Prosecutors said the scammers spent about three months persuading a 66-year-old man to invest in cryptocurrency. — Image by master1305 on Freepik
The senior in San Jose suspected something was amiss when the woman who'd supposedly helped him buy US$170,000 (RM756,911) worth of cryptocurrency had asked for twice as much money to pay overseas taxes.
He called the Santa Clara County district attorney's office, which led to criminal charges against two Southern California residents accused of helping run a "pig butchering" scam – a scheme designed to con victims out of their life's savings.
The district attorney's office announced Wednesday the arrests of Liu Hong, a 40-year-old man from Rosemead, and Yalin Li, a 23-year-old woman from El Monte. Authorities allege that the pair are part of a larger criminal organisation operating outside the United States.
Prosecutors said the scammers spent about three months persuading a 66-year-old man to invest in cryptocurrency. The man, prosecutors said, invested US$170,000 but became suspicious when the scammers sought US$348,000 (RM1.5mil) for overseas taxes related to his investment.
"This is the same tactic 'pig butcher' scammers use to trick victims into sending them money," said James Gibbons-Shapiro, assistant district attorney. "Pig butchering illustrates how the scammers slowly, methodically steal as much as possible of a victim's money.
"They take everything from a person, from the tip of their nose to the end of their tail. That's where the phrase comes from."
He said the scams cost Americans about US$1bil (RM4.45bil) a year.
Prosecutors said the district attorney assigned the case to the office's High Tech Crime team, which convinced the scammers to collect the money at the parking lot of a bank in San Jose. The two suspects were taken into custody when they came looking for the money.
Gibbons-Shapiro said arrests in such cases are rare because victims are often too embarrassed to report the scams to law enforcement; or when they do, it's after scammers have gotten what they want and cut off communication with the victims.
"What happened in this case, the victim realised they were being scammed while they were still in communication with the scammers," he said. "And that gave law enforcement the ability to do some trickery of their own."
Dist. Atty. Jeff Rosen hopes publicising the case will force scammers to pause and think: "Is my scam working, or am I talking to a cop?"
Gibbons-Shapiro said the San Jose case began in May when a woman reached out to the man through Facebook. The conversation, which often starts romantically in such scams, changed direction when the woman said her aunt Amelia, who knew about investing, was helping her make a lot of money. She then introduced her aunt to the victim and began to trick him into investing money.
Gibbons-Shapiro said in many cases, the scam involves multiple people, many of them from Southeast Asia where human trafficking victims are also forced to ensnare victims through texting and fake financial websites.
"The scams are certainly happening overseas, but where they (have) partners in the United States we want to find them, prosecute them and send them to jail," he said. "And if possible, we want to identify people overseas and extradite them."
Santa Clara prosecutors said people who fear they've been caught up in a scam should understand they are not alone and that the best and brightest have fallen victim to such crimes.
As part of announcing the arrests and charges, prosecutors released tips for victims, which can be viewed on the district attorney's website. Among other suggestions, prosecutors say, victims should be wary of people who try to move conversations to encrypted instant messaging apps such as WhatsApp, Signal and others.
Most law enforcement agencies are not familiar with pig butchering and may claim it's a civil case, the D.A.'s website says, so it urges victims to report their problem to a detective who specialises in financial crimes, as well as the FBI. They say victims can also reach out to Advocating Against Romance Scammers, a nonprofit, for support.
Prosecutors said they were unable to recover the US$170,000 the San José man lost in the scam, but they aim to bring a measure of justice to the victim by prosecuting the two suspects. – Los Angeles Times/Tribune News Service
