First of three parts (Investigative reporting from Current PH)
While the term “pig butchering” sounds alien to many Filipinos, it may be what was happening in the offices of Philippine offshore gaming operators (POGOs) that were raided and closed down in Bamban in Tarlac and Porac in Pampanga, and other locations in the country.
The POGO raid in Bamban also put the town’s mayor, Alice Guo, on the spotlight as the POGO facilities were just behind the municipal town hall and was constructed in a land that Guo supposedly owned.
And while there were allegations that the POGO facility in Bambam was used for spying operations, what emerged from the raid in Bambam are signs that pig butchering scams may have been conducted there.
The issue of pig butchering scams has been extensively reported and probed by a number of international and regional media organizations, and Southeast Asia has been pinpointed as one of the areas where pig butchering scams are conducted.
In the first place, what is a pig butchering operation or scam?
In its website, cybersecurity firm Kaspersky said that pig butchering combines investing, usually in cryptocurrencies, and fostering an online romantic relationship.
It all starts with the scammer fostering a romantic relationship with a potential victim, and this often lead to disastrous results later, as the supposed love relationship can succeed in making the victim fall in love with the scammer, and trusting the scammer greatly.
According to Kaspersky, the scammer then starts discussing financial topics and investing with the potential victim.
“Sooner or later, the scammer finds a way to steer the conversation toward financial topics. Specific approaches here may vary, but the general idea is that the scammer carefully presents the victim with an opportunity to make a profitable investment,” it said.
Research by currentph show that it is called a pig butchering scam as the victim is being “butchered” methodically, or scammed of his or her hard-earned money through a promise of big returns for an investment scheme, including cryptocurrency.
When the scammer succeeds in getting as much money from the victim, contact is stopped or blocked, making it impossible to recover whatever money was lost by the victim. Moving the money through cryptocurrency channels makes it harder to recover the money given to the scammer.
An article in Time Magazine published early this year, citing a study conducted by John Griffin, a finance professor at the University of Texas at Austin, and graduate student Kevin Mei, said that $75 billion culled from pig butchering scams globally were moved to crypto exchanges.
And while Africa was first identified as hosting pig butchering scam operations, Kaspersky said that criminal syndicates involved in the scheme operate largely in a number of nations in Southeast Asia, including the Philippines.
“The secret to this success is that, in the vast majority of cases, it’s not individual scammers who are behind pig butchering, but large criminal groups. These organizations run huge fraudulent “farms”, most often located in the least prosperous countries of Southeast Asia. Such farms exist in Laos and the Philippines, but most farms are in Cambodia and, above all, Myanmar, where a civil war has been going on for several years,” the cybersecurity firm said.
And the raids at the POGO hubs in Bamban, Porac and other locations reveal the presence of “torture” devices and chambers, which, according to numerous documentaries on the issue, are reportedly used to punish workers who refuse to scam victims or fall short of their targets. The typical torturer unmasked in the documentaries, many of which are published over YouTube, are linked to criminal organizations in China.
Another disturbing fact uncovered in the POGO hubs raided in the Philippines are the large number of illegal migrant workers from Asia, with many of them having a sad or horrible story to share on how they were exploited. These illegal migrant workers are also not allowed to leave the premises of the POGO hub involved in pig butchering scams.
The fact that a big number of illegal migrant workers end up working in POGOs also raises questions on how the government should regulate the operations of POGOs, as these should also contribute to local employment generation.
However, Filipinos working in POGO hubs undertaking pig butchering operations will make it impossible for the scammers to hide their illegal activities, as it would be impossible to keep Filipino workers locked up 24/7 inside a POGO facility.
(Watch out for the second part of this series, which will detail how a pig butchering scam is undertaken on a potential victim)
