The worse thing is the false hopes that they instil.
One feels so violated.
I’m so glad I came across this article,
we need to spread this warnings all around.
Exact same Situation happend to me. Met her on Tinder, she wanted to show me how she is earning easy money with doing 2-3 orders / day. It was about gain the trust. After I was “in” the trading platform on H-BEX.com everything was great, profit raised. I was animated to take next step. Till the time for withdraw came. My ammount was frozen and I was asked to pay enormous comission fee to let the profit be relased. Thats the point where I stoped and then found this page. I wish I had checked earlier for it.
I thought I have established a pattern, but it looks like this article has beaten me to it. I have dealt with a number of these losers. The first one almost got me, but if it is too good to be true then it is. That old saying got me safe.
Another thing to add to the article, unless it is added already, is that there are always two people coordinating. One that speaks romantically to you and the other one with almost flawless verbiage on how the investment works. At that stage you will “feel” the difference.
Best action to do is when you get a message, from whatever platform, ask them are if they are going to give investment advice (crypto, currency, gold). If they protest or not answer or acknowledge it, then report them on all platform (you may be in one, but they will insist on moving to another one for their convenience, so get them both).
I can actually predict when they know they will not get anything. They are very, very predictable. It is funny, I just shut one down before this reply and used their words against them. Now I am going to nail another one.
Happy hunting!