"DOJ Shuts Down 'Pig Butchering' Domains Responsible for $10 Million in Victim Losses"
The Department of Justice (DOJ) announced the seizure of seven domain names used in "pig butchering" schemes, in which cybercriminals develop relationships with victims before exploiting them. According to the US Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia, five victims collectively lost more than $10 million between May and August 2022. Each domain pretended to be affiliated with the Singapore International Monetary Exchange. The scams involved deceiving victims into believing that web addresses or emails were associated with the exchange when, in fact, they were under the control of hackers. According to the DOJ, the scammers convinced the victims that they were investing in a legitimate cryptocurrency opportunity by using the confidence-building techniques described. Pig butchering schemes have become more common in recent years. Scammers find their victims through dating apps, social media sites, and random texts. They typically initiate contact with a victim and gain their trust before pressuring them to make a financial investment or provide account information. The victims are pressured to invest in cryptocurrency as well. Victims are then directed to scammer-controlled websites or platforms where money can be obtained. The FBI issued an advisory on such schemes in October 2022, and the Global Anti-Scam Organization (GASO) reported that the average victim loses nearly $122,000. According to GASO data, approximately two-thirds of victims are women aged 25 to 40. One man lost $1 million in a pig butchering scam perpetrated by hackers posing as an old coworker. Sherrod DeGrippo, VP of threat research and detection at Proofpoint, emphasizes that the pig butchering fraud demonstrates the lengths actors will go to socially engineer a target into falling victim to crime committed by large cybercrime ecosystems. This article continues to discuss the shutdown of pig butchering domains behind the loss of $10 million.