Hogs to the Slaughter

Monday, March 31, 2025

Hogs to the Slaughter

Who hasn’t experienced phone calls, text messages, or emails from strangers pretending to be from real businesses or government offering to help you with something gone urgently wrong? These are most likely not just one-offs, but part of a multinational criminal network. They have become so ubiquitous that it would be something of a miracle if they haven’t tricked you or someone you know.

Recently, The Economist’s East Asia correspondent Sue-Lin Wong investigated the global scamming industry, which has deep roots in that part of the world. The report, released as the eight-part podcast series Scam Inc this February, is one of the most significant reports I’ve heard in a long time. In listening to it, you can expect to learn about so-called pig butchering, a mobster who goes by the name Broken Tooth, and the meaning of “POGOs” in a place called Bamban.

An key lesson from the podcast—and it isn’t a spoiler to say so—is that everyone needs to be aware of how sophisticated scamming has become. Nevertheless, there is still at least one thing everyone can do to protect themselves just in case: Have a secret code word known only to you and the most important people in your life, and not stored digitally. This offers some protection against calls that use voice AI to simulate the voices of your loved ones.

As one investigator says, you have to treat every incoming call, text, or email as if it’s a scam until it can be proven otherwise.

The scale of this multi-hundred-billion-dollar industry is so vast that it may account for half the gross domestic product of countries such as Cambodia and Laos. Beyond stealing billions, criminal networks specialize in laundering the money and making it look legitimate. Once the money is stolen, it is nearly impossible to get it back. Digital international payments and crypto-currencies are effective tools in the industry. (This blog is reevaluating its previously less-critical take on cryptocurrency, since the main value appears to be in hiding crime and corruption.)

Local law enforcement lacks the power and resources to do anything about it apart from dispensing what one hopes is useful advice in shutting down scams in progress. Banks and financial institutions don’t have the tools or competence to do much either, and the existing American law doesn’t do enough to make banks more cautious.

The eight episodes average about 40 minutes each, which you can get through faster at a higher playback speed, of course. Beyond the first three, you have to sign up for a trial subscription to The Economist Plus, which as of this writing is for 14 days. Just be sure to cancel in time if you want to avoid a paid subscription.

Here’s the trailer, less than four minutes long, via Acast podcasts.

The best first defense against the problem is awareness. And the Scam Inc podcast goes a long way in raising awareness.