All language subtitles for Last.Week.Tonight.with.John.Oliver.S11E02.iNTERNAL.1080p.WEB.h264-EDITH_track3_[eng]

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♪ ♪

- Welcome, welcome, welcome
to "Last Week Tonight."

I'm John Oliver. Thank you
so much for joining us.

It's been a busy week,

from the US vetoing a ceasefire
in Gaza, yet again,

to the revelation that
Joe Biden's dog

bit Secret Service agents
at least 24 different times.

But we're going to start in
West Virginia,

which has spent
the past several weeks

debating a bill to impose
criminal penalties

for exposing children to
obscene literature

in schools and libraries.

The debate has featured
some spectacular testimony

from concerned citizens
reading out

material that they objected to.

- "'Are you going to eat
her pussy?'

'Yeah, I'm going to eat
her pussy.'

'Hey, yeah. Do you even know
how to eat pussy?

Papa Gaines never sat you down,
said 'son, one day,

you're going to
have to eat the pussy?'

'No, but he did teach me
how to eat a butthole.'"

- Look.

I admit, I don't remember that
scene from The Giving Tree,

but it's been a while.

And in retrospect,
it does make sense

for the tree to
sit the boy down

and explain how to rock
the box.

It's an important lesson.

But while that hearing was
clearly ridiculous,

the law itself is serious.

Violating it could carry
a felony charge

with a penalty of $25,000

and a sentence of
up to five years.

Many have called it a book ban,

although the bill's backers
push back on that,

with one of the speakers who
supported it saying,

"We are not banning or burning.
We are protecting."

Although I'll tell you what

you're definitely
not protecting.

That is my ears from hearing
"eat the pussy" four times

out of this woman's mouth.

But while West Virginia
may not be burning books,

obscenity bills and
similar moral panics

are spreading around
the country

in places like Missouri,

where a candidate for office
released this video.

- This is what I will do
to the grooming books

when I become
secretary of state.

- ♪ Let's go.
Welcome to the main event ♪

♪ Applying pressure,
but I promise... ♪

- These books come from
a Missouri Public Library.

When I'm in office,
they will burn.

- OK. So there is a lot
not to like there,

including that her flamethrower
is apparently

fueled by liberal tears,
which what?

I'm not saying the GOP's
messaging is in disarray,

but are liberal tears the thing
you love to drink

because your enemy's sadness
tastes so sweet,

or is it the deadly fuel for

your very cool shark-themed
flamethrower?

Because you've got to
pick a fucking lane there.

But for now,
let's turn to Alabama,

which has been reeling
after a major decision

from its highest court.

- This morning,
a first-of-its-kind decision

by the Alabama Supreme Court
that could

put families' access
to fertility treatments

in the post-Roe era at risk.

The court determining
frozen embryos

qualify as people

under its state law,

ruling "unborn children are

"children without exception

based on developmental stage."

- Yeah, they ruled
frozen embryos

are the same as people,

which is wrong for
a bunch of reasons.

Mainly, if you freeze
an embryo, it's fine.

If you freeze a person,
you have some explaining to do.

Now, that ruling could have
massive implications

for anyone who needs
IVF to conceive,

and that is a lot of people.

Around 2% of babies born
in the US are from IVF.

Already multiple
fertility clinics

have paused treatment in the
wake of this decision,

which, as anyone who's ever
undergone IVF will tell you,

isn't something
you can just do.

IVF cycles take weeks
of careful monitoring

and expensive treatments.

You can't just hit pause
and wait out a court case.

This is a seismic decision.

And the reason the court
was hearing this case

to begin with was pretty wild.

- The case in question
involved a patient

who managed to access
the freezer

storing frozen embryos at
an Alabama fertility clinic.

The patient picked up
multiple embryos

and mistakenly dropped
and destroyed them.

- Yet the court ruled that
the clinic could be sued

for wrongful death.

And while that accident
is genuinely horrible,

someone wandering into a lab

and dropping frozen embryos
just isn't murder.

If anything,
it sounds like the script

for a pretty tasteless Mr. Bean
sequel, but that is it.

And look, the reason clinics
are pausing treatment

right now is that nobody
quite knows what it could mean

for an embryo to be legally
equivalent to a person

going forward.

What happens if an embryo
is stored improperly?

What if they're,
as inevitably happens,

left over or destroyed in
the implantation process?

What about genetic testing,

which can reduce
the risk of miscarriage,

but does carry a slight risk of
damaging embryos?

