Finance
How to stay protected from pig butchering financial scams? Here are 7 key steps

In simpler terms, pig butchering is a version of smishing where scammers use social media platforms for cyber theft. As the name suggests, the victim is being ‘fattened up’ through validation and friendship before ‘butchering’ i.e. stealing of funds. A simple ‘Hi/Hello’ on a social media platform from a stranger’s profile can turn into a big scam.
Also Read: ‘Pig butchering’ scams: Zerodha’s Nithin Kamath explains how these work, shares ways to remain protected
How does the pig butchering scam happen?
Receiving messages or calls from wrong numbers was a rare occurrence a few years back. However, calls, text messages and connection requests from unknown people are becoming a frequent event on social media and dating applications. As the online relationship progresses, the scammer introduces what seems like a golden investment opportunity.
This less recognized yet equally harmful tactic involves fake job offers. Here, scammers prey on job seekers by offering attractive positions, sometimes overseas. They use emotional manipulation to build trust.
Scammers often go the extra mile by creating fake apps and websites that mimic real financial institutions. Throughout the scam, there’s a heavy reliance on emotional manipulation. The scammer might act as a romantic interest or a supportive friend. This emotional connection makes it harder for the victim to doubt their intentions.
Once trust is established and the victim is emotionally invested, significant financial transactions are initiated. Whether it’s through fake investments or fraudulent job offers, the end goal is the same: to drain as much money as possible from the victim.
Also Read: Beware of Scams: Tips for safely investing in the digital world
Important steps to protect from these scams
Stay informed: The first step in protecting yourself from financial fraud is to be aware that these scams exist. Knowing how they work can help you identify and avoid them before it’s too late. Scammers are constantly devising new and sophisticated tactics to exploit vulnerable people, so it’s important to stay vigilant.
Always double-check: If someone online suggests an investment or job, research it thoroughly. Look up the company or offer online, read reviews, and see if it’s recognized by official authorities.
Be vigilant with online friends: Always be cautious when talking to people you just started talking with, especially if they start talking about finances or investments. Avoid discussing financial matters with people online.
Keep personal information to yourself: Never share your personal or financial details like bank account details, passwords, and other sensitive information with someone you’ve just met online. Sharing personal information makes it easier for scamsters to hack into your bank accounts, so be wary of who you share it with.
Never make rushed financial decisions: If you’re being pressured to invest quickly or pay for a job opportunity, that’s a major red flag. Scammers often try to create a sense of urgency, pushing you to act before you have time to think it over. Take the time to verify the legitimacy of any investment or job prospect.
Always check the source: Don’t just take their word for it. Do your research. Look up the company or investment platform they mention. Check for the company’s physical address, licensing information, customer reviews, and social media presence. Cross-reference details across multiple reliable sources.
Get a second option before investing: Before making any investment or sharing personal details, talk to someone you trust like a family member who knows finances, a friend or a professional financial advisor. Sometimes, just talking about it out loud can reveal red flags you might not have noticed initially.
Also Read: Shielding your digital assets: How cyber insurance can provide a safety net in the face of growing cyber threats
Key takeaway
While scammers continue to devise new and sophisticated tactics, arming oneself with awareness, caution, and diligence is the key. By staying alert to the warning signs, verifying the legitimacy of any opportunities presented, and resisting the urge to make rushed decisions, individuals can significantly reduce their risk of becoming victims.
If a proposition or investment opportunity seems too good to be true, trust your instincts and analyse it carefully. It’s better to miss out on a potential opportunity than to lose your hard-earned money to a clever con artist.
Dhiren .V. Dedhia, Head – Enterprise Solutions, CrossFraud
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Published: 27 Apr 2024, 10:31 AM IST

Finance
Netflix stock pre-earnings: Is the upside already priced in?
