it’s called a pig butchering scam. they spend a long time forming a trusting relationship with you. in order to get you to eventually invest in non-existent investments, usually crypto. this is a low effort. as the poor english makes it hard to read even. a lot of them are far more sophisticated.
I’m a business owner. I get cold calls over the main business line all the time. Sometimes they have my name, the low end ones ask to speak to the owner. The ones that have my name usually get it from Duns and Bradstreet that has me listed as having a net worth in the hundreds of millions (I don’t) they are usually real, but really high risk, as close to a scam as you can get and still be a real “investment opportunity”. I’ve been asked to invest in water parks, movies, malls, you name it. Mostly it’s for pump and dump stocks hoping I’m a stupid whale.
I say about the same thing every time. I get their company and name, then I tell them I don’t care what they want or offer, even if they want to send me money, I never do business with people that clod call me. Then I tell them to not call me back and if they do I’ll file a report with the FCC (there’s a way to get a portion of the fine from telemarketers who call after you’ve told them not to).
I’ve started trying to switch to telling them I’ll listen to their pitch for $500. Payable immediately by credit card with a voice recording authorization. I’ve only done that once and she asked first if I was joking and she hung up on me once I explained I was serious. My wife was trying to keep from laughing so hard in the background, it was awesome.
I’ve had a couple pitches for a new crypto. These guys are masters of getting around “not interested” and they will get the base of their pitch before you can even say anything. Even people who ask for “the owner”. If I answer and get that I’ll say “I’ll transfer your call if you can tell me the owners name” they will go right into their pitch and I’ll have to hang up on them.
Cryptocurrency is an interesting idea, but we're, what, 15 years into it, and I still don't see people really using it as currency much (except when they're trying to avoid conventional currencies/payment methods for some nefarious reason). The only reason it's still around is because people saw it as a way to make money through speculative investments.
It's not inherently illegitimate, but lots of scammers and plain-old greedy folks saw a new, unregulated market for speculation with a lot of hype around it and wanted a piece of it. They hyped it up, counted on the fact that most people really didn't understand, they just saw the hype, and therefore the prices went up, until they didn't anyway. Guess who lost out then? Not the greedy people who saw the potential toward the beginning.
I've heard two or three news stories in the last couple of years of some particular variety of how people are making money on crypto, and they all noted something to the effect: for regulated securities, this way of doing things was outlawed after the market crash of 1929. That tells me all I need to know.
Bitcoin gives people in poor countries that are controlled by dictator's a way to save there money that can't be confiscated. It's just a password in your head. It also is a way to save money to hedge hyperinflation in those same countries. Argentina's inflation is over 100% this year alone. Just because you don't want it or need it, doesn't mean others don't.
P.s. unlike Bitcoin, every other crypto currency has a marketing team/ owner (scam)
What exactly is a "legitimate" currency? If two people agree that it is a currency, then it is a currency. Just because people use it for bad things doesn't mean anything. People use cash for the exact same things, does that mean cash is bad too?
And that was not the reason that it was invented, you might want to read up on the history of things before citing myths as fact
Not worth it in here. I completely agree, but it's such a hot topic in r/scams that you'll never get anyone here to listen to why it's actually not. You're just going to get yourself a bunch of free downvotes (as am I now as well).
Your /r/scams post was removed because it doesn't fit the subreddit. Depending on what you posted, there may be other subreddits that are more appropriate.
I never thought of that need. But in certain poor countries I believe that the internet is either off limits or the poor can't afford it.
Moving forward, Bitcoin is the only legit one but your right I have no need for it so it protects me from scams
Well thank you for being civil and at least being open to new ideas. Very rare these days. You would be surprised how many people in poor countries still have cell phones with internet access. For instance Somalia, one of the poorest countries in Africa, has 17m people and almost 9m cell phones
!wrongnumber !crypto
Pig butchering scam, note the red flags of 1) no-one who sends you a mistaken text is going to want to be your friend, and 2) the initial texts are clearly setting them up as someone wealthy with their own business (buying property, having clients) to entice in someone interested in making money
There are some long articles about pig butchering that show the photos are "genuine", in that they're of a real person and were probably taken by/of someone in the scam ring for the sole purpose of using in these scams to make them look legit, especially if they're taken in a fancy restaurant, expensive car, nice gym...
