Brian

Hey, this is Brian.

We're taking a break from our roundtable this week, but we didn't want to leave you empty handed.

So we're sharing one of our favorite stories that we featured on the show, an investigation into a whistleblower trapped in a scam compound in Laos.

I sat down with Wired's Andy Greenberg earlier this year to learn about it.

And trust me when I tell you that the twists and turns of this story will make your head spin.

We hope you enjoy it.

Last summer, my colleague Andy Greenberg was enjoying an idyllic late afternoon in New York.

As a cybersecurity reporter, crypto scams are Andy's bread and butter.

That's what he's constantly tracking down.

Trends in hacking and cybercrime.

But crypto scam compounds are a beast of their own.

These are places where scam operations happen at an industrial scale.

And crypto scams have become the most profitable form of cybercrime in the world, pulling in tens of billions of dollars each year.

Andy didn't know if this anonymous source was legit, but he followed up and told the source to message him through Signal.

Later that evening, Andy received a flurry of messages.

These documents describe step by step the methods that this crypto compound uses to lure victims into their scams.

From creating fake Facebook and Instagram profiles to using hired models and AI deepfake tools, all of it to create the illusion of a romantic prospect.

Something they call pig butchering.

The operation starts with the scammer using social media profiles to convincingly take the identity of, say, a wealthy woman.

Trust is built through these video calls and constant back and forth messages.