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The Slaughtered Love: RealCall’s Survey Finds 96.08% of Americans Were Targeted by Pig Butchering Scams

A new survey conducted by RealCall highlights the risk of pig butchering scams, a mash-up of a long-existing romance scam and a fake crypto investment scheme, which have quickly expanded and caused huge losses.

SAN JOSE, CA / ACCESSWIRE / December 1, 2022 / RealCall, the leading AI-powered spam call blocking and caller ID lookup app, released Pig Butchering Scam Report, showing key findings from its recent survey surrounding a malicious scam called pig butchering.

RealCall, Wednesday, November 30, 2022, Press release picture

Pig butchering is a metaphor term originally from Chinese to refer to the scams that finally cause huge economic loss after a series of activities to"train" or "feed" victims to be the "best" victims, which is similar to the process of fattening a pig before slaughtering it. Key elements of a pig butchering scam include online communication, investment hook, and long-term plotting leading to a huge loss of victims.

RealCall's report revealed key insights showing pig butchering scams are quite common today:

  • Almost all (96.08%) of respondents claim to have gone through pig butchering scams or have almost been trapped by pig butchering scammers.
RealCall, Thursday, December 1, 2022, Press release picture
  • 40.4% of victims claim their first contact with scammers was via anonymous calls and texts, and 25.7% of them were via dating websites.
RealCall, Thursday, December 1, 2022, Press release picture
  • The most common scam awareness may not be useful when it comes to pig butchering scams because they conform to a different scheme from ordinary ones.
  • Blocking anonymous calls and texts efficiently and effectively boosts immunity against pig butchering scams.

The full report can be downloaded from the RealCall website.

Why pig butchering scams always work

For years, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has been working to educate the public about all kinds of possible scams and avoiding tips but has not touched on the topic of how to spot and avoid pig butchering scams.

"Unlike most scams, pig butchering scams go in a totally different direction," said Curry Yu, the Product Lead at RealCall. "Ordinary scammers aim to proactively cheat people, but pig butchering scammers never do. They may send anonymous text messages pretending to go to the wrong number, which looks like an accident. Such a start makes it natural and easy for victims to believe at the very beginning. In other words, you may identify an ordinary scammer based on his or her first word, but a pig butchering scammer will never go into your ‘bad people' zone."

"Pig butchering scammers are patient enough to expect their ‘pig targets' to grow big enough. So, they spend most of their time training or persuading victims to really trust them. Once an opportunity arrives, they'll be 100% ready, and an investment suggestion seems quite natural and acceptable," he added.

The solution to avoid pig butchering scams

"To avoid pig butchering scams, it's foremost to cut the possible contacts with the scammers," said Elden Barnes, Senior Data Analyst at RealCall. "The designed touchpoint where scammers first establish a connection with victims shows a rather clear alerting signal. Now that the highest percentage of victims have started to be linked with scammers via anonymous calls and texts, such calls and texts should be blocked immediately. In this case, blocking anonymous and suspicious calls and texts plays an important role in immunity that should be boosted by everyone."

RealCall app serves as an accurate spam call and text blocker, which helps users easily get rid of unwanted calls and texts, especially risky ones. The app is now available for free download on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. More information can be found by visiting RealCall's website.

About RealCall

RealCall is an app that provides spam call blocking and caller ID for global users. Empowered by the vast and ever-evolving database and AI-based modeling, RealCall features top-notch accuracy of blocking. For more information, please visit https://www.realcall.ai/.

Media Contact

Rachel Davis, PR Manager
408-643-0935
press@realcall.ai

SOURCE: RealCall



View source version on accesswire.com:
https://www.accesswire.com/729424/The-Slaughtered-Love-RealCalls-Survey-Finds-9608-of-Americans-Were-Targeted-by-Pig-Butchering-Scams

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