BBC Documentaries
The Pig Butchering Romance Scam
2023 • E27 Mar 6, 2023 50m
Each year, people around the world lose millions of dollars to a highly sophisticated scam known as 'the pig butchering romance scam'.
It takes its name from the victims, who scammers call 'pigs' - those they can 'fatten' before 'butchering'. Scammers target individuals on dating sites and social media, posing as attractive, successful professionals. They seduce and manipulate their victims, winning their trust before luring them to invest on sham cryptocurrency platforms.
But behind the fake online profiles is a much darker reality. Those conducting the scams often do so against their will, trafficked to huge, walled compounds in south east Asia. A new investigation by the BBC World Service’s investigations team BBC Eye takes you inside one of these scam compounds in Cambodia, where people from all over the world are locked up, beaten, starved and forced to scam - all at the hands of criminal gangs.
It takes its name from the victims, who scammers call 'pigs' - those they can 'fatten' before 'butchering'. Scammers target individuals on dating sites and social media, posing as attractive, successful professionals. They seduce and manipulate their victims, winning their trust before luring them to invest on sham cryptocurrency platforms.
But behind the fake online profiles is a much darker reality. Those conducting the scams often do so against their will, trafficked to huge, walled compounds in south east Asia. A new investigation by the BBC World Service’s investigations team BBC Eye takes you inside one of these scam compounds in Cambodia, where people from all over the world are locked up, beaten, starved and forced to scam - all at the hands of criminal gangs.