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your circle of friends may have been targeted by scammers. recently, some netizens revealed that some illegal businesses would steal photos of netizens on social platforms and provide them to scammers to package their personalities. this kind of stolen photos does not even have much to do with appearance or identity. as long as the photos are publicly released and continuously updated, they may become a tool for crime. the risk of stolen photos is closely related to you and me.

photos and characters with clear price tags:

25 yuan to get the packaging done, the seller said that anyone who can write can create a character

the "pig-killing scam" is a type of online fraud, where the suspects often develop feelings with the victims first, and then lure them into online gambling, investment and other activities to defraud money. the "pan brothers" are the most important link in this, they are the scammers of the "pig-killing scam", also known as "butchers" and "dog pushers".

many victims of pig-killing scams told blue whale reporters that they often joined the game because of the emotional value provided by the scammers, and believed in the various daily schedules, latest photos and videos that the scammers shared from time to time.stolen photos, fabricated personalities and photoshopped documents are important means of production for brother pan and sister pan.

the victim, achen, once witnessed a very funny scene. she met two pan brothers with similar personalities at the same time. they showed her concern with the same face. later, achen learned that the real owner of this face was often stolen.

the reason for the similar faces is probably because brother pan happened to buy the same material - the pig-killing plate set, which has become a secret and mature business.

by searching the picture sets on the internet with keywords, the reporter found some relevant websites and links without much effort. they usually direct customers to platforms such as qq, wechat, and telegram for further conversations and transactions.

screenshot of a certain image website

in the material library provided by a certain merchant, the photos are divided into several major categories, including life materials, asian men/women, european and american men/women, and men/women's private parts.each set of pictures is tagged with different labels according to the characteristics of the characters, which is convenient for pan ge to search on demand. some of the pictures will be marked with social accounts, can be updated later, and are suitable for virtual videos.。

the pictures are sourced from a wide range of sources.social accounts on domestic and foreign platforms such as wechat moments, xiaohongshu, weibo, douyin, instagram, and blued are rich material libraries.photo theft often takes advantage of information asymmetry. it is not easy to be caught using photos from the foreign internet to deceive domestic netizens, and vice versa.

an anti-fraud blogger revealed to reporters that anyone who likes to constantly share their lives may have their photos stolen, regardless of appearance. photos with family and friends, and photos that are more daring to show the body are the most popular among photo thieves, because these private photos that expose personal information are more likely to gain the trust of victims.in our online social circles, there are inevitably some unfamiliar people who can also see these photos. therefore, as long as the content is publicly released, it is theoretically possible to be included in the material library of the merchants.

those real people and their vibrant lives have been transformed into numbers here.

some businesses will buy original materials from others. from the upstream image thieves, the labeled image merchants to the pan brothers who spend money to save trouble, this business has already established a mature chain.the price of a set of materials is between 25 and 40 yuan. this type of business has many repeat customers and big customers. some merchants will offer "buy ten and get two free"according to the reporter,the monthly income of picture set sellers of different sizes ranges from rmb 10,000 to over 100,000.

it is easier to make money than the set of pictures is the business of character design, among which the price of customized character design is relatively higher. another merchant told the reporter that the most expensive set of character design he sold was 50u (equivalent to about rmb 350).there is no threshold for this thing, you just need to be able to write, and generally modify it until the buyer is satisfied. there is no cost, and the income is pure profit.”

in this circle, making money is a topic that can be discussed openly. many merchants will attach screenshots of successful transactions and blessings to customers for wealth in the community, such as "i wish you a big hit every day with this material”、“i wish all bosses good luck on their journey to rob the rich and help the poor.”。

rampant criminals and hunted victims:

most butchers are gang members who commit crimes by confessing, making up for the loss, etc.

the photo set merchants are linked to a more secretive and terrifying world.

the size of the communities formed around stealing pictures ranges from a few hundred to a few thousand people, and most of the participants are practitioners of the black and gray industries. real cases are often shared in the communities, such as the successful opening of an order by a 15-year-old pan ge in the west port park.

