Meta removes over 2 million accounts pushing pig butchering scams

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Meta announced that it has taken down 2 million accounts across its platforms since the beginning of the year that are linked to pig butchering and other scams.

Most of these accounts originate from Myanmar, Laos, the United Arab Emirates, the Philippines, and Cambodia, which is known for hosting "scam slave" operations.

"These criminal scam hubs lure often unsuspecting job seekers with too-good-to-be-true job postings on local job boards, forums and recruitment platforms to then force them to work as online scammers, often under the threat of physical abuse," explains Meta.

The primary type of scam carried out by these accounts is 'pig butchering,' a particularly damaging financial investment scam relying on long-term manipulation and advanced deception.

Meta removed these accounts from its ecosystem and partnered with law enforcement agencies in those countries to share intelligence to disrupt the scam operations at their core.

Scams on social media
Meta says 'gangs in the Asia Pacific primarily conduct pig butchering' scams but target users worldwide.

The tech giant has been reportedly actively fighting this problem on its platforms for over two years now, seeing an expansion of cybercrime gangs from Cambodia to other places like Laos, Myanmar, and the UAE.

The perpetrators, be they forced or conscious, pose as attractive single people or members of government agencies and large companies.

They send out generic messages to a large number of users (via DM, SMS, or email), hoping that some of them will respond, a tactic known as 'spray and pray.'

Those who engage with the scammers, enter a spiral of deception that takes them to fraudulent investment platforms that appear legitimate but display falsified returns and do not allow money withdrawals apart, maybe from an early exception during the trust-building phase.

source : 
https://www.ic3.gov/AnnualReport/Reports...Report.pdf
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/se...ing-scams/

by @Nuttela

by @chatgptstore

by @Gi4npy