This was the topic of an amazing podcast Scam Inc from the Economist
https://www.economist.com/audio/podcasts/scam-inc that I finished last week. It's subscriber only but absolutely worth it.
Key points are:
"Pig butchering" scams were developed and mastered by Chinese organized crime targeting chinese citizens first, before going worldwide.
The crime is industrialized with call centers with thousands of people working on this. Many of these people are victims themselves, doing this against their will, trafficked from all over the world. Most call centers are in asia/asia adjacent, but also in eastern Europe and near Ireland
Amount the scams steal is $500B<amount<$1T, more than all illegal drug trade in the world.
Money is then washed via incredibly clever ways including sports betting. In fact there is very heavy connection to rise of betting everywhere.
Final clean money is invested into real estate worldwide. Heck, my little island has fancy huge houses bought by chinese sitting empty all year long, likely from this.
Nobody is safe from scams, especially the older/lonelier people. And yes, it is very much a national security threat. The podcast called out Singapore for doing a government sponsored and very empowered task force to combat it. USA was called out for sitting complacently.
Listen to the podcast if you can. Great stuff.
Key points are:
"Pig butchering" scams were developed and mastered by Chinese organized crime targeting chinese citizens first, before going worldwide.
The crime is industrialized with call centers with thousands of people working on this. Many of these people are victims themselves, doing this against their will, trafficked from all over the world. Most call centers are in asia/asia adjacent, but also in eastern Europe and near Ireland
Amount the scams steal is $500B<amount<$1T, more than all illegal drug trade in the world.
Money is then washed via incredibly clever ways including sports betting. In fact there is very heavy connection to rise of betting everywhere.
Final clean money is invested into real estate worldwide. Heck, my little island has fancy huge houses bought by chinese sitting empty all year long, likely from this.
Nobody is safe from scams, especially the older/lonelier people. And yes, it is very much a national security threat. The podcast called out Singapore for doing a government sponsored and very empowered task force to combat it. USA was called out for sitting complacently.
Listen to the podcast if you can. Great stuff.