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A comment on DOJ seizes $15B in Bitcoin from 'pig butchering' scam based in Cambodia. Parent comment

Re:DOJ seizes $15B in Bitcoin from 'pig butchering' scam bas... by pantalaimon on Wednesday October 15, 2025 @09:12AM (#45591929)
Khesrau Behroz did an amazing podcast about those operations (in German though) [0]. Basically when there was a crack down on providers of illegal sports betting in China, they went abroad and diversified. The betting operation is used to launder the money from those scam operations and betting is still immensely popular in China and done via VPN. Those East Asian sport betting providers are sponsors of many Champions League clubs so their (often changing) names get know the gamblers in China watching the games.

So yea, there are massive amounts of money involved.

[0] https://www.rbb-online.de/legion/

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Re:DOJ seizes $15B in Bitcoin from 'pig butchering' scam bas... by cjonas on Wednesday October 15, 2025 @09:19AM (#45592038)
There's an interesting "Search Engine" podcast (in English)[0]. Apparently a lot of the people doing the actual scamming are human trafficked and being held in compounds against their will.

[0]https://www.searchengine.show/whos-behind-these-scammy-text-...

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Re:DOJ seizes $15B in Bitcoin from 'pig butchering' scam bas... by ChrisMarshallNY on Wednesday October 15, 2025 @09:27AM (#45592169)
From what I understand, a number of them are Chinese nationals. I suspect that taking Chinese slaves might not be a great idea. China tends to carry a big stick; especially in that region.

Wouldn't surprise me, if the DOJ had some "under-the-table" help from Chinese sources, but not in any way that anyone can prove.

If you don't want to sign up for a podcast, John Oliver did a fairly decent bit about it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLPpl2ISKTg

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Re:DOJ seizes $15B in Bitcoin from 'pig butchering' scam bas... by goatsi on Wednesday October 15, 2025 @11:16AM (#45593885)
China permitted/sponsored rebels to seize a decent chunk of the Myanmar side of the Chinese/Myanmar border after a number of Chinese citizens (allegedly including some undercover Chinese police) were killed in a scam compound there.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_1027

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Re:DOJ seizes $15B in Bitcoin from 'pig butchering' scam bas... by fragmede on Saturday October 18, 2025 @06:40AM (#45626316)
Except it seems it's Chinese Nationals running the operations in the first place, who undoubtedly have connections to the CCP to tacitly look the other way.
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