Would that now be considered
a wrongful death?

It is chaos.

And experts say that courts
in other states

could try and issue
similar rulings.

But none of this should be
that surprising.

This ruling is a natural
outgrowth of the concept

of fetal personhood,

long pushed by hardline
anti-abortion groups,

which Republicans have
spent decades courting.

And some politicians
suddenly seem alarmed

to have to deal with
the consequences of a movement

that they have
actively empowered.

Nikki Haley, for instance,
spent the week

trying to reconcile
her position that,

"when you're talking about
an embryo,

you're talking about a life,"

with what that actually means
in legal terms.

Meanwhile watch as Alabama
Senator Tommy Tuberville

seemed to realize the problems
with his position in real time.

- Do you have a reaction to the
Alabama Supreme Court ruling

on the fact that embryos
are children?

- Yeah, I was all for it.

We need to have more kids.

We need to have an opportunity
to do that.

And I thought this was
the right thing to do.

- But IVF is used to
have more children.

And right now,
IVF services are paused

at some of the clinics
in Alabama.

Aren't you concerned
that this could impact people

who are trying to have kids?

- Well, that's for--that's
for another conversation.

- Well...

that's a hard one.
It really is. It's really hard.

Because again, you want people
to have that opportunity.

And that's what I was telling
her, we need more kids.

- Well, guess what, Tommy?
I got great news.

Since your political philosophy
seems to begin and end with,

we need more kids, you'll be
thrilled to know that,

thanks to a judge in Alabama,

there's now whole freezers
full of them.

Go play with all those
frosty kids, senator.

Or maybe that's not
what you had in mind

when you think of children,

which is exactly
the fucking point here.

Republicans are in a tough spot
right now,

trying to hold on to
hardline anti-abortion forces

while not alienating
the majority of Americans.

And maybe the best current
example of this

is Donald Trump.

He issued a statement this week

that he strongly supports
"the availability of IVF

for couples who are trying
to have a precious baby,"

something he referred to as
the "ultimate joy in life,"

all caps, exclamation mark.

And it's incredible how even
objectively wholesome sentences

take on an air of creepiness
when passed through

the chaotic
Trump punctuation filter.

Meanwhile, he's also been
privately floating

a federal ban on abortion
at the 16-week mark,

reportedly saying,
"know what I like about 16?

It's even. It's four months."

And I will say,
starting any sentence with,

"you know what I like
about 16,"

should be off limits for anyone
who has this many photos

with Jeffrey Epstein.

But while Trump might think 16
weeks is the reasonable option,

which it isn't,
anti-abortion forces

are hoping to use
a second Trump term

to go much, much further.

One tool they're apparently
eager to use

is the Comstock Act,
an 1873 law that criminalizes

the shipping of any materials
used in an abortion,

including abortion pills,

with one of Trump's lawyers
saying,

"We don't need a federal ban

when we have Comstock
on the books."

It was one of the key pretexts

in last year's mifepristone
ruling.

And Lindsey Graham
actually cited Comstock

when defending it.

- The idea of
mailing the drug--

sending the drug
through the mail

runs into a statute
called the Comstock Act.

- It's a very old statute
on the books.

Do you believe that the Supreme
Court should use that

as a way to ban
this abortion pill?

- Well, I think it's the law
on the books.

- Look, I guess it's not that
surprising that Graham's

endorsement of a law boils
down to, "it's on the books,"

given that "it's old
and it's there"

basically sums up
Lindsey Graham at this point.

He seems determined to stay in
the Senate

until he can complete his
Animorph-style transformation

into Beaker,
and he's getting close.

He's only a couple
of steps away.

But he's right.
The Comstock Act is

technically on the books,
meaning a Trump administration

or the judges he appoints
could try using it

to restrict abortion
without going through Congress,

which is both alarming and
something many pro-life figures

are anxious to keep quiet
for now.

That Trump lawyer
that I mentioned earlier

even said of him,

"I hope he doesn't know about
the existence of Comstock

"because I just don't want him
to shoot off his mouth.

"I think the pro-life groups
should keep their mouths shut

as much as possible
until the election."

But whenever they don't want
to talk about something,

it's probably worth
you knowing about it.

So for the record,
the Comstock Act

is named after
Anthony Comstock,

a 19th century anti-sex
crusader and postal inspector

who was, and I quote,
a "chronic masturbator"

who believed it was physically
harmful,

so launched a crusade to stamp
out the transmission

and transportation of
all obscene material."

