Internet scams are the order of the day, sad as it may be. In fact, there are all types, from those that represent blatant cases of phishing, to those that use the possibilities of social networks to take advantage of users. But as is often the case in these cases, some may be considered more dangerous than others.
In this sense, it is worth highlighting the cases known as pig butchering. Another English term used to define what could be a double deception.
On the one hand, Criminals always have the same goal: to get your money, in this case resorting to the bait of cryptocurrencies. But in addition, there is also a marked emotional component.
What is pig butchering?
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Maintaining a romantic relationship over the Internet always entails risks. For example, someone only uses you to feed their ego and entertain themselves and ends up disappearing. However, there are cases that go further, and are already born with the criminal purpose of taking advantage of the naivety of others and taking your money. That is, full-fledged scams.
It is what is called pig butchering (something like “slaughter of pigs” translated into Spanish), and whose frequency has been skyrocketing for some time now.
The first thing you should know about this is that These types of scams usually develop slowly, so to speak, and begin as if it were a romantic relationship that arose over the Internet.
Cybercriminals, therefore, begin by gaining the victim’s trust, usually using fake profiles or even posing as people with a certain relevance or social status. They take advantage of the loneliness or emotional needs of others to essentially make the affected person fall in love over time, without rushing.
Once they have achieved this first objective, They propose the possibility of investing in an apparently solid and risk-free business, related to cryptocurrencies..
Of course, it is only a scam, and what they achieve is to obtain the funds of that network profile that, in a premeditated manner, they have seen as vulnerable to deception.
how to avoid the pig butchering love scam
As unromantic as it may sound, the best way to avoid suffering from a pig butchering scam It means being distrustful when meeting someone through the Internet, whether through social networks or through dating applications like Tinder. Even more so, if things flow quickly, perhaps too quickly, and you have the feeling that the other person is excessively kind and considerate.
Additionally, scammers naturally tend not to reveal their identities, or to falsify them, so they usually They will refuse to give evidence of themselves, for example by preventing you from seeing them via video call or giving you access to credible profiles. from other networks or more or less well-known sites on the Internet.
But above all, they distrust when a relationship leads to an economic operation, no matter how small or completely safe it may seem. Not even when it is a well-known platform, since it may have been impersonated.
