Meta is making progress in the fight against pig butchering fraud. In a recent report, the company said that it has removed more than 2 million accounts linked to such frauds this year and that its efforts to work with other companies to expose fraudsters have had some success.
Described by Meta as “one of the most egregious and sophisticated” online frauds, “pig butchering” is an increasingly common technique by which fraudsters trick victims, often found on social media and dating apps, into making cryptocurrency investments and other financial schemes, and then disappear with their funds. One study published earlier this year, reported by Bloomberg, found that since 2020, these scammers “have likely stolen more than $75 billion from victims around the world.”
Meta says it has been tracking the criminal networks behind these scams for the past two years as these groups have increasingly expanded their geographic reach. “This year alone, we’ve blocked more than two million accounts linked to fraud centers in Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos, the Philippines, and the United Arab Emirates,” the company said in a blog post. “We also continue to update the behavioral and technical signals associated with these hubs to help us scale automated detection and block malicious infrastructure and repeat offenders.”
Earlier this year, Meta joined Match Group, Coinbase, and other companies to form a coalition to jointly fight financial fraud. In its latest announcement, Meta notes that it is also working with other firms that are being used by fraudsters. It says that OpenAI recently alerted the social network to a “newly created fraud company in Cambodia” after the AI company caught potential fraudsters trying to translate fraudulent content.