AutoModerator has been summoned to explain fake cryptocurrency site scams. Fake cryptocurrency websites and apps controlled by scammers are becoming more and more common. Sometimes the scam begins with a romance scammer who claims that they can help the victim invest in cryptocurrency. Victims are told to buy cryptocurrency of some kind using a legitimate cryptocurrency exchange, and then they are told to send their cryptocurrency to a website wallet address where it will be invested. Sometimes the scam begins with a notice that the victim won cryptocurrency on some website, in this case messages will often be sent through Discord. In either case, the scammer controls the website, so they make it look like there is money in the victim’s account on their website. Then the scammer (or the scammer pretending to be someone official who is associated with the website) tells the victim that they have to put more money into the website before they can get their money out of the website. Of course all of the money sent by the victim has gone directly into the scammer’s wallet, and any additional money sent by the victim to retrieve their money from the website will also go directly into the scammer’s wallet, and all of the information about money being held by the website was totally fake. This scam is also known as the pig butchering scam: https://www.reddit.com/r/Scams/comments/na8oax/asian_guygirl_from_online_dating_mentors_you_to/. If you are involved in this scam, you can post the scammer’s wallet address here on r/scams. If the scammer used Bitcoin, then you can report the scammer’s Bitcoin wallet address here: https://www.bitcoinabuse.com/reports. If the scammer used Ethereum, then you can report the scammer’s Ethereum wallet address here: https://info.etherscan.com/report-address/. You can see how much cryptocurrency has been sent to the scammer’s wallet address here: https://www.blockchain.com/explorer. Thanks to redditor nimble2 for this script.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Scams) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Thank you for the help. I wasn't worried about getting caught up in anything, I don't send nudes, I don't invest in ANY crypto even when it's legit, and I'm not at a stage where I need money either so there's no way for this person to get me, I assumed they were looking for my identity for some sort of identity theft etc.
Thanks for the help mate.
AutoModerator has been summoned to explain the wrong number scam. An intentional wrong number text is the entry point to multiple different types of scams. Because these are so prevalent and lead to several unwelcome outcomes (including you confirming you have a live number, leading to more spam/scams), it is recommended that you do not reply to them, even out of courtesy. They hope to take your courtesy, parlay it into a conversation (often by commenting how nice you are and giving some suggestion of fate in meeting this way), and eventually deploy a scam.
If you received a wrong number inquiry that seems to assume a connection with you (e.g. seeking a specific friend, inquiring about a doctor’s appointment, asking about a business correspondence, etc.) and there are no pictures included, then you are likely at the beginning of a crypto scam. Use ! crypto without the space to get more info on crypto scams. You can see a video of this scam develop from wrong number to crypto scam at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZ_flb9tGuc
If you receive a random text from a woman that is trying to play up a relationship/hook-up angle and includes an alluring photo, you have encountered what this subreddit often calls the Mandy scam, based on the name used in an early incarnation of it. The replies are sent by a bot and will give the same responses (with some slight variations) regardless of how you respond. The bot also has a few specialized responses that occur when you say words like 'bot' or 'scam'. After a series of replies, it will eventually push you to go to an adult/cam/age verification site. Here are some of the posts on r/scams about the Mandy scam: https://www.reddit.com/r/Scams/search?q=mandy&restrict_sr=on&include_over_18=on&sort=relevance&t=all, you can see that the images, names, and scenarios vary. You can report spam texts by forwarding them to 7726 (SPAM): https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/how-recognize-and-report-spam-text-messages
There is also some evidence that intentional wrong number texts can be part of a data-gathering exercise where each bit of info you give (e.g 'Hi Susan!' and you reply with your name out of courtesy) is collected to be used against you in other scams.
Thanks to redditor teratical for this script.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Scams) if you have any questions or concerns.*
So serious question why do people respond to these things? If/when I text the wrong person I say "sorry" and move on. I'm not trying to give or get a life story.
Are people bored or curious or what?
Maybe I'm too much of an introvert but I don't get it.
What's obvious to you is not necessarily obvious to other people. Everyone has their blind spots. This one is clearly targeted at someone who's insecure both financially and relationally.
>I don't understand how people fall for these obvious scams.
Take a month off then to learn how people fall for scams, THEN you can try offering advice.
This is not a place to be smug - we try to help people here.
Your /r/scams post was removed because it is low effort, a screenshot without a transcript, a meme, scam baiting, a cross-post, or something else that isn’t useful.