And imagine
jerking off so much,

you make it a matter
of national security.

The Comstock Act
forbade sending by mail

"every obscene, lewd,
lascivious, indecent,

filthy or vile article, matter,
thing, device, or substance,"

as well as
"every article or thing

designed, adapted or intended
for producing abortion."

That is the clause
abortion opponents

have been using
on Mifepristone.

And they hope to expand it
to cover the shipping

of literally anything
an abortion requires.

So the Comstock Act is
a wild law

pushed for by a deeply weird,
dangerously horny man

that may soon be determining
all our reproductive freedoms.

And it's worth noting
that Comstock was also a leader

in the New York Society for the
Suppression of Vice,

whose seal, fun fact,

depicted someone burning books,

which, to be fair,
conservatives don't do anymore.

As we all know,
they use flamethrowers now.

And that is the thing that ties

everything I've just talked
about here together.

There are politicians currently
desperately trying

to distance themselves from
extreme policies

that they have enabled.

You can say, we're not trying
to ban or burn books,

but that's what's happening.

You can say,
we just want more kids,

but you're making life
incredibly hard

for people, including those
who desperately want them.

Burning books and ending IVF
are the natural endpoints

of the extreme policies
they've held hands with.

And if they are not
at least willing

to own those consequences,

then they can, in the words of
what I believe to be

this country's greatest
public speaker--

- Eat a butthole.
- Well said.

Well said, indeed.

And now this.

- And now,
more explicit readings

from concerned citizens
at public meetings.

- "The boy just talked soft to
her about how good she looked

"and things like that.

"And she grabbed his penis
with her hands

and started moving it."

- "It felt so good,
so fucking good.

"I don't know how people
do anything but have sex

if they are adults and don't
have school or parents."

- "Billy was on top of
Valencia, making love to her.

"While Billy was
making love to her,

"Billy made a noise like
a small rusty hinge.

He had just emptied his seminal
vesicles into Valencia."

- "Now, before this,
I'd sucked my share of dicks

"and had gotten plenty
of blowjobs, hand jobs,

"every kind of job.

"But the only butt sex I'd had
was with this junior

who was in love with my cock,
and he just hopped aboard."

- "And I pull and I suck
until he grows hard

"and he makes sounds
that means he likes it.

"And I keep going and going.

"And when he says, 'I'm going
to cum,' I don't pull away.

"The jet of him is warm
and salty

and tastes like
thickened sweat."

- "You can eat a girl out and
blow some air inside of her,

or you can fuck her too hard."

- "My only challenge is Brian,

who is my jerk off friend
who likes to jerk me off."

- "Son, I don't have time
for that.

"I got, like, 20 pussies
over here that I need to eat.

Is that right?
I'm on pussy deadline."

- "I didn't have a hard-on
anymore.

"That might sound weird to say.

It's also fucking complicated
and tragic, and life sucks."

I just want to mention,
I've never said the F word

ever in my life before
until just now, so.

♪ ♪

- Moving on.

Our main story tonight
concerns the internet.

It can be a magical place

but also one where things
aren't always what they seem,

as this woman learned
the hard way.

- Queen Shaydonna Hainsworth
thought she bought this,

the Instagram ad
displaying a tree

that fits in a living room,
not the palm of her hand.

- Yo!

[laughing] This is
our rainbow Christmas tree.

Like, seriously?

Like, who--
[laughs]

who is responsible for this?

- Yeah, it must be pretty
disappointing

to order a full size tree
and get whatever that is.

She must have felt like HBO did

when they ordered a comedy show
and got this instead.

Unfortunately, not every
mistake is that benign.

It is not news that there are
scammers on the internet.

But you may have noticed
that one scam in particular

is currently everywhere.

A common way that it starts is
with a weird text

from a number that you don't
recognize, like,

"Cheryl, can we move lunch
to 5," when you're not Cheryl

or, "Dave, what time is
our flight,"

when you're not Dave and you
don't have a flight booked.

Even as we worked on
this piece,

multiple members of our staff
and their friends

were getting these messages
from,

"Hello, is this the manager
Jesse from the flower shop?"

to this one reading,
"Is this Dr. John?

I'm Emily.
Is my horse recovering well?"

And I'm so glad that wasn't
sent to me

'cause it would have worked.

You're calling me Dr. John?
I'm instantly on board.

And you're assuming that
I'm around a horse

for medical reasons?

That's exactly what
I've been saying.

I'm allowed to touch it
like that.

