Pig Butchers and Dog Pushers

When I first started researching Pig Butchering ( 杀猪盘 or Shā zhū pán) I was surprised to find the surge in popularity of the term was related to a dramatic rescue of a man who had been subjected to human trafficking. The story of Hao Zhendong (郝振东) was repeated widely in Chinese television programs and is part of the responsibility for the "pig butchering" term becoming so popular. I won't retell that story here (please do see my blog post at Cybercrime & Doing Time for more details.)

Tonight I stumbled across another term that I recognized from the Hao Zhendong story: "dog pusher" (“狗推” Gǒu tuī.) Dog pusher (which I'm told could also be translated "dog's leg" is a derogatory term for an assistant, perhaps even an assistant who has no talent? Hao says that when he first started working for the traffickers his first job was to be a "dog pusher" which meant that he started baiting the hook for the money manipulation people by beginning the process of identifying romance scam targets. Where I came across the term was in the name of a Telegram channel. The channel was called 狗推素材库 and you'll recognize that those first two characters are  Gǒu tuī - "dog pusher." The next three characters complete the phrase "Dog pusher material library."

This library is a place for people to share original photos that can be used in the introductory phase of the romance scam to share interesting facts about their character, the place they live, and the things they do during their day. The goal is that none of these images is supposed to be something that can be reverse image searched.

The first Dog Push Material Library group is for "character design" which is mostly pictures of women as if the woman is taking a photo of herself. Lots of legs in stockings and gym selfies that hide the face of the woman.

The next channel can be seen at goutuibao (or sucaibao) and consists of "scenes around your character's city." One set of photos from earlier this week showed scenes from a military ship. Others showed a construction scene for a large skyscraper, the racks of clothes in a Shenzhen market street, subway scenes near Rockefeller Center in New York City, a Paris street by the river, or photos that one might take when flying to Switzerland on business.

The next set of Dog Pusher Material Library channels are about "things that might happen at work." Scenes of offices, team building exercises, co-workers and colleagues ... but also photos of pets.

The next Dog Push Material collection has to do with places your character lives and what your character drives. The focus is on internal views of houses or apartments and luxury vehicles. The goal is to remind the future romance scam / investment scam victim "hey! I'm super wealthy and you could be too!"

The next Dog Push Material channel is all about food. What did you eat? where did you eat it? (and/or with whom did you eat?) Again - make your character's life look glamorous, but also always have something to talk about. Sharing tons of photos is partly about building credibility, but also about always having something to talk about. The goal of the dog pusher is to make this person dependent on the character. They must believe you are their favorite person to spend time chatting with. Credibility is built before the investment pitch is made.

Each of these channels has more than 1,000 sets of photos on their assigned theme. Most of the "characters" in wealthy roles where they can travel freely, which makes it easier to use impressive photos from all around the world.

The final category in our review of "Dog Push Material" channels is Nightlife.

There is another whole set of channels that are closely linked to this set, however those are about sex and we'll not dive into those. Suffice it to say that there are groups dedicated to featuring various aspects of female anatomy and some of the male anatomy as well.

Other groups linked from this set of channels include the "Southeast Asia Account Trading Department" for acquiring appropriate pre-built accounts on WeChat, QQ, Alipay, Weibo, Facebook, Tantan, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, TikTok, Apple, Twitter, Telegram, TextNow, Google Voice, Amazon, Grindr, ZALO, Reddit, Odnoklassniki, VKontakte, Tinder, Badoo, Seeking, OKC, Soul, Bumblebee, and others.

The social media account trading network requires you to join a paid Telegram channel in order to access the accounts for sale. If you are a buyer, you message @XuQiuBu to start. If you are a seller, you messages @GongYingBu.