Stacey Wood, Molly Mason Jones Chair in Psychology and professor of psychology, explores the rise of hybrid scams—scams that combine two or more types of fraud, such as romance scams and investment scams—in a piece for The Conversation. With her co-author Yaniv Hanoch, Wood examines a new fraud trend in England called “pig butchering,” so named because victims are “fattened up” with affection before the financial aspect of the scam is executed.
“Victims may have their guard up at first,” Wood and Hanoch write. “However, these scams can unfold over months, with the scammer slowly gaining the victims’ trust and initiating a romantic relationship all the while learning about their vulnerabilities.”