An attractive woman called Jessica sent me pictures and said she was in Chicago and she But I of course knew straight away this was some sort of scam, it had to be, but I wasn't sure which, so I decided to play along.

一個叫傑西卡的漂亮女人給我發來照片，說她在芝加哥，但我當然一眼就看出這是某種騙局，一定是，但我不確定是哪種，所以我決定陪她玩玩。

For weeks Jessica would start conversations every day at around 4pm.

連續幾個星期，傑西卡每天下午 4 點左右都會開始談話。

She called me beautiful and was very flirty.

她說我漂亮，還很風騷。

She said she was looking for an honest, kind and mature gentleman.

她說她正在尋找一位誠實、善良、成熟的紳士。

I want to see if these pictures are of a real person.

我想看看這些照片是不是真人。

They're being used by lots of scammers on dating sites and here is the real person, a German influencer.

在交友網站上，很多金光黨都在使用它們，而這裡的就是真人，一個德國有影響力的人。

I'll warn her that her pictures are being used.

我會警告她，她的照片正在被使用。

After more than four weeks Jessica told me how rich she had become with cryptocurrencies.

四個多星期後，傑西卡告訴我她通過加密貨幣變得多麼富有。

This explains a lot.

這說明了很多問題。

Jessica has just sent me a screenshot of her cryptocurrency profits, $47,000, and she's basically saying you can be rich too.

傑西卡剛剛給我發了一張她的加密貨幣利潤截圖，47000 美元，她基本上是在說，你也可以發財。

So as suspected and much to my wife's relief, this is indeed a pig butchering scam.

是以，正如我所猜測的那樣，讓我妻子感到欣慰的是，這的確是一場殺豬騙局。

Pig butchering scams are a big problem.

殺豬騙局是個大問題。

The US FBI estimates that at least $3 billion were lost through them last year.

據美國聯邦調查局估計，去年至少有 30 億美元通過它們流失。

Jessica is a name scammers have used before.

傑西卡是金光黨們曾經用過的名字。

They trick people into romantic relationships and convince them to invest more and more money into fake schemes to fatten victims up.

他們誘騙人們建立戀愛關係，並說服他們將越來越多的錢投入到虛假的計劃中，以肥胖受害者。

They then run off with the money.

然後他們就帶著錢跑了。

I agreed to invest with her and Jessica sent me some conditions that she wanted me to agree to.

我同意和她一起投資，傑西卡給我發了一些她希望我同意的條件。

I had to start calling her Miss Queen.

我不得不開始叫她 "皇后小姐"。

I also had to do exactly as she said and promise to come to Chicago to buy her a romantic gift or meal with some of my profits.

我還得按她說的做，答應用我的一些利潤到芝加哥給她買一份浪漫的禮物或吃一頓飯。

It's kind of a combination of those two, the love bombing of, hey, we have a future together because you're coming to Chicago and you're buying me a meal.

這是這兩者的結合，是一種 "愛的轟炸"："嘿，我們在一起很有前途，因為你要來芝加哥，還要請我吃飯。

But then that control, making sure that you're somebody who would be willing to follow instructions.

但隨後的控制，確保你是一個願意聽從指令的人。

If you had balked at that and said, you're not in control of my finances, then maybe that would have been one of those indicators.

如果你對此不屑一顧，說你不能控制我的財務，那麼也許這就是其中的一個指標。

I'm not going to get as much money from this guy.

我不會從這傢伙那裡得到那麼多錢。

Jessica has now asked me to spend some money.

傑西卡現在讓我花點錢。

I said I've only got 200 pounds.

我說我只有 200 磅。

And what's interesting is Jessica has made me feel very poor.

有趣的是，傑西卡讓我覺得自己很窮。

We've been doing this really complicated process of fake trading now, well over an hour.

我們一直在做這個非常複雜的虛假交易過程，已經一個多小時了。

And I can see my profits rising, but of course it's all fake.

我可以看到我的利潤在增加，但這當然都是假的。

Jessica asked me to buy USDT, which is Tether, which is a stable coin.

傑西卡讓我買 USDT，也就是 Tether，這是一種穩定幣。

And I'm intrigued as to why Jessica asked me to buy this particular coin.

我很好奇傑西卡為什麼讓我買這枚硬幣。

There's a big infrastructure now that enables them to launder Tether.

現在有一個龐大的基礎設施能讓他們清洗 Tether。

So it's the stable coin, if not the crypto asset of choice of scam operators.

是以，即使它不是詐騙分子首選的加密資產，也是一種穩定的硬幣。

And there's a whole ecosystem of money launderers, service providers who all handle Tether.

洗錢者和服務提供商組成了一個完整的生態系統，他們都在處理 Tether。

And it's just got me thinking of this whole process.

這讓我想到了整個過程。

There's no way that people would go through this process if there wasn't that little hook of potential romance.

如果沒有潛在浪漫的小鉤子，人們是不可能經歷這個過程的。

This isn't just about the money.

這不僅僅是錢的問題。

This is about something more romantic.

這是關於更浪漫的事情。

In the flurry of screenshots that Jessica sent me back and forth, she accidentally shared one with Chinese writing on it, perhaps part of a scammer's playbook that she's working from.