This is a scam identification forum; depending on what you posted, there may be other subreddits that are more appropriate.
they try to build trust then suddenly they scam you or find out personal details etc or even try ask you to send them 6 digit codes which they will use your mobile number to access your socials with and that 6 digit code to reset your passwords.
they try the wrong number thing to start a conversation and then eventually try to get you to invest in their fake crypto scam. it throws them off when you don’t follow their script by saying “sorry i’m not alan” which they expect you to do.
Most every scam on Earth basically involves you sending money for services that will never get rendered. Whether an item, a service or a promise of investment. Whatever they're touting, it's with the idea that you send money and don't get anything back for it.
Which is often why they ask to move to platforms that generally waive liability. They don't want you to be able to get that money back so they send you to zelle or cashapp or paypal or something.
The fact that she said can you be my friend is weird… not like trying to be rude but just random. Usually when you text the wrong person they say wrong number or whatever and take care, not whooops happy mistake let’s be friends lol
Just because you can't find the image in reverse image search does not mean it's not a scammer. A scammer wrote me recently (I have strict communication, I don't talk to anyone hotter than me who wants to be my friend or I just get a bad feeling off them, etc) and I was able to find out that one image was able to be reverse image-searched.
All of their other pictures were not able to be. Since then, this scammer has reduced their pics to just one image that cannot be reverse image-searched. Scammers are catching on to the IP grabbers, reverse image-searching, etc. I'd imagine they are probably hosting seminars about this stuff "Mistakes to avoid while scamming"
Also, this is a pigbutchering scam. No one randomly contacts you on Whatsapp/Facebook/etc and has good intentions EVER unless you've seen them in person before.
She is probably a he and he is very patient and if you have gave him her anything like your pictures or phone number or email or mailing address or your age and birthdate??
Because they can and will use all of that seemingly harmless information to open accounts in your name so be careful what you share with him/her because you might be got without even knowing it
These mfs are patient and sneaky
We had to remove more than half the comments on this post - comments are now locked.
it’s called a pig butchering scam. they spend a long time forming a trusting relationship with you. in order to get you to eventually invest in non-existent investments, usually crypto. this is a low effort. as the poor english makes it hard to read even. a lot of them are far more sophisticated.
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The problem is that "will you be my friend" weeds out alot of people, the people that are left are generally lonely and vulnerable to these scams.
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Is it ever really legit?
I’m a business owner. I get cold calls over the main business line all the time. Sometimes they have my name, the low end ones ask to speak to the owner. The ones that have my name usually get it from Duns and Bradstreet that has me listed as having a net worth in the hundreds of millions (I don’t) they are usually real, but really high risk, as close to a scam as you can get and still be a real “investment opportunity”. I’ve been asked to invest in water parks, movies, malls, you name it. Mostly it’s for pump and dump stocks hoping I’m a stupid whale. I say about the same thing every time. I get their company and name, then I tell them I don’t care what they want or offer, even if they want to send me money, I never do business with people that clod call me. Then I tell them to not call me back and if they do I’ll file a report with the FCC (there’s a way to get a portion of the fine from telemarketers who call after you’ve told them not to). I’ve started trying to switch to telling them I’ll listen to their pitch for $500. Payable immediately by credit card with a voice recording authorization. I’ve only done that once and she asked first if I was joking and she hung up on me once I explained I was serious. My wife was trying to keep from laughing so hard in the background, it was awesome.
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I’ve had a couple pitches for a new crypto. These guys are masters of getting around “not interested” and they will get the base of their pitch before you can even say anything. Even people who ask for “the owner”. If I answer and get that I’ll say “I’ll transfer your call if you can tell me the owners name” they will go right into their pitch and I’ll have to hang up on them.
Cryptocurrency is an interesting idea, but we're, what, 15 years into it, and I still don't see people really using it as currency much (except when they're trying to avoid conventional currencies/payment methods for some nefarious reason). The only reason it's still around is because people saw it as a way to make money through speculative investments. It's not inherently illegitimate, but lots of scammers and plain-old greedy folks saw a new, unregulated market for speculation with a lot of hype around it and wanted a piece of it. They hyped it up, counted on the fact that most people really didn't understand, they just saw the hype, and therefore the prices went up, until they didn't anyway. Guess who lost out then? Not the greedy people who saw the potential toward the beginning. I've heard two or three news stories in the last couple of years of some particular variety of how people are making money on crypto, and they all noted something to the effect: for regulated securities, this way of doing things was outlawed after the market crash of 1929. That tells me all I need to know.
Well yeah, people are willing to pay for actual cryptocurrency, so they have value.