there are almost always reference materials in different communities, such as free personas, fraudulent rhetoric, basic financial knowledge, etc. because most of the pig-killing scams are financial fraud and investment fraud, pan ge himself needs to have a general understanding of the concepts and operations of cryptocurrencies, exchanges, wallets, etc.

victims are often captured by these carefully designed words and step-by-step designs.

a-chen, who was defrauded of nt$1.2 million, initially trusted her brother pan because pan even gave his virtual currency investment account to a-chen without reservation. she later found out that the account and platform were fake, and only the money she transferred was real.

many victims become anti-fraud bloggers after being deceived, and luo yu is one of them. she has shared many scam routines and tips on identifying scammers on social platforms, and has helped other victims find the real owners behind more than 1,000 faces.

after hearing more stories and inside information, luo yu had a better understanding of the rampant and cunning nature of the pig-killing gang. she believed thatthe victim was cheated not because he was stupid or greedy, but because the entire fraud group gathered their wisdom and prepared to cheat one person, so they should not be blamed or reviewed.

screenshots of notes posted by some anti-fraud bloggers

for example, they usually commit crimes in groups, and when brother pan finds out he has encountered a big client, he will hand it over to an old hand to continue the conversation.pan ge's account is usually logged in by multiple people at the same time to chat, which is convenient for the team leader to manage and monitor the chat, and can also respond to everything at any time - this is why pan ge generally replies to messages quicklyif the last pan ge leaves the park, there will always be someone who will inherit his phone, personality and customers.

even if a customer has been stabbed, brother pan will not let him go.

the aforementioned victim, achen, was cheated of money by three pan ges successively. the latter two took advantage of her eagerness to recover her losses to induce her to invest. the interval between these three was only more than a month.

exploited technology and schrödinger's sincerity:

deepfake has become a fraud tool, pan ge may take the initiative to reveal the inside story

luo yu told the blue whale reporter that many pan brothers would take the initiative to chat with her. "i think most of them are bored, and some expose information just to show off. almost all anti-fraud bloggers have informants (i.e. pan brothers)." there was a pan brother who maintained long-term contact with luo yu. during the sweep before the new year, he said he wanted to escape to the mountains, but later he lost contact.

brother pan had previously revealed to luo yu the secret code between colleagues, which was unexpectedly simple.for example, "the king covers the earth tiger/chicken stewed with mushrooms", "pagoda suppresses the river monster/mushrooms with chili peppers", etc. however, these codes were changed several times later.。

brother pan sometimes introduces some of their park conditions and work details. some people say that the buildings of the fraud group are divided into different markets, some are for europe and the united states, and some are for asia. in recent years, the pig-killing scam has tended to the european and american markets. the fraud group will find people who are good at english to "raise pigs", and some brother pan will also use translation software or ai tools to assist in chatting.

"the technology of pig-killing scams is also constantly improving," luo yu said with emotion:when i was scammed two years ago, they could only show stolen videos. later, they played stolen videos during video calls. now, they can directly communicate with ai.although my country is at the forefront of the world in anti-fraud publicity and governance, criminals still have room to commit crimes, and the explosively developing ai technology has become a fraud tool.

recently, there have been several cases of using deepfake technology to synthesize pornographic photos and videos in south korea, which has caused social panic and international attention. the impact of deepfake is wider than expected, and the technology is also used in the video communication between pan ge and the victims.

yao weibin, the creator of the bund conference ai innovation competition and global deepfake attack and defense challenge and technical director of zoloz, revealed a piece of data in an interview.the volume of deepfake attacks this year has increased by about 10 times compared to last year. last year, the concentration of attacks was about 1%, and this year it is 10%. the overall risk is increasing exponentially.。

however, the current deepfake technology is not perfect, and the signs of forgery are relatively easy to identify, such as the edges of facial contours or distortion, and some image content is too abrupt. unfortunately, many victims still have the inherent perception that "scammers cannot use video", so they easily believe pan ge.

technology always has traces to follow, but what is elusive is the human heart.

the aforementioned anti-fraud blogger revealed that some people actually bet money with the pan brothers to test whether the other party is sincere. "some pan brothers also want sincerity, but they have deceived so many people. isn't this ridiculous?"