在傑西卡來來回回發給我的大量截圖中，她無意中分享了一張上面寫有中文的截圖，這也許是她正在使用的詐騙手法的一部分。

I wonder where she is.

我想知道她在哪裡。

The majority we've come across are operating from Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar.

我們遇到的大多數人都來自高棉、寮國和緬甸。

And there does seem to be quite a big overlap with Chinese organized crime.

這似乎與中國的有組織犯罪有很大的重疊。

A lot of organized crime groups have set up, especially within some of these special economic zones in that region.

許多有組織幫派已經成立，特別是在該地區的一些經濟特區內。

Which tend to be less regulated, have a particularly weak rule of law.

這些國家往往監管較少，法治特別薄弱。

And there's another clue, too.

還有另一條線索。

The very first picture that this account posted shows a shopping trolley that looks Chinese.

該賬戶發佈的第一張圖片顯示的是一輛看起來像中國產的購物手推車。

What I do know is, according to her crypto wallet details, they're making a lot of money.

我所知道的是，根據她的加密錢包詳情，他們賺了很多錢。

Let's see what happens in the final stage of this scam.

讓我們看看這場騙局的最後階段會發生什麼。

I'm going to ask Jessica if I can cash out.

我要去問傑西卡，我是否可以套現。

They're asking me to give me my passport, essentially, and my name and everything like that.

他們要我交出護照、姓名和所有類似的東西。

And I'm trying to think what they could do with that information.

我在想他們能用這些資訊做些什麼。

What I think I'm going to do is send a picture of an old passport that's already expired.

我想我要做的是寄一張已經過期的舊護照照片。

And that way it reduces the risk of anything happening to me.

這樣就能降低我發生意外的風險。

It looks like the passport that I sent last night, the old passport that I changed the expiry date on, may have worked because the money that Jessica is saying that I've earned as part of my profits, that looks like it is being sent.

看起來我昨晚寄出的護照，也就是我更改了有效期的舊護照，可能起了作用，因為傑西卡說我賺到的錢是我利潤的一部分，看起來已經寄出了。

It's come up with a thing saying sent, but it's frozen.

它顯示已發送，但被凍結。

Jessica tells me that the money will end up in my Coinbase account.

傑西卡告訴我，這筆錢最終會存入我的 Coinbase 賬戶。

Of course it won't.

當然不會。

I've asked a few times and it's obvious that I'm never going to get that money back.

我問過幾次，很明顯，我永遠也拿不回那筆錢了。

So now I want to try and talk to Jessica.

所以現在我想和傑西卡談談。

Sometimes these people involved in pig butchering, they are, in a sense, victims themselves.

有時，這些參與殺豬的人，從某種意義上說，他們自己也是受害者。

They're part of big call centres that kind of lock you in and take your passport.

他們是大型呼叫中心的一部分，會把你鎖在裡面，拿走你的護照。

So I want to know who is behind the Jessica account.

所以我想知道傑西卡賬戶的幕後黑手是誰。

I explained that I was a reporter.

我解釋說我是一名記者。

I asked if she was being forced to do pig butchering scams and she or he said yes, and that they were in Dubai and would be raped by 10 people and beaten if they didn't get $500 tonight.

我問她是否被迫做殺豬騙局，她或他說是的，還說他們在迪拜，如果今晚拿不到 500 美元，就會被 10 個人強姦和毆打。

We've had eight weeks of keeping up this pretense and now they've just dropped it.

我們已經裝了八週了，現在他們就這樣放棄了。

The scammer said without money there is no negotiation and now they're trying another way to get money.

金光黨說沒錢就沒得商量，現在他們又想用另一種方式騙錢。

I don't really believe what they're saying is true.

我不太相信他們說的是真的。

I think they're just trying to find a way to get me to pay them more money.

我覺得他們只是在想辦法讓我付他們更多的錢。

I also agree that that doesn't sound like a real person in distress trying to get help or get assistance.

我也同意，這聽起來不像是一個身處困境的人在尋求幫助或援助。

But maybe there is a potential playbook there of, you know, that they are aware of the scam.

但也許有一個潛在的玩法，你知道，他們知道這個騙局。

But how can you extract more money?

但如何才能榨取更多的錢呢？

It does frustrate me because I really do feel for the people who are in these situations against their will.

這確實讓我感到沮喪，因為我真的很同情那些在違背自己意願的情況下陷入困境的人。

And we could have, you could have been speaking to somebody who really was in distress, but unfortunately had to make those statements to follow a playbook.

我們本可以，你本可以跟真正處於困境中的人說話，但不幸的是，你不得不按照劇本來做這些陳述。

And then they blocked me.

然後他們就屏蔽了我。

We reported the account to Instagram and sent the details to the authorities.

我們向 Instagram 報告了該賬戶，並將詳細信息發送給了有關部門。

Crypto researchers at Elliptic revealed that Jessica's scheme is part of a large Chinese owned pig butchering ring.

埃利普特的加密研究人員發現，傑西卡的計劃是一箇中國人擁有的大型屠豬團伙的一部分。

They've earned nearly $200,000 just in the last month.

僅在上個月，他們就賺了近 20 萬美元。