Victims in Singapore have lost more money to fake investment schemes than any other scheme in the last three years. Notably, he lost SGD 190.9 million last year to a Chinese cryptocurrency scam, the slaughter of pigs. This is more than five times his 36.9 million SGD in 2019. According to a Sunday Times report, scammers spend months building relationships with victims before asking them to invest in such schemes.
A recent variant that emerged in Singapore was a “pig slaughter” scam, the report said, adding that the Chinese word “sha zhu pan” means fattening up a pig before slaughter.
As the population expanded into Europe and the United States, fraud tactics evolved to keep up with the growing popularity of investing in cryptocurrencies. According to Singapore police, the victims mostly sent money to banks in China, including Hong Kong. “They were asked to pay administrative fees, security fees, or taxes in order to make a profit. was there,” the police said. There are no official data on how many pig slaughter scams are discovered each year in Singapore.
A term coined to describe fraud. Scammers spend months building relationships with their targets before persuading them to invest in bogus investment schemes. A Singaporean daily cited news reports that a pig slaughter scam in China began in 2016. At the time, scammers tricked victims into betting on fake gambling websites. The Chinese government cracked down on illegal gambling in 2018. But then scammers targeted the Chinese-speaking diaspora in Southeast Asia.
But reports say they are experts between the ages of 30 and 40. It lost SGD10.7 million, citing the non-profit Global Anti-Scam Organization (GASO), which was founded last May by victims of a pig slaughter scam and now has about 60 members in its Singapore chapter. About 70% of the victims were women between the ages of 25 and 40. Most of the victims were highly educated, with nearly 90% having a bachelor’s degree or higher.
Police also said they were working with foreign law enforcement agencies on a joint operation to neutralize the syndicate.
Volunteer advocacy group GASO says most pig slaughter scam victims have depleted their bank accounts and many have gone into debt. Casualties average $134,940 per person, according to the report, based on more than 400 victims interviewed by the organization from North America, Europe, Taiwan, and Southeast Asia. To combat investment fraud, Singapore authorities are using technology to identify potential victims and warn them by sending them targeted SMS alerts.
News Summary:
- Singaporeans are victims of “pig-butchering” of Chinese heritage Bitcoin scam
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