Erin West, Deputy District Attorney of California’s Santa Clara County, has heard firsthand tales of scammers preying on victims for hundreds of thousands of dollars. She joins the show to explain the scamming technique known as “pig butchering,” how it is estimated to have raked in tens of billions worldwide, and why it has led to suicide in some cases. West makes the case for why victims need empathy and how law enforcement is working with exchanges to claw back scammed funds.

Show highlights:

Erin’s background and how she started investigating crypto crimes

what exactly the “pig butchering” method entails — and why it’s called that

what kind of people scammers are targeting

the devastating stories that have arisen from these crypto scams

fresh intel on where the fraudsters are located

whether the scammers may be connected to foreign governments 

how the victims are often turned away by U.S. law enforcement agencies

how Erin’s agency was able to return almost $1 million to victims late last year

what local agencies can do to address these problems

how law enforcement agencies around the U.S. are lacking crypto education

the workshops Erin has been leading to help such agencies get educated

the relatively low number of NFT-related scams her agency has dealt with so far

what Erin recommends for victims of “pig butchering” scams


Thank you to our sponsors!

Crypto.com

FTSE

Halborn

NYU


Links

SIM Swaps and Pig Butchering scams: 

Forbes: Hackers Have Stolen Millions Of Dollars In Bitcoin -- Using Only Phone Numbers
WIRED: What Is a Pig Butchering Scam?

Podcast on Indian telemarketing scams: Chameleon: Scam Likely — Campside Media

Guests:
Erin:
LinkedIn

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