If people have all the time they need, what's the rush?
'Pig butchering' is a term to describe a kind of scam, named after the practice of fattening pigs before slaughter. The term symbolizes how scammers groom their victims. And in the modern-day of pig butchering, it involves scammers initiating contact through seemingly innocent "wrong number" text messages, hoping for the target to respond.
If the target does respond, the scammer will invest weeks or even months building trust.
In the end, the scammer will eventually lure the unsuspecting target into fraudulent cryptocurrency investments.
These investment schemes are completely fake. Once the victim has sent enough money, their so-called "friend" vanishes without a trace.
According to report, this global-scale scam has stolen an estimated $75 billion worldwide.
In other words, the campaign is huge
Cybersecurity firm Group-IB has uncovered dangerous fake trading apps in the iOS App Store and Google Play Store, used in this widespread pig butchering scam. These apps include:
- SBI-INT (iOS).
- Finans Insights (Android).
- Finans Trader6 (Android).
Group-IB says that the fake apps are in the "UniShadowTrade" malware.
The two Android apps have been downloaded more than 5,000 times. But what makes this campaign scarier, according to Group-IB, is the fact that the fake apps use the 'UniShadowTrade' malware.
Apps containing this malware can pretend to be legitimate cryptocurrency and trading apps.
This means that victims using these apps may believe they are sending money to a legitimate trading, cryptocurrency, or investment platform.
However, they soon discover that the funds they transferred to open an account were actually going straight to the scammers, who pocket the money for themselves.
After notifying both Apple and Google, the two companies have removed the aforementioned apps.
However, they're already downloaded by thousands of times before removal.
Beware of fraudulent trading apps! A recent #PigButchering scam was discovered on the #AppleStore & #GooglePlay. #Cybercriminals are exploiting trust in official platforms. pic.twitter.com/8R01MWkQ7I
— Group-IB Threat Intelligence (@GroupIB_TI) October 2, 2024
Pig butchering scams deceive users into believing they are earning high returns on their investments through a fake trading platform that displays false data, including fabricated profits.
Through sophisticated social engineering tactics, scammers are able to manipulate victims into willingly, and continuously sending more money while ensuring they don't attempt to withdraw the fake profits shown by the app.
Such manipulative operations often end with the victims losing their funds, and in some cases, extracting even more money from them by requesting various fees and other payments.
The people behind pig butchering are professionals, working in organized criminal networks that continue to operate with little interference.
John Griffin, a finance professor at the University of Texas at Austin, along with graduate student Kevin Mei, published research earlier this 2024 shedding light on these operations.
They discovered that scammers use complex methods to hide their activities, such as making multiple transactions, switching between cryptocurrencies, and bridging across different blockchains.
Tragically, pig butchering claims victims on both sides.
Along with defrauding individuals, the scam is often carried out by human trafficking victims, who are forced into scamming others from compounds in Southeast Asia.