AI
The Pig Butchering Playbook
The scam runs as a long con. A fake persona named Jessica texts the target, migrates to WhatsApp, spends weeks building trust, and eventually mentions cryptocurrency profits from an uncle who can teach you. She knows your IRA balance and your college fund because she spent weeks profiling you. When you put in $5,000 to a fake exchange like Goo Markets, the numbers go up on screen. Your actual money moves down the blockchain immediately. You do not realize it is gone until you try to withdraw.
$50 Billion Stolen: Why the FBI Numbers Are the Floor
The FBI collected $6.5 billion in reported investment scam losses for 2024. Add romance and confidence fraud and the number crosses $7 billion. West estimated that 1 in 7 victims report to the FBI. At that rate, actual US losses hit $50 billion in a single year, up 40% from 2023. The demographic is not elderly people. Under-60 Americans lose more than seniors. REACT had no law enforcement partners willing to handle crypto: Dallas passed, Orange County passed.
How Chinese Organized Crime Built a Scam Economy in Southeast Asia
Chinese organized crime built casino towers in Sihanoukville, Cambodia under cover of China’s Belt and Road Initiative. When COVID closed the casinos, they pivoted to pig butchering, filling the towers with scammers. West drove 1,000 miles across Cambodia after retiring from the DA’s office. Scam operations now make up more than half of Cambodia’s GDP. A Chinese-built airport adjacent to the Ream naval base has a runway long enough for military aircraft. The US once based ships at Ream; China’s warships are there now.
200,000 Trafficked Workers Inside the Scam Compounds
The UN Human Rights Office counted 240,000 enslaved workers: 120,000 in Cambodia and 120,000 in Myanmar, a two-year-old estimate. West was in contact with someone inside a compound who reported 783 new arrivals in a single day. Workers arrive through fake data-entry job ads on Meta, get flown to Bangkok, then have their passports seized. Inside KK Park, punishment includes baseball bats, electric batons, and burial to the neck. A video West screened at DEF CON showed a mass escape attempt where workers jumped into a river and several drowned.
Starlink, Apple, and the American Companies Powering the Crime
KK Park in Myanmar runs on Starlink. West photographed the dish from across the river after Thai authorities finally took down a telecommunications tower in February 2025, three years after she started calling it out. The compounds use Apple iPhone 7s for scamming operations. Meta ads recruit trafficked workers by the thousands. West wrote to Starlink; they did not respond. Wired covered the story. KK Park also receives supply trucks from KK Concrete, a Thai-based operation with ties to Guangdong, China.
From REACT to Operation Shamrock: Building a Response
The REACT Task Force traced stolen cryptocurrency from Santa Clara County victims starting in 2022. John Aldridge’s team found $500,000 belonging to a Dallas victim. Dallas said it did not do crypto. Orange County said the same. West took the blueprint, retired, and built Operation Shamrock. The crypto coalition started with 85 people in 2023 and now counts 2,400 law enforcement members across state, local, and international agencies. She testified before Congress calling for a national task force. At DEF CON, her ask was specific: share ideas on illicit finance, supply chain disruption, and shell company takedowns via ideas@operationshamrock.org.
Q&A
Is pig butchering an act of war against the United States? West agreed, saying the country focuses on physical borders while ignoring digital ones entirely. ▶ 52:00
Has West approached Starlink directly about enabling the compounds? She wrote them a letter, received no response, and Wired later covered the story. ▶ 52:31
Have any of the scam operators been arrested? The REACT Task Force convicted and sentenced couriers on US soil; no kingpins have been charged. ▶ 52:53
What has China done about its own citizens trapped in the compounds? China pressured Myanmar and Thailand to release Chinese nationals, flew them home on 737s, and jailed them, despite many being trafficking victims. ▶ 53:25
Notable Quotes
But the fact is your money is long gone. Erin West · ▶ 8:50
Scams are the ugly stepsister. Erin West · ▶ 16:03
This is a scam economy. Erin West · ▶ 24:05
because nobody cares. Erin West · ▶ 25:58
Chinese organized crime to steal all of our money. Erin West · ▶ 42:46
Key Takeaways
- Pig butchering stole an estimated $50 billion from Americans in 2024, up 40% year over year.
- Chinese organized crime enslaves around 240,000 workers in scam compounds across Myanmar, Cambodia, and the Philippines.
- American technology including Starlink and Apple hardware powers the operations; no US company has responded to takedown requests.
About the Speaker(s)
Erin West spent 26 years as a career prosecutor in Santa Clara County before founding Operation Shamrock, a global nonprofit that takes the fight directly to the organized crime networks running pig butchering operations out of trafficking compounds across Southeast Asia. She also hosts the podcast Stolen, which covers how romance fraud, crypto, and psychological manipulation fuel billion-dollar scam operations.