Excellence in Video Storytelling, Long-form & Programs

Zhaoyin Feng; Other contributors: Natalia Zuo; Jake Tacchi; Monica Garnsey; Mustafa Khalili; Amanda Gunn, “The pig butchering romance scam,” BBC

ABOUT THE WORK: Each year, people around the world lose millions of dollars to a highly sophisticated scam known as 'the pig butchering romance scam'. It takes its name from the victims, who scammers call 'pigs' -- those they can 'fatten' before 'butchering'. Scammers target individuals online, posing as attractive, successful professionals. They seduce and manipulate their victims, winning their trust before luring them to invest on sham cryptocurrency platforms.

But behind the fake online profiles is a much darker reality. Those conducting the scams often do so against their will, trafficked to huge, walled compounds in Southeast Asia.

This BBC film takes you inside one of these scam compounds in Cambodia, where people from all over the world are locked up, beaten, starved and forced to scam.

The author writes, “We tell the story of Didi, a trafficked victim who was secretly filming his experience from inside the notorious Huang Le compound. We follow his incredible journey as he escapes and makes his way back home to China.

“We meet two scam victims, one in the US and the other in China, who lost millions of dollars and had their lives turned upside down. And there is exclusive access to a former scam boss, whose company stole millions of U.S. dollars over the years from victims using a manual he designed.”

“The Pig Butchering Romance Scam” was published in text, radio, TV, digital video and documentary formats in English, Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese and many other languages across the BBC’s platform. The documentary's Chinese version has received nearly 2.5 million views on YouTube. A digital video cut was one of the most popular stories on the BBC’s website on the day of its publication with around 1 million views.

Though there had been other reporting about this type of scam, this BBC project for the first time interviewed a former scam boss and followed a human trafficking victim’s miraculous escape. With detailed evidence, it revealed the identity of a politically well connected scam compound owner.

This documentary has created a significant impact in the US and Asia. It has been reported by many media organizations around the world, such as The Times, The Sun, World Journal (the largest Chinese-language newspaper in the US), Yahoo Taiwan, Cambodia’s VOD and numerous Chinese media.

In China, where the BBC’s journalism is normally censored, the documentary broke through the Great Firewall and sparked a widespread discussion across Chinese social media platforms where millions of viewers watched the documentary. On Weibo, the Chinese authorities even used the documentary as a scam protection guide to warn the public about the Pig Butchering Scam.

Cambodian authorities dismissed the documentary as “baseless” but did not deny the validity of the footage and reporting in the film. Since its publication, Cambodia has launched several crackdowns on the scam compounds, but it’s unclear whether it has deterred the human trafficking and scam gangs from operating in the country.

Zhaoyin Feng is an independent journalist and documentary producer. Originally from China, she has reported from the US, Europe and Asia and collaborated with a wide range of international media outlets. She previously worked as a North America correspondent and investigative documentary producer at the BBC World Service, reporting in both English and Chinese on digital, television and audio platforms across the BBC.

Judges’ comments: “There was strong access and trust with all the characters in the documentary and it allowed for an intimate look into very personal stories. The viewer gets to go behind the scenes and be introduced to the dark world of scamming — an issue that has become more prevalent in today's online world. I felt there was nuance to the coverage and we got to understand the topic from different perspectives. Excellent work.”

Honorable Mention: Vicky Nguyen, Jamie Nguyen, Janelle Richards, Michelle Cho, Aarne Heikkila, David Lom, Meghan Rafferty, Gabriel Valdes, Richard Hobson and Kirk Reid, “America’s Chinatowns: Inside the push for preservation,” NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt

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