What is ‘pig butchering’ cyber scam flagged by MHA? All you need to know

In its latest annual report, the MHA stated that the new investment scam started in China in 2016, targeting gullible and people including unemployed youths, housewives and students.

What is the ‘pig butchering scam’?

The name of the scam refers to the fattening up of the animal before slaughtering it. The pig butchering scam involves a cybercriminal building trust with an individual and convincing them to invest money into a lucrative scheme, from which their money is then stolen.

Also Read: Noida man duped of ₹40L by cyber frauds

The MHA report also stated that these cybercriminals have been using Google advertisements to target their marks.

“This scam, known as ‘pig butchering scam’ or ‘investment scam’ is a global phenomenon and involves large-scale money laundering and even cyber slavery,” the report said.

Also Read: What is new ‘jumped deposit’ scam targeting UPI users? Here’s how to protect yourself

Google has partnered with the Indian cyber crime coordination centre (14C) to share information on potential threats and take action to curb them as soon as possible.

Among the various Big Tech platforms that enable these scams, WhatsApp has been used by cyber criminals the most in India, as per the report.

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Data from the report show that 14,746 cybercrime complaints were related to WhatsApp, 7651 against Telegram, 7152 against Instagram, 7051 against Facebook, and 1135 against YouTube till March 2024.

The report added that big tech also played an important role in identifying and taking action against

“Big techs play an important role in proactive identification and action on cyber criminals. I4C has partnered with Google and Facebook for sharing intelligence and signals for proactive actions,” the report said.

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