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With Eid coming soon you need to learn how butchering works. Not the kind you are thinking of. Staying safe on the internet is becoming harder every day and in today’s episode we will cover what’s up with tech scams.
With a new format Tech Made Fun is back to inform you about what matters, in Pakistan – welcome back, back again.
Hosted by Saqib Tahir
Support the show: https://support.sknexus.com/
Chapters
0:00 – Where the hell were you for three months!
2:23 – Topic For Today – Scams in Tech
4:19 – Introduction to Pig Butchering Scams
4:31 – Stage 1 – Making a New Friend
6:18 – Stage 2 – Trust Built – Promises Made
8:18 – Stage 3 – Left for dead – Pig is headless
11:59 – Best Practices to Prevent Scams
17:17 – Personal Scam 1 – Daraz Sellers Selling Your Information
20:07 – Personal Scam 2 – Facebook Marketplace, home to scams
21:28 – Personal Scam 3 – Real Estate Files, A Scam within A Scam Question Mark???
22:56 – Live as if everything about you is public
Further learning and references
Unmasking Pig-Butchering Scams And Protecting Your Financial Future
Pig butchering scams, how they work and how to avoid them
Hacker Lexicon: What Is a Pig Butchering Scam?
Other Pakistani Crypto Scams
FIA issues notice to crypto exchange Binance in multi-million dollar scam
Pakistan’s Investigation Agency Contacts Binance About $100M Scam
FIA chief orders arrest of culprits in crypto scam
Further Reading – Pig Butchering Scam
In this digital age, where we basically have our lives’ work in the form of digits it’s imperative that we know how to keep it secure because something as simple as a ‘Hi’ message can cost you literally your fortune.
In essence, a pig butchering scam refers to an organised network of scammers trying to convince a victim through different social channels to invest in some legit-looking investment schemes with made up profit promises. The scam develops by luring them into seemingly profitable investment ventures normally crypto, building up trust and then metaphorically butchering the “pigs” (victims in this case) after they’ve invested a significant sum of their money.
Generally such a scam is divided into three major stages:
The Promise – The scammer approaches the victim through some sms or social text-channel trying to strike up a conversation through some unrelated starting point. Once the victim responds, the scammer tries to make up a fake identity convincing the victim of his seemingly successful investment in usually a cryptocurrency venture.
The Trust – Slowly working on the new-made relationship, the scammer shows some made up screenshots to entice the victim to follow him in the investing gig. This goes on with the scammer providing victim access to apps created by scammer networks just to fool victims. These apps look similar to popular crypto trading apps but are made by scammers purposely to confuse the victims.
The Cut – Once the scammer has established such an element of trust that motivates the victim to invest their money in this seemingly legit investment portfolio, comes the cut where the scammer disconnects from every point of contact, shuts down the investment site or app and runs away with the money.
Our Recommendations:
Here’s what the average bashir could do to not to end up like the ‘pigs’
- Be doubtful of random strangers trying to strike up a conversation with you. Don’t accept random chat invite links especially from people you don’t know because that’s where most of the scams emerge from.
- Research upon the investment firm before ever making any investment. Make sure to verify the legitimacy of the firm you’re giving your money to with government regulating agencies. If there’s ever some confusion of doubt just don’t proceed!
- Be sceptical of high value returns on small term investments. Most of them don’t work in the real world. Understand that there is no easy money!
- Regularly check if personally identifiable information like your phone numbers, email, addresses have ever been leaked in some data breach. Several trusted sites offer such lookup services. Be mindful of who you’re sharing such information with.
As always –
Thank you for listening, please send any questions or feedback to podcast@sknexus.com
See you next time.
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See, at the heart of it – I love solving problems for people using tech, it doesn’t get simpler than that.
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