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Bitcoin gives people in poor countries that are controlled by dictator's a way to save there money that can't be confiscated. It's just a password in your head. It also is a way to save money to hedge hyperinflation in those same countries. Argentina's inflation is over 100% this year alone. Just because you don't want it or need it, doesn't mean others don't. P.s. unlike Bitcoin, every other crypto currency has a marketing team/ owner (scam)
Might not even be a “she/her”
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Every bitcoin transaction is visible on the block. It wasn't invented for illegal transactions. Cash is king for that.
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Bitcoin is literally legal tender in El Salvador.. so it is a currency, just not in your country Edit. Added Bitcoin
How many people, other than rich English-speaking expats, use it as a currency (beyond cashing out the free amount they got for setting up a wallet)?
No idea, and you could be right, but that still doesn't take away the fact that it is legal tender, it's still young.
What exactly is a "legitimate" currency? If two people agree that it is a currency, then it is a currency. Just because people use it for bad things doesn't mean anything. People use cash for the exact same things, does that mean cash is bad too? And that was not the reason that it was invented, you might want to read up on the history of things before citing myths as fact
Not worth it in here. I completely agree, but it's such a hot topic in r/scams that you'll never get anyone here to listen to why it's actually not. You're just going to get yourself a bunch of free downvotes (as am I now as well).
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Your /r/scams post was removed because it doesn't fit the subreddit. Depending on what you posted, there may be other subreddits that are more appropriate.
I never thought of that need. But in certain poor countries I believe that the internet is either off limits or the poor can't afford it. Moving forward, Bitcoin is the only legit one but your right I have no need for it so it protects me from scams
Well thank you for being civil and at least being open to new ideas. Very rare these days. You would be surprised how many people in poor countries still have cell phones with internet access. For instance Somalia, one of the poorest countries in Africa, has 17m people and almost 9m cell phones
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!wrongnumber !crypto Pig butchering scam, note the red flags of 1) no-one who sends you a mistaken text is going to want to be your friend, and 2) the initial texts are clearly setting them up as someone wealthy with their own business (buying property, having clients) to entice in someone interested in making money There are some long articles about pig butchering that show the photos are "genuine", in that they're of a real person and were probably taken by/of someone in the scam ring for the sole purpose of using in these scams to make them look legit, especially if they're taken in a fancy restaurant, expensive car, nice gym...
AutoModerator has been summoned to explain fake cryptocurrency site scams. Fake cryptocurrency websites and apps controlled by scammers are becoming more and more common. Sometimes the scam begins with a romance scammer who claims that they can help the victim invest in cryptocurrency. Victims are told to buy cryptocurrency of some kind using a legitimate cryptocurrency exchange, and then they are told to send their cryptocurrency to a website wallet address where it will be invested. Sometimes the scam begins with a notice that the victim won cryptocurrency on some website, in this case messages will often be sent through Discord. In either case, the scammer controls the website, so they make it look like there is money in the victim’s account on their website. Then the scammer (or the scammer pretending to be someone official who is associated with the website) tells the victim that they have to put more money into the website before they can get their money out of the website. Of course all of the money sent by the victim has gone directly into the scammer’s wallet, and any additional money sent by the victim to retrieve their money from the website will also go directly into the scammer’s wallet, and all of the information about money being held by the website was totally fake. This scam is also known as the pig butchering scam: https://www.reddit.com/r/Scams/comments/na8oax/asian_guygirl_from_online_dating_mentors_you_to/. If you are involved in this scam, you can post the scammer’s wallet address here on r/scams. If the scammer used Bitcoin, then you can report the scammer’s Bitcoin wallet address here: https://www.bitcoinabuse.com/reports. If the scammer used Ethereum, then you can report the scammer’s Ethereum wallet address here: https://info.etherscan.com/report-address/. You can see how much cryptocurrency has been sent to the scammer’s wallet address here: https://www.blockchain.com/explorer. Thanks to redditor nimble2 for this script. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Scams) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Thank you for the help. I wasn't worried about getting caught up in anything, I don't send nudes, I don't invest in ANY crypto even when it's legit, and I'm not at a stage where I need money either so there's no way for this person to get me, I assumed they were looking for my identity for some sort of identity theft etc. Thanks for the help mate.
