The Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office has charged a Southern California man and woman with using a trending international scam called “Pig Butchering” to try to steal more than $500,000 from an elderly San Jose man.
To accomplish what the DA’s office said is an “extremely rare” arrest in such cases, high-tech investigators pretended to be someone else online to trick the scammers into sending the suspects to pick up cash at a San Jose parking lot.
This is the tactic that investigators say the “Pig Butcher” scammers – Yalin Li, a 23-year-old from El Monte, and Liu Hong, a 40-year-old man from Rosemead, both just east of Los Angeles – used to trick a 66-year-old San Jose man into sending them money. The scammers, according to a DA’s Office press release, posed as “Aunt Amelia,” a bogus investment banker, who used Facebook to trick the man into investing money in cybercurrency that didn’t exist.
The victim said he sent $170,000 to the caller, who then tried to convince him to send almost $348,000 more. Suspicious, he called the DA’s Office. After setting up the cash drop off, DA investigators met the two suspects and arrested them. The case is being prosecuted by the DA’s High Tech Crime team, and is set for trial in Santa Clara County Superior Court in late December.
Also on Wednesday, the District Attorney’s Office released a short video on YouTube warning the public about the scam that is leading to thousands of people losing their life savings.
“Pig Butchering” is a nickname intended to illustrate how the scammers slowly, methodically, steal as much as possible of a victim’s money. Many of the scams are perpetrated from compounds in Southeast Asia where human trafficking victims are forced to try to ensnare victims through texting and fake financial websites.
This video may be downloaded to promote awareness about the scam. District Attorney Jeff Rosen said he hopes all potential online scammers will increasingly worry if they are communicating unwittingly with law enforcement instead of victims.
Rosen said prevention is the key: “The most effective strategy against Pig Butchering is to educate potential victims. Everyone with a cell phone is a potential victim of Pig Butchering. Don’t fall for it.”
In the video, Rosen cautions potential victims to be careful responding to unknown texts. If someone feels they may be getting scammed or have been scammed, they should call their local law enforcement agency and ask to speak to a financial crimes investigator. The crime should also be reported to the FBI through IC3.gov.