00:00 Speaker A
We are cranking it up a few extra gears with Stock of the Week. I’m locked in on Netflix ahead of its July 17th earnings report. What’s caught my attention is that the stock has been underperforming the broader market rally this month. Shares are down five and a half percent in July while the S&P 500 is up 1.7%. Judging by the Wall Street commentary out there, analysts aren’t making too much of this trend divergence though. Needham analyst, Laura Martin, is out today raising her target price on Netflix to $1500 from $1126. She says she remains impressed with Netflix’s global scale and stable content spending. Jumping into the Yahoo Finance platform, you can see Martin isn’t alone in her bullishness. The street has hiked its 2025 EPS estimate on Netflix by 79 cents compared to just 90 days ago. They have also lifted their 2026 EPS estimate by 60 cents during that same time span. Still with me, my round table Larry Tenterelli, Steve Sosnick, and Inez Ferre. Uh, Inez, I want to go to you here on Netflix out of the jump. Netflix, I can understand why these estimates have climbed. Really for the better part of two years, Netflix has come out here and they have completely destroyed, crushed, hammered, however you want to put it, earnings estimates, and they have come out and raised guidance. I’m trying to think, why won’t that happen again, given how popular the platform is?
02:24 Inez Ferre
Well, certainly you have a lot of Wall Street that believes that they can continue to outperform as a company. I mean, they’ve had their password share crackdown. They’ve had their ad tiers that has done very well. They are pushing into live sports. So there’s a lot of reasons why the street is bullish on the stock that and you mentioned the sort of underperformance this week, but look, if you take a look at a year to date chart and you take a look at where it’s come from the April lows, you have Seaport Global that has been that noted this when they actually lowered their rating to neutral because they said, “It’s a lot that’s baked into the stock right now. And on evaluation standpoint, they’re saying, let’s just wait to for for management to execute on everything that is now priced into the share into these shares because they’ve gone up since those April lows, almost 50%.”
04:01 Speaker A
Larry, let me get over to you here. The stock has underperformed in July. Any concern or red flag on your part there ahead of earnings?
04:24 Larry Tenterelli
No, that’s part of the rotation that I discussed that started on July 1st. The chart that you just put up showed a sharp pullback in Netflix on July 1st. And we saw that with quite a few of the high momentum stocks and money moved into small caps, healthcare, home builders. And I I think it’s a normal sector rotation. Fund managers have made a lot of money this year in tech and some of these growth stocks. And I think it’s a normal rotation to book some gains and then reallocate into underperformers. Netflix is a very strong long-term uptrend. It could always consolidate after nearly a 50% move off the lows, but the long-term trend is very strong.
05:20 Speaker A
Hey Larry, that’s what I’m trying to get at. Is it, is the stock become so priced for perfection? Even if Netflix comes out again, beats on earnings, maybe the street’s just continue to inclined to sell this name.
05:37 Larry Tenterelli
That’s possible. There there’s a lot of gains in a stock like Netflix that could be booked. So as a trend follower, I’m going to stay with the weekly trend, which is strong, but a lot of these stocks have had big run-ups. So if there was some profit taking into earnings or after earnings, as long as they stay over the 50-day moving average, it really wouldn’t concern me.
06:04 Speaker A
Steve, last word to you. Is Netflix perhaps one of the most perfect stocks in the market? Uh, they had Squid Games, the finale drop at the end of the quarter. This is going to be the first full quarter where they raise prices on folks. So their profit should look pretty good. And oh yeah, there’s no tariff exposure.
06:39 Steve Sosnick
Oh, it’s certainly been a beneficiary for all the reasons you’ve suggested and both and Inez and Larry both made great points about like the the year-to-date performance and also sort of the um, end of the second quarter markup fading uh, at the as of the 1st of July. Um, but I do think, you know, it’s proven to be a very price inelastic stock. I know that I’ve tried to cancel it and my wife and kids have revolted every time I try. Can’t cancel Netflix, Steve. What are you doing, man?
07:39 Steve Sosnick
I don’t watch it. My family does. I watch other stuff. I watch more sports than Netflix, but what ends up happening is they they they rebelled and said, “Absolutely not.” And so I think they’re, you know, this company, every time they’ve tried to do something that people thought might scare off customers, it hasn’t. The question now is, is it priced, is it priced to perfection, or is it priced beyond perfection? Uh, the trends are certainly very strong. Um, it’s been a great company and the, you know, but but as with many things market-related, have we gotten we’ll find out when the earnings come out if we’ve gotten a bit ahead of our skis, um, in terms of expecting another round of perfection. But boy, the market since the last earnings, uh, the market’s really repriced this stock in a very positive way.
