1️⃣ A financial disaster triggered by love

In 2021, a burgeoning investor in the emerging digital asset field in China—we'll call him 'Lin'—fell into a two-year emotional scam. Over two years, he transferred more than 200 million yuan to a woman and her 'partners.' This is not just a personal tragedy, but a highly socialized, organized 'script killing,' exposing multiple crises of emotional manipulation, financial fraud, and the collapse of social trust structures on current online platforms.

This scam started with a sweet selfie and evolved into a 'high-IQ pig-butchering scam' that spanned multiple locations and involved many people. The criminal gang fabricated multiple false scenarios such as 'public security case', 'tax freeze', 'cross-border transactions', and 'noble background', leading the victim step by step into the abyss.

Even during the last meeting—at Shanghai Disneyland, the victim discovered that the woman did not match her social media image, yet still did not report it to the police. The reason is simple: 'She said if I left, she would jump off the building.' Emotional blackmail and financial extortion intertwined to form a brainwashing environment comparable to 'mental pyramid schemes.'

2️⃣ 'Script killing' structured scams: professional, systematic, cross-platform

This is not a one-person battle—the victim faces a scripted, industrial-level operation of a scam gang:

Emotional role: The 'lover' is set as a gentle, tragic, and wounded 'rich beauty,' narrowing the emotional distance.

Authoritative roles: 'Lawyer', 'Partner', 'Creditor', 'Police' take the stage one by one, playing roles of pressure, intimidation, and coordination, creating 'legal crises.'

Mysterious roles: 'Mysterious powerful brother' and 'foreign agency informant' appear at key nodes, using 'foreign backgrounds' to enhance realism.

Intimidation phase: The script switched from 'I love you' to 'If you don't send money, expect to go to jail,' with psychological pressure escalating simultaneously.

All roles collaborate closely, with standard dialogues, and even contracts, official seals, recordings, and screenshots all have a complete forgery system. This is not 'scamming techniques,' this is 'engineering.'

3️⃣ Difficult to distinguish genuine emotions, hard to prevent scams: starting from the psychology of victims

What is worth discussing is not just 'how they scam,' but also 'why he believed.'

Lin is not an ordinary victim. He has investment experience, understands finance, and has legal knowledge. But the scammers precisely targeted his 'emotional weaknesses': being unmarried at an older age, long-term pressure, and having fantasies about true love.

When the 'love brain' meets 'script killing', even the most rational person may fall into it. A psychological expert pointed out that 'the success of the scam is not based on logic, but on the hijacking of emotional response mechanisms.' Scammers continuously create anxiety, guilt, urgency, and hope, alternating between 'love + crisis' to strike victims, making it impossible for them to judge normally.

Especially in the online context, photos, scripts, friend circles, videos, and partners can all be 'packaged'—you think you have encountered your ideal type, but in reality, the other party is just using 'precise portraits.'

4️⃣ After police intervention: who is the real mastermind?

In the summer of 2024, the victim finally reported to the police after accumulating massive debts and selling assets. The police immediately launched an investigation and quickly identified several gang members. Key accounts were frozen, and some funds were recovered. But the doubts remain:

Clearly, the woman accompanied the report, why did the police only confirm later that she was the main culprit?

Why could the gang maintain social account operations and continue to monetize?

How many similar victims are still silent?

The police responded that this case has been listed as a 'major case of high-risk emotional scams involving the internet,' and follow-up will involve cross-province investigations and case merging.

But societal questions did not stop—why could such a 'high-IQ pig-butchering scam' lurk on social platforms for so long? Should the platform's review mechanism be held accountable? Is public education absent?

5️⃣ The 'secondary script' in the public opinion arena—power to tell stories

After the incident, the victim, Lin, set up a short video account to narrate the whole story of being scammed. The content was exquisitely edited and emotionally charged, once topping the platform's hot list. Some people spoke up for him, while others questioned: 'Are you a victim or a content creator?'

In this era where everyone can become a 'narrator', being scammed is not only a personal tragedy but can also transform into a new traffic resource. Lin is indeed accusing but also narrating; he is indeed defending his rights but may also be repackaging.

This is a deeper level of reality satire—we must not only prevent being manipulated by scammers’ emotions but also be alert to being re-harvested attention amidst emotional resonance.

6️⃣ Conclusion of the wind: A warning bell for emotional financial fraud in the era

This story is not unique, but it is a microcosm:

In the triangular zone of 'emotions + finance + social platforms', scammers began to build their own 'scam product line.' They understand human nature, understand traffic, and understand the gray areas of law. They not only scam money but also consume modern people’s loneliness, anxiety, longing for companionship, and trust—a 'spiritual deficit.'

In this era, the most dangerous thing is not that you do not understand finance, but that you think 'she loves you.'

What we must be vigilant about is a new truth: even the 'victim' itself can be packaged into a business.