I'm a doctor.

And I know most people
ignore messages like those.

But some write back,
get sucked into a conversation,

and eventually, through
a process that we'll get into,

can end up losing
a lot of money.

It's a scam with
a striking name

that newscasters can't seem
to get over.

- It's called
a "pig butchering scam."

And it might sound like
a gruesome name,

but that's because the amount
of money victims are losing

is painful.

- The scammers have
a terrible term

for what Wendy went through.

They call it "pig butchering."

- The New Mexico Securities
Division calls them

"pig butchering scams."

I know, but listen,
don't worry.

There are no pigs or
any other animals involved.

- Yes, don't worry.

There are no pigs harmed in
this pig butchering scam,

although if the words
do make you squeamish,

it's worth noting that
there is a process

through which pigs
are harmed every day.

It's actually how we get bacon,
pork and other products.

It's called "pig butchering."

And it's exactly
what it sounds like.

But the name makes
a little more sense

once you understand
how the scam actually works.

- In the world of cyber and
counter-terrorism threats,

Special Agent Hassani
has seen it all.

But in 2021, he began seeing
a new scam, pig butchering.

- But it just refers to
raising little piglets,

fattening them up,
and butchering them.

They're fattening up
their victim with

illusions of grandeur,
of wealth, of love,

before bleeding them dry.

- That is rough.

Because imagine being
a victim of this scam,

turning on the news,
and suddenly learning that

the shorthand for people in
your situation is the pigs.

Although I will say,
it could have been worse.

Pigs are awesome.

They're one of the most
intelligent animals

on the planet.
They're smarter than dogs,

most three-year-olds,
and Tom Sandoval.

To use a phrase that the police
never seem to appreciate,

it's actually an honor to
be compared to a pig.

And if you are thinking, well,
this seems like

the kind of scam that's been
around for decades,

that is partially true.

But the way this one works
is fairly new.

And in the short time
that it's been around,

it's been massively successful.

Just this month, it was at
the center of

a huge local news story
in Kansas,

where it brought down
a financial institution.

- I was surprised.

I was shocked.
I was disappointed.

- Kansas State Bank
Commissioner David Herndon is

talking about the massive
cryptocurrency scam

at the Heartland Tri-State
Bank in Elkhart.

- In a cryptocurrency scheme

that the FBI has now referred
to as "pig butchering."

- In this case,
Herndon says the victim

was Sean Haynes,
the bank's own CEO.

And he's now facing charges of
embezzling nearly $50 million,

a loss that caused the bank
to fail last August.

- That's true.

According to prosecutors,
a bank CEO got pig butchered,

sent his scammer the bank's
holdings,

and the bank went under,

which is alarming
for several reasons.

Among them,
is that how banks work?

Because it really feels like
there should be at least

one step between
CEO gets tricked,

and, whoops, the bank's empty.

It's estimated that,
as of 2022,

this scam was taking people
for more than $3 billion a year

in the US alone.

And that's almost certainly
a massive undercount,

as it only includes people
who reported their losses

to the FBI.

So given all of that, tonight,

let's talk about
pig butchering,

why it's easier to fall for
then you might think,

who's behind it, and what we
can do

to protect ourselves
and our liked ones

from getting scammed
in the future.

And let's start with
where this began.

And to do that, unfortunately,

we do need to go back to the
place that no one wants to go,

the beginning of COVID.

You remember COVID.

It's the Stephen Miller
of diseases,

in that we were
all very worried about it

a few years ago and have
since moved on

even though it's still
extremely dangerous.

But that is when pig butchering
took off.

Basically,
at the start of COVID,

many of us were isolated
and lonely,

desperately looking for
human contact online,

which made us ripe targets.

At the same time,
organized crime groups in China

running casinos in Southeast
Asia were in crisis

as, thanks to the pandemic,

gamblers weren't showing up.

So they turned those casinos
into bases

for online scam operations.

And from there, their workers
identified people

and preyed on
their vulnerabilities.

And let me walk you through
the basic steps here.

The first is to make contact
and lure your target in.

Listen to this woman explain
how her scammer,

who called himself Jimmy,
contacted her at a moment

when she was dealing with
cancer, the pandemic,

and the end of her marriage.

- First message, it came as
a very innocent message.

[soft pensive music]

♪ ♪

I said, "wrong number."

♪ ♪

He came back,

"You look Chinese.
Are you Chinese?"

And I said, yes.

He had moved here
just before COVID.

