Pig Butchering & The Tindler Swindler

Did you watch the Netflix series The Tinder Swindler?

If you didn’t, you really should.

Not only is it a fascinating tale, but it also explores the extremely dark side of romance scamming called “Pig Butchering”.

Brief caveat…Although there are valuable lessons to be learned here…Do Not Use Them For Nefarious Purposes.

OK…so what exactly is Pig Butchering?

According to a recent article from CNBC, Pig Butchering refers to a romance scam that comes from the Chines phrase she zhu pan. The idea is that the scammer must first “fatten up” victims with flattery, and build a strong relationship bond before stealing their money.

It’s a long-tail con, and unfortunately it is surprisingly effective.

According to the FBI, more than 20,000 people in the U.S. have fallen victim to romance fraud, and lost a total approaching $1 billion. In fact, statistics show 67% of the victims are single women between the ages 25 and 40, and most were highly educated and adept with modern technology.?

It’s a devastating scam, and the threat is only growing.

But why is it so effective and why am I bothering to write about it in today’s newsletter?

As reprehensible as Pig Butchering is, the con works because of two key factors.

1) Patience

2) A relationship is built well before a request for money is made.

These are the same two factors that are critically important when you are seeking to attract more new affluent clients. (And again, not for some scam, but for legitimate business services.)

Let’s take a deeper look.

Patience.

I’ve written about this numerous times before, but it does little to dissuade people from sending me a cold email, or Linkedin connection request that basically says, “Hey, you don’t?know me but wanna buy my stuff?” (OK a bit more elegantly-but you take my point.)

Look…you need to take a beat.

Nobody goes from not knowing someone, to immediately doing business with them, unless they have an immediate and critical need. (For example, personal injury lawyers.)

But patience, in and of itself, is only part of the answer.

Which brings me to the second point.

You need to allow time to build the relationship…before you ask someone to buy your stuff.

So, what’s the best way to build a relationship?

Frequent communication.

In fact, more communication than you likely think you need.

It’s what enables you to accelerate the “know, like & trust” factors that are crucial.

If they unsubscribe…so what?

Quit kidding yourself, they weren’t going to do business with you anyway.

Communicating with your audience only “when you have something important to say” isn’t going to enable you to be in contact frequently enough.

Once a week?

Still not enough.

Remember, most of what you send never gets read.

I’ve got a pretty responsive list, but still only 27% of my community reads any one message that I send.

So the odds of burning out my list is really pretty small.

Look, the guru business (which is what most of us are in) requires that you get your target audience to admire and trust you to the point in which they are willing to pay for access to you.

It’s not so much the brand new Super Blaster 2023 System you offer, as much as it is YOU.

Once you get your community to buy into you-then they will be very willing to invest in whatever programs, services or products you offer.

And it order to engineer this, you need to be in communication very frequently. I know you’ll cringe when I say this, but I really do believe you should be sending something out every single day.

Egads!

Which of course raises the question…”But what in the world would I talk about? What would I send?”

These are the types of things I discuss in my Video Newsletter?Whales Not Minnows.

You can learn all about it?HERE

Check it out

Mark