Inevitable Evolution Of Crypto Pig Butchering Is Here – More Gifts From AIAI Artificial intelligence (AI) is wide-ranging branch of computer science concerned with building smart machines capable of performing tasks that typically require human intelligence. Machine learning is a subset of Artificial Intelligence.
An Editorial By Brad Gorka, Cybersecurity Professional, CISO, and Information Security Leader
About Brad Gorka: Provide Value and Be Valued. I do this by building exceptional teams. This means hiring the right people and nurturing everyone, from the most junior to the most senior. I believe that if you can build a great team that the security mission will be achieved along with the right executive support. ANALYZE. ORGANIZE. EXECUTE. That’s what I do. Oh, and I also love stopping bad guys from taking down your business or disrupting operations. I work with stakeholders throughout the business and IT to develop information security policies and controls that manage risk to acceptable levels. This must also take into consideration the overall strategy & goals of the business. I try to think out of the box to select controls that will have the least disruption upon the business yet still achieve required objectives.
Introduction:
I’ve spent lots of time on LinkedIn, says Brad Gorka. With some of this extra time I decided to write about the topic of Crypto Pig Butchering and some recent experiences. Shameless plug… I am looking for a new CISO opportunity. If you enjoy this content, I would be grateful if you Like, Repost, or Comment to help me out.
Summary: If its too good to be true, it probably is! Crypto pig butchers have started to use #AI to increase the legitimacy of their fake LinkedIn profiles and now appear to even be posting “original” high-quality content developed by AI and otherwise interacting with content on LinkedIn.
Recommendation:
Stop blindly accepting every LinkedIn invite. These fake profiles are incredibly easy to spot with minimal effort. Even if you don’t interact with them you are helping them by giving access to your network for lateral movement and increasing the profile legitimacy.
There is a heavy amount of activity on LinkedIn by so-called Crypto Pig Butchers. This scamScam A Scam is a confidence trick - a crime - is an attempt to defraud a person or group after first gaining their trust through deception. Scams or confidence tricks exploit victims using their credulity, naïveté, compassion, vanity, irresponsibility, or greed and exploiting that. Researchers have defined confidence tricks as "a distinctive species of fraudulent conduct ... intending to further voluntary exchanges that are not mutually beneficial", as they "benefit con operators ('con men' - criminals) at the expense of their victims (the 'marks')". A scam is a crime even if no money was lost. was heavily publicized starting in 2022, including a thorough article here by Brian Krebs. It goes something like this: You get a random LinkedIn connection invitation from an attractive-looking person, usually a young Asian woman. Or in some cases, from an unsolicited/unconnected direct message (some of the profiles have LinkedIn Premium and have this capability). The profile headline usually says they work at an investment firm or are a business owner/leader. Bottom line – they want to look much smarter than you and more attractive too. This is basic Social Psychology stuff here folks.
They introduce themselves in a message claiming they want to interact with you to have intelligent conversation and exchange business/industry information for the common good blah blah blah – it really makes no sense at all because they have absolutely nothing to do with what you do so you really don’t have much to talk about in common anyway. If you accept the message or connection and respond they will give a brief intro and quickly suggest that you switch the conversation over to WhatsApp or Telegram. Eventually this leads to them suggesting you download a cryptocurrency investing app and sink your life savings into it, which will later be stolen from you.
I’ve been observing this activity for many months and what is interesting to me is how unsophisticated their attempts have been (up until recently). I have even joked to people that in 2023 they can do better. The profiles are obviously fake – with highly unusual school and work history and bizarre profile summaries that are all over the place, suggesting the “person” has skills you might find in someone with 5 graduate degrees from Harvard. It’s not a surprise if their profile actually says they went to Harvard. They will claim to be from some large US city (like New York City, Los Angeles, Washington DC, etc.) and their written English, while having correct word spelling, has very poor grammar, syntax, and word choice in conversation – but the writing on their Bio will look great, probably because it is copy & pasted.
Remember, if its too good to be true then it probably is. And plus, why would such an intellectual person want to converse with YOU of all people?
