Netflix documentary The Tinder Swindler tells the story of a fraudster who convinces women he met on a dating app to “loan” him large sums of money. It shows the devastating financial damage and psychological trauma online romance fraud can inflict on its victims. But it’s not just carried out by individuals – sometimes it’s orchestrated by organised crime groups that operate on an industrial scale.
One newer type of such fraud is often called “pig butchering”. The term supposedly represents how victims are fattened up for slaughter like pigs. As we argued in our recent paper, this term dehumanises victims and reveals something of the psychology of the fraudsters themselves, reflecting how they perceive themselves as “hunters”, which helps them justify their actions.
