It's time to stop calling it "pig butchering"

Online romance and investment scams are painful enough without its victims being described as "pigs."

And yet, for some years we've called fraud related to such frauds as "pig butchering." INTERPOL has decided enough is enough and is calling for a change in the terminology, arguing that the phrase "romance baiting" is more appropriate.

"Pig butchering" is a term coined by fraudsters to describe the process by which they build a relationship with their intended victim ("fattening them up") before tricking ("butchering") them into making an unsound investment, often related to cryptocurrency.

Once victims have invested they either find themselves abruptly cut off by the fraudsters who duped them into an online relationship, or tricked into investing even more money.

The damage is not just financial, but emotional too.

The term "pig butchering" is said to have originated from a Mandarin phrase shazhupan (杀猪盘). Whether that's true or not, doesn't really matter. What does matter is that the term is dehumanising and does nothing to make the victim feel any better about what happened. Indeed, it may even prevent some from seeking help from the authorities in the first place.

INTERPOL has announced that it will no longer use the term "pig butchering" but instead use "romance baiting" when referring to crimes "where a criminal builds an emotional or romantic relationship with a victim and then uses that to defraud a victim, whether via fake investment, gambling or because of a made-up financial issue."

The change in terminology has won the support of a criminologist with expertise in forensic linguistics, Dr Elizabeth Carter of Kingston University in London.

"Academic research clearly shows the links between the tactics of fraudsters and of perpetrators of domestic abuse and coercive control. It is imperative that we do not adopt the terminology of these criminals but instead use terms that assist public protection and support victim reporting," said Dr Carter.

INTERPOL's acting executive director of police services, Cyril Gout, agrees: "Words matter. We've seen this in the areas of violent sexual offences, domestic abuse, and online child exploitation. We need to recognize that our words also matter to the victims of fraud."

The term "romance baiting" is already used by some online safety experts and law enforcement agencies, and seems a more appropriate description of what takes place - and puts the blame squarely on the shoulders of the perpetrators, rather than the victims.

As part of its "Think Twice" campaign against cyber-related and financial crimes, INTERPOL has produced a video calling for the "pig butchering" term to be dropped in favour of "romance baiting."

Words matter, and victims of fraud deserve our full support. This is a good change to make, and I - for one - support it.