Finance
Ex-Google and Meta Engineers Launch Nauma: Personalized Financial Planning Tools for Tech Professionals
SAN FRANCISCO, July 10, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — A team of former Google and Meta engineers has launched Nauma, a new platform designed to help people working in tech navigate complex financial decisions with confidence. Nauma’s mission is to democratize fiduciary-quality financial guidance, providing highly personalized planning tools without the high costs of traditional financial advisors.
Today, most high-net-worth families rely on advisors who charge based on Assets Under Management (AUM)—typically 1% of a client’s assets each year. For a family with $5 million, that means paying $50,000 annually, even as the level of service often remains static. Worse, these fees tend to rise 6–8% per year as portfolios grow, creating a system where costs scale without a proportional increase in value.
“The AUM model is outdated and misaligned with clients’ best interests,” said Alex Sukhanov, co-founder of Nauma. “Advisors operating under this model are incentivized to keep assets under their control, which can lead to biased advice when clients actually want to use their money—to buy real estate, start a business, or donate to charity.
Nauma is designed to give tech professionals clarity and control over their financial lives. The platform addresses the complex challenges faced by this group, including optimizing taxes, managing equity compensation, planning for early retirement, and protecting generational wealth.
“Tech professionals are building substantial wealth earlier in their lives, but most tools and advisors aren’t designed for their unique needs,” said Simone, Nauma’s co-founder. “We’re building the modern, intelligent financial planning infrastructure we wish we had—one that puts people, not assets, first.”
For more information, visit https://nauma.ai
About Nauma
Founded by ex-Google and Meta engineers, Nauma provides advanced financial planning tools tailored for people working in tech. By replacing the legacy AUM fee model with scalable, technology-driven solutions, Nauma empowers users to navigate complex financial decisions and build wealth on their own terms.
Media Contact
hello@nauma.ai
A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/74982a9a-7d84-4a5c-8e07-edb337b65345
Finance
Mark J. Epley Joins SEDA Experts, Bringing Decades of Corporate Finance, Leveraged Finance, and M&A Expertise
SEDA Experts LLC, a leading expert witness firm providing world-class financial expert witness services, announced today that Mark J. Epley joined the firm as Managing Director.
New York, NY, July 08, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — “Mark brings exceptional knowledge of corporate finance to our franchise,” said Peter Selman, Managing Partner of SEDA Experts.
Mark Epley is a seasoned investment banking executive with over 30 years of experience in corporate finance, leveraged finance, and M&A. He served as Chairman of the Financial Sponsors Group Americas at HSBC Securities, where he led global coverage teams and delivered significant growth. Mark has also held senior leadership roles at other global franchises including Nomura, Deutsche Bank, and Morgan Stanley.
At HSBC, Mark built and grew the Americas Financial Sponsors Group. He managed coverage for premier clients such as Blackstone, Apollo, BlackRock, Carlyle, Bain Capital, TPG, and Warburg Pincus. Additionally, Mark contributed strategically as a member of HSBC’s Americas Investment Banking Division Management Committee, influencing firm-wide strategy and talent recruitment.
Prior to HSBC, Mark co-founded the Americas Investment Banking Division at Nomura Securities International and held roles as Global Head of the Financial Sponsors Group and Co-head of Corporate Finance Americas. He led a global team of 80 bankers across five offices, and was an active member of Nomura’s Global Investment Banking Division Executive Committee. Mark joined Nomura from Deutsche Bank Securities where he also served as Global Head of the Financial Sponsors Group,
Mark began his career at Morgan Stanley & Company, where he was Executive Director and founded the middle market coverage effort within the Financial Sponsors Group. He managed over 100 equity capital markets transactions, including IPOs, follow-ons, convertible bonds, and spin-offs. He was also involved in Mergers & Acquisitions and Restructuring transactions. His career started at a predecessor firm to JP Morgan, Manufacturers Hanover Trust (MHT), focusing on credit analysis and corporate coverage.
Mark presently acts as a Senior Advisor to SQ Capital supporting the origination and build at a unique and differentiated fund focused on investing in Private Equity secondary transactions.
Mark holds an MBA in Finance from Columbia Business School, where he earned Dean’s List honors, and a BA in Politics from Princeton University. He has also completed executive education programs in Energy Innovation & Emerging Technologies at Stanford University and Strategic Wealth Management at Columbia University.
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