But something changed in the past week or two. I saw one of these profiles with two recent posts. This is weird because up to this point, I’ve never seen more than a post of a stock photo of a city skyline on a bogus account – but this time it was a real post discussing the water shortage issue in California, and it was very well written – too well-written. Because I know first-hand these scammers have poor English skills my mind immediately wondered if they used #ChatGPT to generate this content. I tested this theory by asking #ChatGPT questions to try and elicit a similar response to see how well the content matched up. While it did not have strong consistency there was a significant amount of overlap in some of the word choice and metrics/facts provided which may indicate the same reference information was used.
Image 1 - Image for Guest Editorial By Brad Gorka
Image 1 - Image for Guest Editorial By Brad Gorka
Brad Gorka Continues:
I used the OpenAI detection tool on this text but it indicated was probably not generated by ChatGPT. However, another AI detection tool called GPTZero suggested that some of the content was likely written by AI. So, while ChatGPT might not be the specific AI tool that was used it was likely to be something similar. This new technique of leveraging AI will help to improve the believability of fake profiles.
I used my super-Googling skills to try and find that quote from Tami McVay (above) and turned up with nothing identical, but I did find several similar quotes. I attempted to contact Tami McVay via email, asking her if she recalls ever saying that or could point me to the news article, but as of the time of publishing my story she has not responded (if she does, I will update). I have recently heard about AI (specifically, ChatGPT) “filling in the blanks” or embellishing some of its text output and curious if that is what happened here – it found other quotes and produced something similar-sounding.
Another recent and similar observation was a post by a “person” with a profile headline of “Demand Supply Planning Consultant” that posted a comment to someone else’s post about the medical condition atopic dermatitis. And wouldn’t you know it, a demand supply planning expert also happens to be an expert on dermatology! And still more unusual was that this content was in Simplified Chinese.
Image 2 - Image for Guest Editorial By Brad Gorka
Image 2 - Image for Guest Editorial By Brad Gorka
I clicked on the link to See Translation and got this:
Image 3 - Image for Guest Editorial By Brad Gorka
Image 3 - Image for Guest Editorial By Brad Gorka
I then copied that text in English and asked #GPTZero to analyze it and it returned Your text is likely to be written entirely by AI. What we don’t know is if AI authored the text in Simplified Chinese or if it was written in English and then the pig butcher ran it through a translator for Simplified Chinese. Either way it kind of makes no sense at all because the entire article and thread is in English so why even post a reply in Simplified Chinese?
And yet a third observation I had recently was the above pig butcher (the supply planning analyst who is a dermatology expert as a side hustle) commented on a post by one of my colleagues with the nonsense phrase “good luck with.” This was unusual to me because most of the profiles I have seen are quite passive and here we have one of them actually engaging with a target by commenting on the target’s LinkedIn content. This generates a lot more attention than the typical direct message approach they tend to use.
So, what can YOU do about all of this??? Stop clicking accept on these connection requests blindly and do not converse with them. You need to understand too that with the Premium features people can send you direct messages even if you two are not connected. Below I have pasted some more screenshots of what one of these profiles look like. If you see something similar and have reasonable confidence the profile is a pig butcher or otherwise a fake/malicious account, click the More button on the profile and select Report/BlockBlock Blocking is a technical action usually on social media or messaging platforms that restricts or bans another profile from seeing or communicating with your profile. To block someone on social media, you can usually go to their profile and select it from a list of options - often labeled or identified with three dots •••. Select Report content on Profile, then Profile Information, and then pick Suspicious/Spam/Fake. This will report it to the LinkedIn police and usually the account will be deleted within 24 hours.
If you don’t follow Brett Johnson then you DEFINTELY SHOULD. He wasn’t always a good person but he certainly is today and I thank him for the collaboration on this article.
Brad Gorka’s Bonus Material:
Bonus material if you haven’t fallen asleep yet:
- Many of the profiles appear to be newly created/generated. When viewing someone’s LinkedIn profile main page, near the top, you can click the More button and then select About this Profile to see some basic information like when it was created, when they last updated contact info, and when the profile photo was updated. Many of these pig butcher profiles will show a Joined date of 3 months or less. What has been very consistent is profile photo updated within the past 3 months. Interestingly, some of the profiles I have analyzed show rather old Joined dates. This could indicate it was indeed a real account that was hijacked and is now being used by the perpetrator (I assume these accounts are cheap to buy on the dark webDark Web This is a sub-level of the internet that normal search engines and everyday browsers cannot access. It’s an encrypted network that contains websites – both legal and illegal – that remain hidden from plain sight.).
