Nigeria Arrests Nearly 800 Over ‘Pig Butchering’ Crypto Scam Targeting North Americans and Europeans

Nigerian authorities arrested nearly 800 individuals who allegedly operated crypto “pig butchering” scams targeting North American and European victims.

In a pig butchering scam, bad actors form a relationship with victims online to gain their trust and convince them to invest in fake opportunities and/or cryptocurrency platforms that the scammers control.

Once the victim has invested a significant amount of money, the con artist disappears with the funds.

The fraudsters refer to their victims as “pigs” because they use elaborate storylines to “fatten up” the targets into believing they are in close relationships.

Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) recently raided a luxury building in Lagos where workers at a call center allegedly facilitated the scams, per a press release from the law enforcement agency.

EFCC Public Affairs Director Wilson Uwujaren said foreign nationals used the building to train Nigerian accomplices.

“All the floors are equipped with high-end desktop computers. On the 5th floor alone, investigators recovered 500 SIM cards of local telcos that were bought for criminal purposes.

Their Nigerian accomplices were recruited by the foreign kingpins to prospect for victims online through phishing, targeting mostly Americans, Canadians, Mexicans, and several others from European countries. They usually arm them with desktop computers and mobile devices and create fake profiles for them.

The Nigerian accomplices are equally provided with logs that allow them access to foreign communication lines and victims, which they chat with on WhatsApp, Instagram and Telegram.”

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