The Indicator from Planet Money

Scam compounds, sewing patterns and stolen dimes

16 snips
Oct 10, 2025
Dive into the world of true crime as hosts explore the economics behind it! Discover the unsettling details of pig butchering scams, where relationships are weaponized for deceit. Hear about the knitting community's fight against pattern theft on Ravelry. Plus, get the inside scoop on the audacious Philadelphia dime heist, uncovering how millions in coins vanished and the aftermath of the theft. This episode is packed with intriguing stories of crime and its unexpected business angles!
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INSIGHT

Pig-Butchering Is An Organized Global Business

  • Pig-butchering scams run like global businesses with division of labor and quotas.
  • That infrastructure makes law enforcement investigations especially difficult and transnational.
ANECDOTE

Scammed Workers Forced Into Scam Operations

  • Victims recruited for call-center jobs were flown into Thailand and then held across the Myanmar border with passports confiscated.
  • They faced armed escorts and threats to meet scam quotas, turning many workers into coerced participants.
INSIGHT

Online Communities Can Enforce Creative Rights

  • Online communities like Ravelry can self-police and uncover large-scale IP misuse.
  • Collective sleuthing exposed a business selling designers' knitting patterns without compensation and triggered legal action.
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