6 July 10 - 16, 2025 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents “was awoken by guards who told her to pack her things and prepare to leave the facility immediately,” and that attempts to notify the officers of the court order went ignored. ABC News reports that immigration offi- cials responded, “It’s not up to me,” when Sakeik said a court order barred her deporta- tion. During a previous deportation attempt on June 12, Sakeik was brought to the tarmac of the Fort Worth Alliance Airport and was told she would be sent to “the border of Is- rael,” another country where Sakeik does not have a path to citizenship, the statement says. “The cruelty the government inflicted on Ward and her family puts in stark relief just how depraved this administration’s immi- gration policies are,” said Chris Godshall- Bennett, legal director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee and coun- sel to Sakeik, in a statement. “Let’s be clear: Ward was arrested and almost deported simply because she is Palestinian and ICE thought they could get away with it. The new American secret police are out of con- trol, but the fault lies with generations of legislators who have happily demonized im- migrants in their race to the fascist bottom.” Sakeik was able to return to her North Texas home Tuesday evening, the statement says. ▼ CRIME SQUEALING OVER SENIOR SCAMS INVESTIGATOR WARNS OF NEW CRYPTO ‘PIG BUTCHERING’ SCHEME. BY EMMA RUBY T here was the Realtor whose wife liq- uidated her 401(k). The church sec- retary who invested her life’s savings. The husband who went into credit card debt, all to feed the beast. The cases that Steve Benton investigates are as unique as they are devastating. Benton is a financial counselor with the Senior Source’s Elder Financial Safety Center in Dallas, and he is increasingly finding that a new kind of scam is claiming victims across North Texas. “Pig butchering” scams, named for the practice of fattening up a pig before killing it, are an investment con where swindlers lure in a victim slowly over time, encouraging the vic- tim to give more and more money into the scam before the fraudster goes in for the “slaughter” of stealing the assets. In the last two years, Benton has seen a growing number of pig butchering scams that utilize fake cryp- tocurrency applications with the promise of extreme riches for the potential investor. “This is probably the fastest, rapidly growing con that I’ve seen in a number of years,” Benton, who has been investigating scams targeting seniors for 11 years, said. “I couldn’t even spell crypto five years ago, and to think people are jumping into these things when it’s almost totally unregulated, the con artists are taking advantage of it.” According to a report by the United States Institute of Peace, transnational crim- inal networks based primarily in Southeast Asia have jumped onto the unregulated on- line gambling and cryptocurrency markets. In 2023, online scammers stole nearly $64 billion through pig butchering, the report states. The blockchain analytics firm Chain- alysis states that online crypto scams alone likely reached an all-time high in 2024, up to $12.4 billion. Benton has investigated a dozen in- stances of seniors falling into the crypto scam. While some con-men use fake procla- mations of love to reel in a victim, others use social media applications like LinkedIn or Facebook to make seemingly harmless con- tact with a potential victim. Those profiles typically portray a fake lifestyle of lavish wealth, Benton said, and when the victim in- evitably asks, “How do you live like this?” The scammers respond, “Cryptocurrency. You could do it too.” It is then that the victim is encouraged to start sending over money, usually a small amount at first. According to Benton, the scammers use a fake cryptocurrency appli- cation to give the illusion that a person’s in- vestments are growing substantially. Across the individual cases he’s worked on, he has seen “unbelievable” losses anywhere from $500,000 to $3 million. For seniors, that sort of financial loss can be detrimental. “[This scam is] not just reserved for se- niors; the seniors are just the ones that can probably least afford to lose all their money,” Benton said. “A couple out in Plano, he was a realtor, and got a call from supposedly an Asian woman that wanted to buy a house in Plano for her mother. And so, of course, what realtor is not gonna follow up on that? So he starts interacting with what he thought was an Asian woman. … That one really hurt be- cause he was just so naive and couldn’t un- derstand that he’d lost everything.” There are “a lot of losers” involved at ev- ery level of the scam, he adds. The United States Institute of Peace report finds that la- bor trafficking is primarily used to propel the crime. Individuals from around the world are brought into the con under the pretense of a high-tech job, but are instead shuttled to a “prisonlike” compound where they are forced to find online targets, often in the United States and Europe, who will fall for the false promises of wealth. What makes funds nearly impossible to recover once handed over to the scammers is the “Wild West” nature of an unregulated crypto market and some of the countries in- volved, Benton said. Myanmar, for example, is an epicenter for pig butchering. The coun- try has a strained relationship with the United States and is embroiled in conflict, making it nearly impossible for victims to regain their assets. FBI and Secret Service members have consulted with Benton on cryptocurrency pig butchering scams. The interest of such major organizations indicates to Benton “how significant” the problem is. “Everybody who gets scammed, no mat- ter how minor the scam is, thinks there are FBI agents, everybody waiting to help inves- tigate their case. And that’s totally not going to happen,” Benton said. “I think they are putting together a task force and really try- ing to pressure governments, because the dollars are huge.” While no one is immune to being scammed, seniors are especially vulnerable because of the threat of diminished cogni- tive abilities as one ages, and the unfamiliar- ity with online platforms that cryptocurrency thrives on. As scams like pig butchering continue to gain a foothold online, Benton said it is piv- otal for people to communicate with their elders about finances. “Ronald Reagan said during the Cold War, ‘Trust but verify.’ Now you’ve got to distrust,” Benton said. “There’s so much scamming going on out there, whether it’s texting, phone calls. The first flag is if you’re not meeting somebody face to face … in this era of Skype and FaceTime, there is no ex- cuse to not have a face-to-face relationship even over the phone.” ▼ ANIMAL WELFARE DOGS ON THE MOVE DALLAS ANIMAL SERVICES SEES RISE IN ADOPTIONS AFTER SURGE IN SURRENDERS. BY ALYSSA FIELDS D allas Animal Services (DAS) is cele- brating a historic increase in adop- tion rates for 2024, ranking as a top-five adoption center by volume in the country, but the shelter is still unable to con- trol its capacity. “We’re incredibly proud of what this team has accomplished,” said Paul Ramon, director of DAS, in a press release. “These numbers represent thousands of lives saved and families made whole—and we’re just getting started.” The shelter witnessed a 41% year-over- year increase in pet adoptions between 2023 and 2024. A grand total of 12,261 pets found their forever homes in 2024, 3,580 more than the year prior. According to shelter data, between January and May of this year, 4,353 pets were adopted. According to data from Best Friends Ani- mal Society, which tracks 4,000 shelters na- tionwide, DAS is the top-performing shelter in the state and fourth in the nation. “DAS led Texas in total adoptions by a huge margin and was responsible for nearly 4% of the national increase in shelter adop- tions — proof of what’s possible Adobe Stock Benton has investigated cases resulting in losses up to $3 million. Adobe Stock Dallas Animal Services ranks fourth in the nation for adoptions. Unfair Park from p4 >> p8