- The above details about the atopic dermatitis are from a profile that was created in 2011 (so probably it is account takeoverAccount Takeover Account Takeover (ATO) are the unauthorized access of a user’s account in order to steal identity credentials, execute a fraudulent transaction or engage in varying types of abuse., aka ATOAccount Takeover Account Takeover (ATO) are the unauthorized access of a user’s account in order to steal identity credentials, execute a fraudulent transaction or engage in varying types of abuse.) and a profile photo updated less than 3 months ago. The person has 190 connections in LinkedIn as of the time I am writing this. They could be real connections from the real victim or could be new ones from the fraudsterFraudster A Scammer or Fraudster is someone that engages in deception to obtain money or achieve another objective. They are criminals that attempt to deceive a victim into sending more or performing some other activity that benefits the scammer.. I did see the number tick up by +2 within a 24 hour period.
- I’ve used Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT) tools to conduct numerous reverse image searches on the profile pictures and cannot find exact matches. This leads me to believe the photos are synthetically created by AI and unique.
- LinkedIn Premium is a fantastic #osint tool. There is no doubt in my mind that fraudsters are abusing these enhanced features and #LinkedIn needs to do a much better job of policing these capabilities.
Additional profile pictures to help with awareness:
Image 4 - Image for Guest Editorial By Brad Gorka
Image 4 - Image for Guest Editorial By Brad Gorka
Image 5 - Image for Guest Editorial By Brad Gorka
Image 5 - Image for Guest Editorial By Brad Gorka
Image 6 - Image for Guest Editorial By Brad Gorka
Image 6 - Image for Guest Editorial By Brad Gorka
Image 7 - Image for Guest Editorial By Brad Gorka
Image 7 - Image for Guest Editorial By Brad Gorka
Conclusion:
Many of us predicted that AI would be coming to Social EngineeringSocial Engineering Social engineering is the psychological manipulation of people into performing actions or divulging confidential information. It is used as a type of confidence trick for the purpose of information gathering, fraud, or system access, it differs from a traditional "con" in that it is often one of many steps in a more complex fraud scheme. It has also been defined as "any act that influences a person to take any action that may or may not be in their best interests." tactics and that day has come. Read up on how crypto pig butchers are operating and share with friends and relatives to help raise awareness on this terrible scam.
What do you think about this?
Please share your thoughts in a comment below!
-/ 30 /-
Do You Need Support?
Get It Now!
SCARS provides the leading Support & Recovery program for relationship scamRelationship Scam A Relationship Scam is a one-to-one criminal act that involves a trust relationship and uses deception & manipulation to get a victim to give to the criminal something of value, such as money! Click here to learn more: What Is A Relationship Scam? victims – completely FREE!
Our managed peer supportPeer support Peer support occurs when people provide knowledge, experience, emotional, social or practical help to each other. It commonly refers to an initiative consisting of trained supporters and can take a number of forms such as peer mentoring, reflective listening (reflecting content and/or feelings), or in a support group. Peer support is also used to refer to initiatives where colleagues, members of self-help organizations and others meet, in person or online, to give each other connection and support on a reciprocal basis. Peer support is distinct from other forms of social support in that the source of support is a peer, a person who is similar in fundamental ways to the recipient of the support; their relationship is one of equality. A peer is in a position to offer support by virtue of relevant experience: he or she has "been there, done that" and can relate to others who are now in a similar situation. Trained peer support workers such as SCARS Volunteers receive special training and may be required to obtain Continuing Education Units, similar to clinical staff. Some other trained peer support workers may also be law-enforcement personnel and firefighters as well as emergency medical responders. groups allow victims to talk to other survivorsSurvivor A Scam Survivor is a victim who has been able to fully accept the reality of their situation. That they were the victim of a crime and are not to blame. They are working on their emotional recovery and reduction of any trauma either on their own, through a qualified support organization, or through counseling or therapy. And has done their duty and reported the crime to their local police, national police, and on Anyscam.com and recover in the most experienced environment possible, for as long as they need. Recovery takes as long as it takes – we put no limits on our support!
