‘Pig butchering’: Woman loses $150k to scam on rise in Australia
A divorcee who lost $150,000 to a man on Tinder has shared the warning signs of an “elaborate” dating scam on the rise in Australia.
A recent divorcee who lost almost $150,000 to an “elaborate” romance scam has shared the warning signs she ignored – as victim numbers rise in Australia.
Rebecca Holloway, 42, fell prey to a cruel scam that’s sweeping dating apps known as “pig butchering” – a term that refers to a months-long scheme to “fatten up” victims on the premise of a fake relationship before “butchering” them with fake investment advice.
Although pig butchering scams originated in China, the lucrative scam method has been used to extort large sums of money from Australians, with perpetrators often finding targets on popular dating apps or through WhatsApp.
In Rebecca’s case, the US-based woman met French entrepreneur “Fred” on Tinder shortly after the demise of her second marriage.
After matching on the app in March, the pair quickly moved to text, with Rebecca explaining she was drawn to his attentive messages.
It wasn’t long before Fred, who supposedly had a career in economics, began discussing his cryptocurrency investments.
“Looking back, the signs are so obvious. But at the time you want to believe it’s real,” she told DailyMail.com.
“Single women approaching middle-age are so vulnerable.
“We have money but we might not have met the right guy yet. And suddenly this good-looking man starts talking to you and you’re excited.”
Initially, Rebecca only invested small amounts, handing over $1500 to Fred, which immediately saw healthy returns.
But this is all part of the ruse, explained Satnam Narang, a senior research engineer at exposure management company Tenable.
“Instead of like taking you to a traditional cryptocurrency website, they take you to a website that is owned by them,” he told news.com.au.
“[The fake Crypto site] has been created and designed to make it look like you’re earning a ton of money by investing into this website.
“But in actuality, your money has been pilfered away.”
Narang said unlike other investment scams that just “nip at the heels” of their unsuspecting victims, pig butchering is all about “big money”.
“They use things like taxes and other things in order to take your money out because when you see these staggering numbers on screen, you’re earning hundreds of thousands of dollars you want to withdraw.
“But in order to do that there is a catch.
“You gotta pay these taxes, You gotta pay this fee, and it just continues to add up.”
Narang said losses of over $200,000 were not uncommon as a result, adding that the number of victims in Australia is now “pretty high”.
Sydney woman Anne* said she lost $46,000 to a man she met on Tinder when she decided to “put herself out there” and try online dating after becoming unexpectedly single last year.
Eventually, Anne met “Carlos”, a Spanish man supposedly living in the same city as her, where he ran an importing and exporting business.
Carlos stood out because unlike other guys on the dating app, he “wasn’t interested in sex” – but it didn’t take long for him to mention cryptocurrency.
As the pair began chatting on WhatsApp every day, sharing personal messages about their lives, Carlos also encouraged Anne to set up an account with an online cryptocurrency exchange.
After she put $1000 in, Carlos directed her to transfer the cryptocurrency she bought to an account on another website, which showed she had building “profits”.
“I remember one day he showed me I had $15,000 in profits,” she told 9 News in December.
“[But] I couldn’t withdraw until I put more money in, and that was pretty much a big red flag to me.”
In total, Anne poured in $46,000 – almost all of her life savings – and despite her attempts to “withdraw” it from Carlos, she never saw her money again.
“I felt so stupid and shameful about this whole thing,” she said.
“I’m so stressed all the time, it has really put me in a really bad mental state.
“I used to be very outgoing, but even my friends have no idea the level of damage this has done to me.”
Rebecca uncovered the truth about “Fred” in a similar manner, but only after she’d cashed out her retirement fund, and plunged almost $150,000 into the fake “investment”.
Alarm bells only rang when she met up with a friend for dinner and shared the details of her blossoming relationship, including the fact she’d never met Fred but had handed over all her savings.
“My friend told me about pig butchering scams and that’s when I realised what had happened,” she told DailyMail.com.
“It felt like a movie where suddenly everything around me blurred and became distorted. I didn’t even try to withdraw my money, I knew at that point it was gone.”
Tinder told news.com.au the company had a “zero tolerance” for romance scammers.
“We’re saddened to hear of anyone who has fallen victim to a romance scam when seeking a real connection,” the spokesperson said.
“We have a zero-tolerance policy for this type of behaviour and are constantly investing in ways to keep members safe while they’re using Tinder – including a robust suite of safety features and in-app safety education, fraud detection technology, and working directly with law enforcement when needed.
“Scams and frauds are the enemy of genuine connection, and exposing these offences makes our entire community stronger.
“We strongly encourage members to report any suspicious behaviour to us directly so we are able to identify, stop, and remove these criminals.”
Narang said that while there’s very little victims can do once their money is in the hands of scammers, there are warning signs you can spot before that happens.
“If anybody on a dating app is trying to get you to invest your money into something – That’s a huge red flag,” he said.
He also said if you had any hint of suspicion regarding financial advice on dating apps, disengage, block and report the accounts immediately.
“When red flags start to go off in your mind, or you feel like something’s off – trust your instinct,” he concluded.
Tinder also has resources for users to help “spot a scammer”, which details telltale signs of nefarious behaviour and tools to protect before a con has even commenced.
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