How Crypto Scam Compounds Use Romance to Make Billions

About this episode

The episode discusses a whistleblower's experience in a scam compound in Laos that uses romance to defraud victims.

Last year, a mysterious source reached out to WIRED’s senior writer Andy Greenberg — someone who claimed to be an engineer trapped in a scam compound in Laos. According to the whistleblower, the compound’s illicit tactics specialized in pig butchering scams: sophisticated online tactics to build a romantic, trustworthy relationship with a victim before scamming them. Brian sat down with Andy earlier this year to break down how the whistleblower revealed — and fled — the inner operations of the compound. Originally published on February 5th. Articles mentioned in this episode: He Leaked the Secrets of a Southeast Asian Scam Compound. Then He Had to Get Out Alive | WIRED Join WIRED’s best and brightest on Uncanny Valley as they dissect the collision of tech, politics, finance, and business, from the newest ventures to the effects of inaccurate information from artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots on social protests. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

People in this episode

Host: Brian

Guest: Andy Greenberg

Topics covered

• crypto scams
• romance scams
• whistleblower
• online tactics
• scam compound
• technology

Keywords

• crypto scam
• romance
• whistleblower
• scam compound
• online tactics
• pig butchering

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: WIRED

Books & works: He Leaked the Secrets of a Southeast Asian Scam Compound. Then He Had to Get Out Alive

Places: Laos

More episodes of Uncanny Valley | WIRED

• Why You Might Already Own SpaceX Shares; Inside the Knicks' Owner's Surveillance Machine; Apple’s Siri AI Debut · June 11, 2026 · 40 min
• Trump Foe Mounts Competitive Senate Bid in Florida · June 9, 2026 · 39 min
• The AI IPO Race Gets Weird; Elon Musk Sued By DOGE Whistleblower; Instagram's Hacking Incident · June 4, 2026 · 26 min
• The Tech Behind McLaren Racing’s F1 Dominance · June 2, 2026 · 38 min
• How the Internet Could Help the Iranian People · May 26, 2026 · 44 min
• Why Is Meta In Crisis?; Google Search Is Over; AI Gets Booed by Graduates · May 21, 2026 · 40 min