The Pig Butchering Invasion Has Begun

October 1, 2024:

“What we’ve seen is criminal groups who are invested in this region here, looking beyond this region for establishing similar operations,” Hofmann says of the international expansion.

The wealthy, authoritarian city of Dubai, within the United Arab Emirates, has emerged since 2021 as the largest epicenter of pig butchering outside Southeast Asia. According to the UN, international migrants comprise more than 88 percent of the UAE’s population, making a uniquely diverse, and potentially vulnerable, workforce readily available.

“Dubai is both a destination and also a transition country,” says Mina Chiang, the founder and director of Humanity Research Consultancy, a social enterprise focusing on human trafficking. “We can see lots of compounds that are actually operating in Dubai itself.”

In July, Humanity Research Consultancy identified at least six alleged scam compounds believed to be operating around Dubai. The research—based on testimony from forced laborers, data leaked from a cyberattack, and social media posts—identified potential compounds around industrial and investment parks. These operations “to the best of our knowledge are managed by Chinese-speaking criminals,” the research says, adding that they operate in a similar way to compounds in Southeast Asia.

“They call it a typing center. But a huge scam call center,” reads a one-star review left for a location in Dubai on Google Maps. Another says: “Mostly poor people from Africa working there and mosltly jailed in Dubai. No matter how much they offer you everything is scammed. Highly suggest never ever go there.”

Dubai’s police force did not respond to WIRED’s request for comment about potential scam centers located in the city.

Pig butchering operations may have emerged in Dubai because of immigration and workforce dynamics, but in multiple African countries the activity has started to appear because of an existing culture of organized scamming.

In Nigeria, where digital scamming has been a prominent illicit industry for years across numerous platforms, it was all but inevitable that attackers would adopt the conceits and tactics of pig butchering. The scheme is mature enough that there are now readily available prefab cryptocurrency investment platforms, templates, and scripts available for sale online to anyone who wants to get started. A gang that is already used to carrying out romance scams or business email compromise schemes could easily adapt to the premise and cadence of pig butchering.

“If you look at West Africa’s history with social engineering stuff, it’s a potent mix,” says Sean Gallagher, principal threat researcher at Sophos. “You’ve got a lot of people who have seen this as a way to make a living, especially in Nigeria. And the technology is easily transferable. We’ve seen pig butchering packages for sale that include fake crypto sites and scripts that appear to be tailored to targeting African victims.”

Nigerian law enforcement have been increasingly pursuing cases and even securing convictions related specifically to pig butchering. Gallagher and Intelligence for Good’s Tokazowski also say that in studying and interacting with scammers, they have seen technical indicators that pig butchering attacks may be coming out of Ghana as well. The US Embassy in Ghana has warned about the potential for financial scams originating in the country.

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