Dad being pig butchered $300k

To recovery scammers – This is throwaway account and I will report all recovery scammers

TL:DR My dad lost $300k to Romance/pig butcher/investment scam. He also helped scammer do money laundering but charge was dropped recently.

Whole story:

My dad clicked some « stock investment » ad from facebook, later joined whatsapp group for « investment ». It started with regular daily stock investment tips, followed by « assistant » inviting him for « secret investment group » and prompt him downloading fake investment apps. They told my dad they can acquire bunch of pre-IPO stocks shares without selection process. My dad sent $300k within 2 months. Of which $200k was borrowed from his friends. He hands everything to scammers in cash so these are literally not traceable. Scammers also told him not to told anything to other family/friends. Combined with romance scam, my dad trusted everything scammer told him until he can’t withdraw anything he sent – He truly believed he’s chatting with this beautiful women calling him « dad ». In the meanwhile, he also helped scammer to receive funds from other victims and handed cash to other money mules.

We were aware of this condition and tried to told him/share with him anti-scam messages. However he completely trusted young and good-looking « assistant ». He borrowed money from everyone he know. Scammer also encouraged him to sell the home and fortunately he didn’t. But he’s left with no cash and $200k debt from his friends.

There’s also bunch of dramas after scam was discovered, including selling home to pay back debt, divorce, dealing with money laundry charge. This part actually takes longer than scam itself and I don’t think my family will be the same anymore.

Finally I’d like to share some information from my country. Just last month there’s > 15,000 people getting scammed and > $250m USD lost. Usually it’s through cash and those taking cash are just disposable mules (some are even regular ones who got caught and released constantly). These mules, even caught by police, will not be able to pay anything back most likely.