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Pig Butchering Scams: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

LastWeekTonight · commentary · Watch on YouTube

Media, journalism & propagandaPrivacy, surveillance & cybercrimeLaw, policing & justice

What it is

A Last Week Tonight segment on pig butchering scams, in which long-con romance and investment fraud is run, often by trafficked workers. It explains how victims are groomed and interviews people who lost large sums.

Why Hacker News recommends it

Offered as an accessible, well-made explainer to share in threads on scam texts, crypto fraud and scam compounds.

  • 5 people recommended it
  • 5 different months
  • 2 strong recommendations
  • first 2024, last 2025

What HN commenters said

  1. “John Oliver did an excellent explainer about how pig butchering works.”

    Excellent explainer on how pig butchering works

    not2b, 2024-03 · Strong recommendation · in “What is a pig butchering scam? (2023)”

  2. “It's well worth the watch”

    Explains the long-con and interviews victims who lost hundreds of thousands

    gcanyon, 2024-10 · Strong recommendation · in “Ask HN: Should you reply STOP to unwanted texts?”

  3. “halfway decent segment on pig butchering on "Last Week Tonight" with John Oliver [4]”

    Halfway decent segment on pig butchering

    xyst, 2024-03 · Recommendation · in “Filipino police free slaves toiling in romance scam operation”

  4. “I recently watched John Oliver's video[1] about the "pig butchering" scam.”

    Explains how fake relationships and fake apps defraud victims

    hamasho, 2024-06 · Recommendation · in “Anatomy of a cryptocurrency scam”

  5. “John Oliver did a fairly decent bit about it”

    Fairly decent bit on the scam, alternative to a podcast

    ChrisMarshallNY, 2025-10 · Recommendation · in “DOJ seizes $15B in Bitcoin from 'pig butchering' scam based in Cambodia”

Excerpts from Hacker News comments, linked to the originals. Summaries and labels were written by a language model from those comments.

Topics: scams, crypto fraud, romance scams, john oliver, human trafficking

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