And then COVID hit and so
he's not able to go home.

♪ ♪

He was a--

[sighs]

A lonely man
in need of comfort.

Jimmy would message me
every day.

I do remember receiving
these emojis with hearts.

♪ ♪

[heartbeat thumping]

It's quite flattering
for a middle-aged woman

to meet a young man
who finds you attractive.

- Yeah, of course
that's flattering.

Because scammers are
telling their targets

what they want to hear most
in that moment.

We might not all fall for
a GIF of a heart-pumping emoji.

But if someone sent me
nerd with glasses plus football

plus learning plus statistics
equals fire emoji,

me personally,
why, I would nut.

And look, one way of making
contact

is through those wrong number
texts.

But experts that
we've talked to

estimate that they only make up
about a quarter

of the initial contacts
for this scam.

The rest can come through
sites like LinkedIn,

dating apps, Instagram,
or Facebook,

places specifically designed

for you to meet people
that you don't know,

either for love, a hookup, or,
in the case of LinkedIn,

to find out what kind of person
is still on fucking LinkedIn.

And scammers often research
their target

using social media,

where there is a lot of
information about people.

So they can pretend to
have something in common.

Take this woman who met
someone on a dating app,

only to discover
that they shared

an unexpected connection.

- He started asking questions
about my family

and my past experiences.

- It was a connection that
felt even stronger, she says,

when he told her he came from
the same town in China

from where Hutchinson
was adopted.

- We kind of bonded over that.

- Yeah, I bet they did.
And I've got to say,

it says something about men
on dating apps

that they connected so well
simply because

he did things like
ask her questions about herself

and listen to her responses.

I don't want to say
the bar for men is low,

but that story started with him

asking her questions
about her life

and ends with her giving him
all of her money.

But regardless of
how they start,

sooner or later, we move on
to step two,

turning the conversation toward
money.

But even then,
there's a smart twist.

Because you won't be suddenly
asked to wire money

to a Nigerian prince with
an obviously fake email

like, RealPr1nce, spelled with
a "1" instead of an "I,"

at scum dot farts.

With pig butchering, there's
no direct ask for money at all.

Instead, an opportunity
gets presented to you.

Just watch as this man explains
the moment

when a guy that he met on a
dating site

started to reel him in.

- He spent at least
a month daily

talking to me and
cultivating my friendship.

- Initially, the only talk
about money

was how much his new online
friend had made in crypto.

After all, Scott thought
he knew

how to protect himself
from scams.

- "You can invest with me, and
I'll make you all this money."

And it's like,
I'm not giving you money.

That's not happening.

So that's when he started,
"no, you don't give it to me.

You establish your own account,
and I'll guide you."

- Right.
That's the clever hook here.

You're not sending
the scammer money.

They're helping you set up
and control your own account.

And everything seems
more legitimate

when there's an app involved.
You don't think so?

When is the last time
you took an Uber?

Oh, get in a nondescript car
with someone I've never met?

I would never do that.

But wait, what's this?
I can do it from my phone?

Well, in that case,
here's my address.

Now you know where I live
and that I won't be home

for the evening.
My name's John.

I don't know your last name,
but that doesn't matter

because I'm also not
committing your face to memory.

Everything's safe.
There's an app involved.

And the fact the investment
is often in crypto

can be persuasive
for multiple reasons.

First, who really knows
how crypto works?

I know your friend's weird
husband claims that he does,

but he sucks to talk to.

So sadly,
it must remain a mystery.

But people have made money
on crypto.

So it's not unreasonable
to think

you might meet one of them

and they could give you
some tips, on top of which

you may not be super familiar

with how a trading platform
operates

or even what one looks like.

And scammers have created

incredibly plausible-looking
platforms.

We got this footage of one,

which seems to have
all the detail

and functionality
of a real one.

And I'll be honest,
I could be fooled by that.

Also, some scammers use
legitimate apps

that allow anyone to build
a trading exchange.

The problem is there are tools
that scammers can use

to simulate fake results
on those apps

while taking your money.

Just watch this journalist
explain how this gave

one victim false confidence.

- In MetaTrader,
it looks just like

any kind of normal trading
interface that one would use.

It's available in
the Google Play Store.

It's available in
the Apple App Store.

It's an app that has
a lot of good ratings.

And that was one of the things
that made Cy think that

this whole operation
was legitimate.

He believed that his
investment was making money.

If you're trading on a
legitimate trading interface,

you see the profits and losses
over time.

And this is exactly
what he saw.