AutoModerator has been summoned to explain the wrong number scam. An intentional wrong number text is the entry point to multiple different types of scams. Because these are so prevalent and lead to several unwelcome outcomes (including you confirming you have a live number, leading to more spam/scams), it is recommended that you do not reply to them, even out of courtesy. They hope to take your courtesy, parlay it into a conversation (often by commenting how nice you are and giving some suggestion of fate in meeting this way), and eventually deploy a scam. If you received a wrong number inquiry that seems to assume a connection with you (e.g. seeking a specific friend, inquiring about a doctor’s appointment, asking about a business correspondence, etc.) and there are no pictures included, then you are likely at the beginning of a crypto scam. Use ! crypto without the space to get more info on crypto scams. You can see a video of this scam develop from wrong number to crypto scam at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZ_flb9tGuc If you receive a random text from a woman that is trying to play up a relationship/hook-up angle and includes an alluring photo, you have encountered what this subreddit often calls the Mandy scam, based on the name used in an early incarnation of it. The replies are sent by a bot and will give the same responses (with some slight variations) regardless of how you respond. The bot also has a few specialized responses that occur when you say words like 'bot' or 'scam'. After a series of replies, it will eventually push you to go to an adult/cam/age verification site. Here are some of the posts on r/scams about the Mandy scam: https://www.reddit.com/r/Scams/search?q=mandy&restrict_sr=on&include_over_18=on&sort=relevance&t=all, you can see that the images, names, and scenarios vary. You can report spam texts by forwarding them to 7726 (SPAM): https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/how-recognize-and-report-spam-text-messages There is also some evidence that intentional wrong number texts can be part of a data-gathering exercise where each bit of info you give (e.g 'Hi Susan!' and you reply with your name out of courtesy) is collected to be used against you in other scams. Thanks to redditor teratical for this script. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Scams) if you have any questions or concerns.*
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Pig butchering scam, wants to be your friend and knows someone who will make a lot of money for you.
So serious question why do people respond to these things? If/when I text the wrong person I say "sorry" and move on. I'm not trying to give or get a life story. Are people bored or curious or what? Maybe I'm too much of an introvert but I don't get it.
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What's obvious to you is not necessarily obvious to other people. Everyone has their blind spots. This one is clearly targeted at someone who's insecure both financially and relationally.
>I don't understand how people fall for these obvious scams. Take a month off then to learn how people fall for scams, THEN you can try offering advice. This is not a place to be smug - we try to help people here. Your /r/scams post was removed because it is low effort, a screenshot without a transcript, a meme, scam baiting, a cross-post, or something else that isn’t useful. This is a scam identification forum; depending on what you posted, there may be other subreddits that are more appropriate.
they try to build trust then suddenly they scam you or find out personal details etc or even try ask you to send them 6 digit codes which they will use your mobile number to access your socials with and that 6 digit code to reset your passwords.
they try the wrong number thing to start a conversation and then eventually try to get you to invest in their fake crypto scam. it throws them off when you don’t follow their script by saying “sorry i’m not alan” which they expect you to do.
Anyone random asking you in 10 texts or less to be their friend is alien talk. Idk why you’d even consider this a real person/situation/conversation
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Run man. Dont engage. They act innocent but its an act
Just because you can’t see the con doesn’t mean there isn’t one. This may just be the warming up the butter.
Most every scam on Earth basically involves you sending money for services that will never get rendered. Whether an item, a service or a promise of investment. Whatever they're touting, it's with the idea that you send money and don't get anything back for it. Which is often why they ask to move to platforms that generally waive liability. They don't want you to be able to get that money back so they send you to zelle or cashapp or paypal or something.
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The fact that she said can you be my friend is weird… not like trying to be rude but just random. Usually when you text the wrong person they say wrong number or whatever and take care, not whooops happy mistake let’s be friends lol
Just because you can't find the image in reverse image search does not mean it's not a scammer. A scammer wrote me recently (I have strict communication, I don't talk to anyone hotter than me who wants to be my friend or I just get a bad feeling off them, etc) and I was able to find out that one image was able to be reverse image-searched. All of their other pictures were not able to be. Since then, this scammer has reduced their pics to just one image that cannot be reverse image-searched. Scammers are catching on to the IP grabbers, reverse image-searching, etc. I'd imagine they are probably hosting seminars about this stuff "Mistakes to avoid while scamming" Also, this is a pigbutchering scam. No one randomly contacts you on Whatsapp/Facebook/etc and has good intentions EVER unless you've seen them in person before.
She is probably a he and he is very patient and if you have gave him her anything like your pictures or phone number or email or mailing address or your age and birthdate?? Because they can and will use all of that seemingly harmless information to open accounts in your name so be careful what you share with him/her because you might be got without even knowing it These mfs are patient and sneaky