Digital swindles like Criminals make billions from romance and business email scams. And they all start with a little bit of “social engineering” to trick a victim into doing something disadvantageous, whether that’s trusting someone they shouldn’t or sending money into the void. Now, a new variation of these schemes, known as “pig butchering,” is on the rise, ensnaring unsuspecting targets to steal all of their money and operating at a massive scale thanks in large part to forced labor.

Scams involving pig butchering originated in China. They are now known as the Chinese translation of the phrase shāzhūpán because of an approach in which attackers essentially fatten victims up and then take everything they’ve got. These schemes are usually cryptocurrency-based, but they could also involve financial trading. 

Cold-contact scammers use SMS messaging or other forms of communication to contact people. Often they’ll simply say “Hi” or something like “Hey Josh, it was fun catching up last week!” If the recipient responds to say that the attacker has the wrong number, the scammer seizes the opportunity to strike up a conversation and guide the victim toward feeling like they’ve hit it off with a new friend. Once they establish a rapport with the victim, they will tell them that the attacker has been investing a lot in crypto-currency and encourage the target to get involved.

After convincing the target, the fraudster sets them up using a fraudulent app or website platform. This may appear trustworthy but could even pretend to be legitimate financial institutions. The portal allows victims to view real-time market data, which is often used to demonstrate the investment’s potential. And once the target funds their “investment account,” they can start watching their balance “grow.” Crafting the malicious financial platforms to look legitimate and refined is a hallmark of pig butchering scams, as are other touches that add verisimilitude, like letting victims do a video call with their new “friend” or allowing them to withdraw a little bit of money from the platform to reassure them. This is the same tactic used by scammers in old Ponzi schemes.

Although there are new twists to the scam, you still can see where it’s headed. The attackers will shut the account down and make off with all the cash and any loans they are able to get.

“That’s the whole pig butchering thing—they are going for the whole hog,” says Sean Gallagher, a senior threat researcher at the security firm Sophos who has been tracking pig butchering as it has emerged over the past three years. “They go after people who are vulnerable. People who suffer from long-term illness, are elderly, or feel lonely are some of their victims. They want to get every last bit of oink, and they are persistent.” 

While it takes some communication and relationships building to get pig butchering scams under control, research shows that China’s crime syndicates created playbooks and scripts which allowed them the ability to transfer large scale work onto victims of human trafficking or inexperienced scammers.