As the crypto scam commonly known as “pig butchering” has exploded into a full-blown criminal industry that steals tens of billions of dollars a year, an entire ecosystem has formed around it. That sub-industry offers tools and data for finding and tricking targets, money laundering services to help liquidate stolen funds—even detention tools to imprison and coerce the human trafficking victims enslaved to work in scam operations.
New research now shows how all of those secondary services enabling the global scourge of pig butchering can be found on a single Cambodian online platform—part of a company linked to the Cambodian ruling family—known as Huione Guarantee.
On Wednesday, crypto-tracing firm Elliptic published a report that delves into crypto scammers’ extensive use of Huione Guarantee, a deposit and escrow service for peer-to-peer transactions that lets users buy and sell over the Telegram messaging service with the cryptocurrency Tether while preventing them from defrauding each other. By analyzing listings on the platform, engaging with sellers—sometimes undercover—and following funds across Tether’s blockchain sent to those sellers’ addresses, Elliptic was able to trace $11 billion in total transactions in just the three years since Huione Guarantee launched, including $3.4 billion so far this year.
In full: https://www.wired.com/story/pig-butchering-scam-crypto-huione-guarantee/