- Right. If your friend told
you to download an app

and you saw it in the
App Store with good reviews,

you might assume everything
on it was legitimate,

even before you saw
MetaTrader's logo,

which looks like
three men in suits

jerking each other off
under a table--

an appropriate metaphor
for cryptocurrency

if I have ever seen one.

Some scammers even set up
additional features

like two-factor authentication

or customer service lines.

This woman tried her best
to do due diligence

on the site that she was sent

and came away convinced
that it was real.

- There was a legal secretary
involved in another state,

vouching association
with a law firm

where it was sending money to.

She's real. I could verify her.

So it was very complex
and well rehearsed.

- She spoke with a legal
secretary and a law firm

before sending money.

And that is more vetting than
I've done

for my kids' daycare.

Look, I love them and
they're very precious to me,

but they're also loud, sticky,
and one of them is just getting

stronger and stronger
every day.

So if you have
a building with walls

and a phone number
that I can call, I trust you.

Take them for the afternoon.

And at this point
in the process,

things might look pretty good
for the people getting scammed.

You've sent a bit of money to
a legitimate looking site

through an account
that you control.

And your new friends' trading
tips seem to be working,

so maybe you send
a little bit more.

And pretty soon, you might have
a fair amount of money

tied up on this trading
platform.

But when you eventually
go to withdraw it,

that is where we hit
the final step of this process.

Remember that woman you saw
earlier

whose online friend claimed
that he was from the same town

where she was born?

Well, she'd convinced her dad
to invest as well.

They'd seemingly made
a bunch of money,

and then this happened.

- By December, their accounts
showed a combined balance

of $1.2 million.

And Hutchinson decided
it was time to cash out.

That's when the site told her,

before she could withdraw
her money,

she'd have to pay a hefty
tax bill of roughly $380,000.

- That's when I was like,
something's not right.

- It wasn't.

The cryptocurrency investments
weren't real.

All her and her father's funds

had gone into
the scammers' pockets.

In all, $390,000 stolen.

- I messed up my life.
I messed up my dad's life.

- She told me
that it was all a scam.

- Hutchinson's father, Melvin.

- And all I could do was just
hug her and tell her it's OK.

[sobbing]
It's OK.

And it was hard.

It was hard because
we lost everything.

- Yeah.
Their money had already gone.

And that tax bill was
just an attempt

to squeeze them one last time.

And theirs isn't
the only brutal story here.

This woman lost $350,000.

This guy lost $300,000.

And that woman who fell for
Jimmy sent him $2.5 million

as she was dealing with
terminal cancer.

It is traumatic and
it's humiliating.

And it took courage for
those people to come forward.

And that is partly why experts
think the $3 billion figure

that we have is way too low

because most people who've been
scammed like this

simply don't report their
losses out of embarrassment.

And at this point,
you're probably furious

with the people on
the other end

of all of these messages
and want to see them taken down

or, at the very least,
fucked with.

And that does happen a lot.

People post screengrabs messing
with scammers all the time,

like in this exchange,
where someone replies

to wrong number text with,

"My name is Inigo Montoya,"
and,

"you don't by any chance have
six fingers

on your right hand, do you?"

Or this one where
a scammer writes,

"I'm Sarah, nice to meet you,"
with a picture.

And gets the reply,
"Weewee weewoo boner alert."

Look.

Look, I'll be honest.

That doesn't seem like
the right sound to me.

That's not what--I probably
would have gone with,

awooga, awooga, boner alert,

but reasonable people
can disagree.

All bodies are different.

There's no one right sound
for a boner alert.

But here's the thing:

as cathartic as that might be,

the person on the other end
of that phone

might not be the one
you should be mad at.

Because remember when I said
that this would be done

in former casinos by organized
crime syndicates?

It turns out,
they're not great bosses.

- This compound is where
an Indian man named Rakesh

says he was forced to work

for more than 11 months
without pay

for a Chinese criminal gang.

Rakesh, who doesn't want to be
identified,

says he first flew to Thailand

for what he thought was
an IT job.

Instead he says he was tricked

into crossing the border
to Myanmar,

where a Chinese gangster
told him to work or else.

He threatened to kill you?

- And the job?

Spend 16 hours a day on
social media

targeting Americans with
a fake profile.

- That is awful.

No one should be forced
to spend 16 hours a day

on social media.

You should do it either
because you love it

or because you are 15 years old

and the algorithm has addicted
you to it--

you know,
completely normal reasons.

