The operation had been running for four months. The scammer — using a stolen identity of a Swiss financial consultant named "Marc" — had cultivated a relationship, established trust, introduced a "can't miss" crypto investment opportunity, and extracted an initial deposit of $12,000. By all accounts, it was going well.
Then the victim suggested they meet at a diner in Astoria.
"Marc" agreed immediately. This was the mistake. According to investigators familiar with the case, the scammer then sent four increasingly desperate messages over the following 48 hours: first claiming a work emergency, then a family illness, then a "travel restriction," and finally — apparently out of ideas — that his dog had died.
"He killed the dog twice," the victim told investigators. "The first time I let it go. The second time, I called my nephew who works in cybersecurity."
What The Nephew Found
The nephew, who asked not to be named but whose LinkedIn profile describes him as a "threat intelligence enthusiast," spent one evening tracing the operation. The IP addresses pointed to a compound in Southeast Asia known to law enforcement as a hub for forced-labor scam operations — where trafficked workers are compelled to run fraud schemes under threat of violence.
The victim's $12,000 was not recovered. But the case was referred to federal investigators and has since been linked to a larger network under active investigation. The victim has since joined an advocacy group for pig butchering awareness and, by their own description, "tells everyone they know" about the scheme at every social occasion.
Marc's dog remains deceased. Twice.