In three short years, according to UN and FBI investigators, transnational crime organizations have exploited developments in technology and the civil war in Myanmar to build a billion dollar industry to scam people across the world out of their life savings. This huge scam operation relies on army of modern day slaves, assembled by what the UN has called one of the largest human trafficking events in Asia in recent history. It’s known as a “pig butchering” scam a type of confidence fraud in which victims are lured by scammers often impersonating young women on the internet. The scammers then spend weeks building a relationship with their victim, introducing them to cryptocurrency and encouraging them to invest on a fake platform. Victims are shown startling returns and coaxed to keep pumping in more money � like a pig slowly fattened for the slaughter � until one day their scammer disappears along with the money. Over the last six months CNN has spoken to fraud victims, investigators and even the scammers themselves to piece together the inner workings of the global scam industry. “This is the professionalization of fraud services,” said FBI special agent James Barnacle, who warned that more and more Americans, and people all around the world, are falling for it. In 2020 reported losses connected to pig butchering scams amounted to $907million, according to the FBI. By November 2023 that number had shot up to $2.9 billion for the year.TheUN estimates that up to 120,000 people could be heldin compounds across Myanmar, with another 100,000 people held in Cambodia and elsewhere in conditions that amount to modern slavery. In December 2022 Rakesh, who asked CNN not to use his full name to protect his family’s privacy, landed in Bangkok, Thailand, where he thought he was due to start a new job in IT. He was educated as a chemical engineer in India but had been unemployed for over six months and was desperate to find work,even if that meant leaving his family and moving abroad. A driver sent by the company picked him up at the airport, but instead of taking Rakesh to an office in Bangkok they drove seven hours to Mae Sot, a Thai town near the Myanmar border. Rakesh grew alarmed; he called the agent who had offered him the job but was told not to worry, he would be working in Mae Sot.

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In three short years, according to UN and FBI investigators, transnational crime organizations have exploited developments in technology and the civil war in Myanmar to build a billion dollar industry to scam people across the world out of their life savings. This huge scam operation relies on army of modern day slaves, assembled by what the UN has called one of the largest human trafficking events in Asia in recent history. It’s known as a “pig butchering” scam a type of confidence fraud in which victims are lured by scammers often impersonating young women on the internet. The scammers then spend weeks building a relationship with their victim, introducing them to cryptocurrency and encouraging them to invest on a fake platform. Victims are shown startling returns and coaxed to keep pumping in more money � like a pig slowly fattened for the slaughter � until one day their scammer disappears along with the money. Over the last six months CNN has spoken to fraud victims, investigators and even the scammers themselves to piece together the inner workings of the global scam industry. “This is the professionalization of fraud services,” said FBI special agent James Barnacle, who warned that more and more Americans, and people all around the world, are falling for it. In 2020 reported losses connected to pig butchering scams amounted to $907million, according to the FBI. By November 2023 that number had shot up to $2.9 billion for the year.TheUN estimates that up to 120,000 people could be heldin compounds across Myanmar, with another 100,000 people held in Cambodia and elsewhere in conditions that amount to modern slavery. In December 2022 Rakesh, who asked CNN not to use his full name to protect his family’s privacy, landed in Bangkok, Thailand, where he thought he was due to start a new job in IT. He was educated as a chemical engineer in India but had been unemployed for over six months and was desperate to find work,even if that meant leaving his family and moving abroad. A driver sent by the company picked him up at the airport, but instead of taking Rakesh to an office in Bangkok they drove seven hours to Mae Sot, a Thai town near the Myanmar border. Rakesh grew alarmed; he called the agent who had offered him the job but was told not to worry, he would be working in Mae Sot.