Tag: Pig Butchering
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How a Simple Text Message Triggered a $1 Million Scam
It started, as these things now almost always do, with a wrong number. A stranger texted Amos Jiang in August. The message was meant for someone else. That should have been the end of it. Instead, it became the beginning of a months-long digital relationship that would eventually drain more than one million dollars from…
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Pig Butchering Scammers Are Using Every Entry Point Possible
It started with a notification on my phone. Not a text, not a WhatsApp message from a wrong number, but a ping from Nextdoor—the app designed for finding lost cats and complaining about leaf blowers. The message was from a user named “Sloane L.” It was polite, specific, and seemingly harmless.
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“My dad is being pig butchering scammed and it’s breaking the family”
I think my father has been caught in a pig-butchering scam for almost two years now. It has taken over his entire inner world. All he talks about anymore is crypto, “breaking out of the system,” and free-energy conspiracies. He wants to make a lot of money, but only if it comes through some hidden…
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How a “Wrong Number” Text Cost a Widower His Life Savings
Larry Sorenson thought he’d found something close to happiness again. After losing his wife of 35 years to cancer, he spent his days in a quiet Brentwood neighborhood, surrounded by reminders of the life they built together — the tile they chose, the pool they designed, the garden they imagined. He still talks about her…
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Fraudsters Posing as WWE’s Alexa Bliss Scams Elderly Man Out of $1 Million
For years, Alfred Mancinelli believed he was in a relationship with WWE star Alexa Bliss. The 79-year-old grandfather, a retired electronic technician from New York, spoke about her with admiration, sent her affectionate messages, and—most devastatingly—wired her nearly $1 million.
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How Victims of Online Fraud Get Hit Twice—By Scammers and the IRS
There’s a cruel irony in the aftermath of being scammed. First, someone deceives you into giving up your hard-earned savings. Then, as you’re trying to piece together what remains of your financial life, the government comes knocking. Not to help—but to collect taxes on money you never even really had.
