Fraud through fake profiles on social media, dating sites

After two months of WhatsApp messaging, Mark Santos realized that a stranger he met online was in love with him. He was a 47-year-old real estate broker from Virginia, USA. Actually, CentOS is part of a cyber scam going on worldwide. He creates online relationships with people and extracts money from them. Santos presented herself as an attractive young businesswoman from Thailand. he took photos of some woman

Stolen from his Instagram account. Santos, a 26-year-old Filipino, is among hundreds of people across Southeast Asia who have joined the fraud ring after being lured into the trap of a good job. This fake industry called pig butchering started in China six years ago. Personal and intimate relationships are established online by creating fake profiles on social media and dating sites. Once the victim is duped, the fraudsters extract money from the person through cryptocurrency investments or other means.

A UN report in August estimated that scammers had made billions of rupees in this way. In 2021, the Internet Crime Complaint Center of the American investigative agency FBI reported that it had received 4325 complaints of pig butchering. In these, people have given information about embezzlement of Rs 3500 crore. The actual loss is much higher as only 13% of affected people have reported losses. People like Santos, who became part of the scam chain, have become hostages of the syndicate running the scam center after being lured by fake job advertisements or attractive offers on social media.