Fully aware of the damage caused by forced labor camps in Asian countries, both for people who are scammed and for those who work in them, Meta has been investigating accounts linked to these entities for two years and eliminating them from their platforms.
The social media giant Meta (Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp) has reported that in 2024 alone it has closed more than two million accounts related to pig butchering scams, that is, scams in which an attempt is made to gain someone’s trust. and then convince you to invest in fake cryptocurrency exchanges or similar.
Furthermore, Meta points out that many of these accounts are linked to forced labor camps in regions of Southeast Asia, in which mafias control cybercrime camps with thousands of workers, from which these operations are carried out that affect users everywhere. of the world.
The economic impact of this illegal activity reaches alarming figures. “The United States Institute of Peace estimates that up to 300,000 people are forced to defraud others around the world by these criminal groups, and that by the end of 2023 around $64 billion would have been stolen worldwide annually” , they say from Zuckerberg’s company.
“This year alone, we have removed more than two million accounts associated with scam centers in Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos, the United Arab Emirates and the Philippines,” they note.
These criminal organizations, as has been exposed in several documentaries and previous investigations, use cruel manipulation techniques to attract workers and get them to continue operating in the center despite knowing that what they are actually doing is perpetrating scams: “These criminal scam hubs lure often unsuspecting job seekers with too-good-to-be-true job advertisements on local job boards, forums and recruiting platforms and then force them to work as online scammers, often under the guise of threat of physical abuse,” they explain from Meta.
From Meta they indicate that they have been investigating and trying to eliminate groups of this type for years, for which they are collaborating with police agencies and other private companies. “Over the last two years, we have created teams and systems to help identify and pursue these scam hotspots globally in accordance with our DOI and security policies,” they point out from Meta.
Crypto and investment scams
Most of these scams follow a similar pattern. A fake profile, whether with artificial images or photographs stolen from other people, engages someone in conversation until they gain their trust. At the moment when the other person is receptive, another scammer, part of a more specialized group, begins to use social engineering to convince the other person to invest, buy, or make operations with a cryptocurrency platform or similar.
Typically, they allow the person to withdraw money the first few times to pretend that the platform is legitimate and then block the funds and steal them when the victim has deposited the largest investment.
Currently, bots and scam attempts are present on all social networks. They can arrive on Facebook or Instagram, or even through WhatsApp, with an unknown contact who opens a conversation with you or with a new group to which someone has added you. Maximum caution.