A lot of these organizations
are using people

who've been human trafficked

after being lured to
the compounds

under false pretenses.

They are actually the victims
of a scam themselves.

Basically, they might see
job ads for skilled positions

as translators
or IT specialists

in another country.

They then go through
a whole application process,

with some going through up to
four seemingly legitimate

online interviews,
and fly to their new job,

at which point
they suddenly learn

their new bosses have
their documents

and they now can't leave.

Back in 2022,
ProPublica estimated that

tens of thousands of people

have been tricked in this way.

And a more recent UN report
estimated that

hundreds of thousands of people

have been forcibly engaged
in this scheme.

They also say most victims are
confined to the scam compound,

and their screens are
always monitored

by the members of
the organized crime group.

And once they are in, they are
provided fake profiles

to try and hook people in with.

Here is who Rakesh found
himself being all day.

- Posing as a Salt Lake
City-based investor

named Klara Semonov,

Rakesh flirted online
with potential targets.

- Yeah,
Rakesh was Klara Semonov

from Salt Lake City.

So before we go any further,

anyone who thinks that
they are dating Klara,

I'm afraid you are not.

The relationship is over.

It's not you,
but it's also not her.

It's Rakesh.

But also, it isn't him.

It's Rakesh's boss
who won't let him leave.

The whole operation
is highly organized

and set up to get around
the usual ways

that you might detect a scam.

For instance,
some organizations

generate their own photos
for the profile

so that they can't be
reverse image searched.

And employees are given manuals
like these

that guide them through
every step of the process.

They're told to target people
who look wealthy

and successful.

One advises, on the first day,
talk about things like

your name, age,
occupation and hobbies.

Then the next day, talk about
your emotional experience

with a message divided
into two paragraphs.

And then on the third day,

talk about your entrepreneurial
experience.

They're even given tips
on how to break down

people's defenses.

- We reviewed several of
these manuals,

and they carefully explain

how to build trust
and exploit weaknesses

in their so-called client,
such as--

- You know, the chilling thing
is that's kind of true.

If you're funny enough,

you can make people forget
a lot of things,

whether it's common sense
internet safeguards,

lessons from
previous relationships,

or that they've been
accidentally learning about

financial fraud
and human trafficking

for the last 20 minutes.

We're having fun, aren't we?

And if you're thinking,
well, why don't authorities

just shut these compounds down?

Sometimes they're in on it.

Here is one man
who was trafficked

to a scam center in Cambodia,

explaining what happened
when he did the obvious thing.

- On his second day
in captivity,

Liu emailed
the Chinese Embassy.

He was advised to call
the Sihanoukville police.

But the police never came.

- The property management
came instead.

They knew that
I'd called the police.

- Liu says the managers
then sold him to

another scamming company.

- He said,
because I called the police,

they had to take care of
the police

with at least $4,000

and I had to pay for that, too.

- Yeah, the authorities
weren't going to help him,

which actually makes sense
when you learn

that according to UN estimates,

pig butchering in Cambodia
brings in an amount

equivalent to
half the country's GDP,

which is worrisome because,
as everyone knows,

when something generates
that much money,

you don't shut it down.

You spin it off and pray
the magic works a second time.

Come on.

And conditions in these
compounds can be brutal.

That man you saw
earlier, Rakesh,

took photos of abuse
like this one,

of a co-worker
who'd been beaten.

And Liu, who managed to get
out, now works to free others.

And the stories of what
he's seen are--fair warning--

hard to watch.

- I saw a man get beaten up
very badly.

He had injuries all over
his body.

- Liu contends it was this man

who was reportedly found
hanging just hours later.

- I'm certain it was him.

- His phone is
full of messages

from Chinese citizens,

desperate to be freed
from scam companies.

There's videos of abuse.

Liu says he receives them
directly from victims

inside the scam industry

or finds them posted
in social media group chats.

And he's got handcuffs.

They're shocking.

- That is horrifying.
And when you know all of this,

it kind of starts to change
who exactly you are mad at here

because, suddenly,
the individuals on

the other end of the phone

don't seem quite so fun
to send a message of

"weewoo weewoo boner alert" to.

Not that that isn't
an excellent text.

Who doesn't love a boner alert?

But there's a time and a place,
and this might not be it.

Also, from now on,
whenever you get a sexy text

from a new stranger,
good luck not thinking,

is this a man who
was just beaten

in a work camp in Myanmar?

And that, if anything,
is the John Oliver effect.

