Pig butchering scam

[9][10] Many operations are also run from areas of Myanmar which are outside central government control because of the ongoing civil war, with one important hub being the town of Myawaddy in Kayin State, near the border with Thailand.

[11] According to the UN Human Rights Office, hundreds of thousands of people have been trafficked and are trapped in scam centres in Cambodia and Myanmar, with other operations being run from Laos, the Philippines and Thailand.

[13] Scammers crafted elaborate fake identities to establish romantic or emotional connections with victims, thus marking a departure from conventional financial scams by integrating psychological manipulation.

[19] Pig-butchering scams involve a series of meticulously planned steps to deceive and exploit victims, typically focusing on cryptocurrency investment fraud.

[4] Furthermore, the scammers develop fake brokerage websites and mobile applications to add legitimacy to their scheme, making it difficult for victims to distinguish them from genuine platforms.

[22] The scam typically combines elements of romance and investment fraud, and often involve the gradual building of a relationship with the victim, leading to significant financial losses.

These type of scams are particularly insidious because they play on both the financial aspirations and emotional needs of individuals, leaving victims feeling betrayed, embarrassed, and reluctant to discuss their experience with others or report it to authorities.

The movie highlights the plight of the numerous low-level scammers who are themselves victims of coercion, having been lured from their homes by promises of stable employment, only to find themselves trapped and forced into committing these scams.