SCARS is the most trusted support & education provider in the world. Our team is certified in trauma-informedTrauma-Informed Trauma-informed care shifts the focus from “What’s wrong with you?” to “What happened to you?” A trauma-informed approach to care acknowledges that health care needs to have a complete picture of a patient’s life situation — past and present — in order to provide effective care services with a healing orientation. Adopting trauma-informed practices can potentially improve patient engagement, treatment adherence, and health outcomes. care, grief counselingCounseling Counseling is the professional guidance of the individual by utilizing psychological methods especially in collecting case history data, using various techniques of the personal interview, and testing interests and aptitudes. A mental health counselor (MHC), or counselor, is a person who works with individuals and groups to promote optimum mental and emotional health. Such persons may help individuals deal with issues associated with addiction and substance abuse; family, parenting, and marital problems; stress management; self-esteem; and aging. They may also work with "Social Workers", "Psychiatrists", and "Psychologists". SCARS does not provide mental health counseling., and so much more!
To apply to join our groups visit support.AgainstScams.org
We also offer separate support groupsSupport Groups In a support group, members provide each other with various types of help, usually nonprofessional and nonmaterial, for a particular shared, usually burdensome, characteristic, such as romance scams. Members with the same issues can come together for sharing coping strategies, to feel more empowered and for a sense of community. The help may take the form of providing and evaluating relevant information, relating personal experiences, listening to and accepting others' experiences, providing sympathetic understanding and establishing social networks. A support group may also work to inform the public or engage in advocacy. They can be supervised or not. SCARS support groups are moderated by the SCARS Team and or volunteers. for family & friends too.
Become a
SCARS STAR™ Member
SCARS offers memberships in our STAR program, which includes many benefits for a very low annual membership fee!
SCARS STAR Membership benefits include:
- FREE Counseling or Therapy Benefit from our partner BetterHelp.com
- Exclusive members-only content & publications
- Discounts on SCARS Self-Help Books Save
- And more!
To learn more about the SCARS STAR Membership visit membership.AgainstScams.org
To become a SCARS STAR Member right now visit join.AgainstScams.org
To Learn More Also Look At Our Article Catalogs
Essential Tools For Every Scam SurvivorSurvivor A Scam Survivor is a victim who has been able to fully accept the reality of their situation. That they were the victim of a crime and are not to blame. They are working on their emotional recovery and reduction of any trauma either on their own, through a qualified support organization, or through counseling or therapy. And has done their duty and reported the crime to their local police, national police, and on Anyscam.com From SCARS Publishing
Visit shop.AgainstScams.org
Each is based on our SCARS Team’s 32 plus years of experience.
SCARS Website Visitors get an Extra 10% Discount
Use Discount Code “romanacescamsnow” at Checkout
SCARS GREEN BOOK
Self-Help Self-Paced Recovery Program Guide
LEARN HOW TO RECOVER ON YOUR OWN
This program is designed to help scam victims struggling to recover on their own and for those who want to understand the overall process. You can be using other resources, such as traumaTrauma Emotional and psychological trauma is the result of extraordinarily stressful events that shatter your sense of security, making you feel helpless in a dangerous world. Psychological trauma can leave you struggling with upsetting emotions, memories, and anxiety that won’t go away. It can also leave you feeling numb, disconnected, and unable to trust other people. Traumatic experiences often involve a threat to life or safety or other emotional shocks, but any situation that leaves you feeling overwhelmed and isolated can result in trauma, even if it doesn’t involve physical harm. It’s not the objective circumstances that determine whether an event is traumatic, but your subjective emotional experience of the event. The more frightened and helpless you feel, the more likely you are to be traumatized. Trauma requires treatment, either through counseling or therapy or through trauma-oriented support programs, such as those offered by SCARS. counseling or therapy, qualified support groups, or completely independent – on your own!
The SCARS Steps program is a complete program and is provided for the purpose of helping scam victims to overcome this experience. Throughout this SCARS Steps Program, we speak about issues and challenges that a victim may have and help guide them through their recovery. But each person is different and it is important to understand your own reasons for being vulnerable to being scammed.
