The Expert Podcast

So, how big is the online scam and fraud market? Well, according to Bloomberg, pig butchering scams, which are the type of fraud we most likely see, netted more than $75 billion. If this scam were a public company, it would be in the top 50 companies in the country, being the Fortune 500. These scammers, if they were a company, would be bigger than many, many big companies that you hear of.

How do these scams work? Well, as you know, pig butchering is a scheme where a scammer will come to you, usually through social media, and they'll tell you that they have some type of an investment. They made some money and they want to get you in on it. They start you out very small, usually with a few hundred or thousand dollars, a very small amount. Once you've invested that, they're going to show you very large returns on your money. If you send them $100, they'll show you made $300 profit, so now you have $400 in your account. They'll send you a fake account statement to show that you have $400, and they'll tell you that if you have $1,000 invested, you can double it in a week. So you send them another $600, and so on. Next thing you know, you have thousands or tens of thousands invested in this scam, and they keep showing profits and returns on your investment over and over.

Eventually, you want to take your money out. But when you ask them to take your money out, they're going to tell you that you have taxes, or audit fees, or accounting fees, some other type of scam to get you to send more money. And at some point, you will either realize it's a scam, or you'll have no more money to send them, and they'll shut down. They'll stop talking to you. Sometimes, they'll actually send you another email from another account weeks later that will tell you that they are some type of scam recovery company that can help you get your money back. But of course, you have to send them more money.

These pig butchering scams know exactly how to word emails and social media to get you to send that money. And obviously, you can see from the screen they're making a lot of money doing this. $75 billion is more money than Goldman Sachs finance company took in last year. It's more money than General Electric took in last year. So it's a huge problem with consumer fraud.

If you've been a victim, you can click the link below. We have some consulting and some services that may be able to assist with you. But this just gives you an idea of how big this problem is and how widespread it is. And it's only getting bigger as the years go by.