You are welcome.

And look, I can't say that
every scammer

is someone who was kidnapped,
tortured, and forced to do it.

But even if not everyone
who's doing this

is trapped or coerced,

the very fact that many are

is still a huge problem.

So what can we do here?

Well, when it comes to those
imprisoned in these compounds,

that's going to take
collaboration between

international law enforcement.

So unless you are
the head of Interpol,

which I'm guessing you are not,

there's not much
you personally can do.

In this country, I'd argue that
platforms like these

should be doing way more
to prevent the creation

of fake accounts
to target people

because it's happening
on their watch.

But the truth is,
perhaps the most effective way

to stop this from happening

is to make it less lucrative

by having fewer people
fall for it.

And that is where awareness
of this scam is key.

This is one of those rare cases
where raising awareness

is in itself genuinely useful.

Because hopefully
you've seen tonight,

this could happen
to someone you know.

This hasn't just sucked in
old people

or those who aren't tech savvy.

It managed to reel in
a bank CEO.

Everyone has an image of
the type of person

who is susceptible to getting
scammed in their heads.

But unless that image is
a mirror, you might be wrong.

So as a general rule,
when a stranger on a dating app

says either "I love you"
or "crypto"

within a month of
talking to you, worry.

Honestly, even if they don't
turn out to be scammers,

those are pretty good red flags

to be looking for,
personality-wise.

And it's worth telling
your friends and family

about pig butchering too.

It doesn't have to be
a big lecture or anything.

You can just send them
a link to this show.

And if they say,
"I hate that guy,"

say, "yeah, me too.
He's the worst.

Just skip past the jokes."

And if they say,
"I'll watch it,

but he looks like
a LEGO accountant,"

"wait, no, he looks like
ChatGPTs answer to,

'show me a virgin,'"

"wait, no, he looks like
Harry Potter if he just

stayed under the stairs,"
just leave them on read.

You don't have to
completely sell me out.

Maybe drop a thumbs up emoji,
but please, leave it at that.

And look, if you know someone
who's been scammed like this,

try to be kind.

It is human to
want companionship.

And it's actually
a nice quality

to be trusting of people.

And it sucks that the internet,

which should be a way
to alleviate loneliness,

can be turned into a tool
to exploit it.

But maybe, if we all look out
for one another,

we can ensure that the worst
mistake anyone ever makes

on the internet is
inadvertently buying

an excellent Christmas tree
for gay mice.

Because honestly, it's really
not that bad a purchase.

Believe me,

I know what I'm talking about.

Now this.

- And now, local news loses it

over Major League Baseball's
new pants.

- Major League Baseball
introduced

new uniforms this year,
but there's a problem.

The pants are made of
thinner fabric,

making them
almost see through, Chris.

- Wait, what?
- Mm-hm.

Now photos all over--
- You've got my attention.

I'm listening.
- [chuckles]

Luckily, the tucked-in shirts
keeping things covered.

Look at him and his hands.
[gasps]

- They're definitely
see-through, right?

You could see the little tags.
- Well, we saw it.

That's for sure.
- What's "it"?

Oh--
- The--

- [laughs]
Steve! Wow.

- We--we saw--
- We can go to weather now.

- Does he look happy
wearing them? No.

He looks happy wearing them.

- Do you see the problem,
though?

- I don't think girls are
saying

there's a problem there.
- [laughs]

- The players, I think,
probably have

an issue with it.
- Oh.

- Now if I've got patterns
on my boxer briefs,

everyone's going to see that?
- I don't know.

I'm suddenly very interested
in baseball.

- Bianca is on her elbows
on the desk here.

- Can we zoom in to
these photos

a little bit more?
- Stop it!

- I can't tell 'cause
I have bad eyes.

- You can see the shirt
tucked in.

- [laughs] OK.

- Maybe these uniforms
will get more women

that aren't watching baseball
already to watch baseball.

- You've got Derica's interest.
- That's what I said.

- She's googling over here.
I'm like--

- [laughs] Right?

- It's a good
recruiting device.

- Yes, it is.

- I see nothing wrong
with the pants.

- I think they're fine.

- I was inspecting.
Didn't see a problem.

- Uh-huh.

- All right,
if snakes make you--

[laughter]

- Who put this order
of these stories?

- Oh, boy.

♪ ♪

- That's our show.
Thanks so much for watching.

We'll see you next week.
Good night!

[cheers and applause]

[uplifting music]

♪ ♪

I would nut!

[bright tone]