After the trauma of being scammed, you need to take steps to recover and move on. This may be an alternative to counseling in the short term, but we still encourage you to seek out professional help & support. Throughout this SCARS Steps Program, we speak about issues, challenges, defects, or problems that a victim may have in a generalized way.
The SCARS GREEN BOOK will help you recover from your scam offline and it will always be there when you need it!
SCARS SLATE BOOK – Let Us Explain What Happened!
A Guide For Families & Friends Of Scam Victims
HOW TO HELP ROMANCE SCAM VICTIMS FOR FAMILIES & FRIENDS OF SCAM VICTIMS
This SCARS Publishing book represents a complete guide to help the families and friends understand how these scams work and how to help the victim.
The SCARS Slate Book should be purchased by family and friends to better understand what happened to the victim and the traumatic impact on them. But it can also be shared by the victim so that they do not have to explain to family and friends about the scam. This publication is to help others to help Scam Victims to make it through this traumatic experience and recover.
Each person is different and it is important to understand how relationship scamsRelationship Scam A Relationship Scam is a one-to-one criminal act that involves a trust relationship and uses deception & manipulation to get a victim to give to the criminal something of value, such as money! Click here to learn more: What Is A Relationship Scam? work and why people are vulnerable; to being scammed, how they were lured in, then groomed and manipulated. This understanding is essential in helping them through the process of ending the scam and then on to recovery. The SCARS Slate Book will provide the information necessary to help support a victim through this process.
SCARS RED BOOK
Your Personal Scam Evidence & Crime Record Organizer
ORGANIZE YOUR INFORMATION TO MAKE THE REPORTING PROCESS SIMPLE!
Helps you get and stay organized. This publication is to help Scam Victims organize their crime information. Complete this information before reporting to the police then bring this book with you
Before or after reporting to the police the RED BOOK gives you a dedicated tool to record all the essential facts of this crime. The Victim, the Scammers, the Money, and your Police interactions. Everything that really matters can be easily recorded for your immediate use and for the future!
As we have seen, money recovery/repayment programs can become available years after the scam ends and you need to keep all the details of this crime in case it is needed. We have also seen scammers being extradited to the U.S. and other countries, this will help in the event you testify or give statements, Additionally, this helps you have your information ready to qualify for victims’ benefits, compensation, or aid.
The Official SCARS RED BOOK is your way of recording all the important facts of this crime so that you do not lose essential information, Complete the RED BOOK then put it away with the confidence that you will have it if or when it is needed.
100% of all profit goes to help SCARS help more scam victims worldwide.
Your generous purchase allows us to maintain our scam avoidance, support, and recovery services. Please help SCARS and stand proud.
PLEASE SHARE OUR ARTICLES WITH YOUR FRIENDS & FAMILY
HELP OTHERS STAY SAFE ONLINE – YOUR KNOWLEDGE CAN MAKE THE DIFFERENCE!
THE NEXT VICTIM MIGHT BE YOUR OWN FAMILY MEMBER OR BEST FRIEND!
By the Society of Citizens Against Relationship ScamsSCARS SCARS - Society of Citizens Against Relationship Scams Inc. A government registered crime victims' assistance & crime prevention nonprofit organization based in Miami, Florida, U.S.A. SCARS supports the victims of scams worldwide and through its partners in more than 60 countries around the world. Incorporated in 2015, its team has 30 years of continuous experience educating and supporting scam victims. Visit www.AgainstScams.org to learn more about SCARS. Inc.
A Worldwide Crime Victims Assistance & Crime Prevention Nonprofit Organization Headquartered In Miami Florida USA & Monterrey NL Mexico, with Partners In More Than 60 Countries
To Learn More, Volunteer, or Donate Visit: www.AgainstScams.org
To see ScammerScammer A Scammer or Fraudster is someone that engages in deception to obtain money or achieve another objective. They are criminals that attempt to deceive a victim into sending more or performing some other activity that benefits the scammer. Photos visit www.ScammerPhotos.com
Contact Us: Contact@AgainstScams.org
Leave A Comment