Ask me to name a type of scam and I could go on for a very long time.

There's fishing, romance scams, smishing, ransomware, and pig butchering.

This is a relatively new type of scam and I first caught my eye because, and I first caught my eye

because of how vicious it is, as the name implies.

I'm Allie, commander.com, content queen, and this is a special episode

of Tech Refresh. I'm not here with Kim and Matt today talking about tech news and tips. Instead,

I'm joined by Cesari Podgol, a reporter for ProPublica. He has done a ton of research on pig

butchering, the victims, the people behind it, and how to recognize this crime before it happens to you.

Cesari, do you think I'm right here?

All the stories I read about pig butchering, like this stuff is awful.

And I'm talking about, you know, both the victims and the people perpetuating the crime.

Yeah, it's a pretty awful phenomenon.

And it's one that unfortunately is only getting worse.

And it's one that is unique in that it has

victims on both sides of the world. You have people who are being scammed out of their life

savings all around the world, over 40 countries, as far as we know. People have fallen victims

to the scam, and then close to where I'm based in Southeast Asia. I'm here in Hong Kong

and, you know, from the reporting that I've done, a lot of these scams are coming out of

scam sweatshops that are located across Southeast Asia, primarily in countries such as Myanmar,

Cambodia, and Laos.

Okay, before we keep using this term, pig butchering scam, it's a pretty rough thing to picture,

just like it is an awful crime.

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