“Are you still alive?”
The last words the scammer said to me
weren’t insults,
nor threats,
but a question:
“Are you still alive?”
At first glance, the words almost carried a touch of humanity.
But in the context of a pig-butchering scam,
it had nothing to do with concern.
This question was never about “life,”
but rather a confirmation of utility.
In the scammer’s eyes,
I was never a person.
I was a conduit—
a messaging account that could still reply,
a phone number that could still be reached,
a wallet that might still be opened.
What he truly wanted to ask
was not whether I was alive,
but whether I could still be used.
Earlier on,
his words were gentle.
He spoke of patience, trust, and a friendship.
But these words only existed when money flowed.
When the transfers stopped,
the tone collapsed.
Persuasion failed.
Pressure failed.
Anger failed.
All that remained was panic.
This question only appeared at the very end
because it signaled the loss of control.
Silence broke the entire system.
When I no longer responded,
he couldn’t fathom my thoughts,
didn’t know what I had discovered,
and couldn’t tell if law enforcement had stepped in.
The narrative was no longer in his hands.
“Are you still alive?”
was not a strategy,
but a reflex—
a predator’s confirmation when the prey stops moving.
The cruelty of this question
lies in its assumption.
It doesn’t ask how I’m doing.
It doesn’t ask what happened.
It only allows two states:
usable, or vanished.
This is the language of ownership.
Yet, it was precisely in that moment
that meaning began to reverse.
To him,
my silence looked like death.
But to me,
it was the first proof of survival.
In such scams,
staying meant being consumed.
Responding meant remaining within the system.
Silence was interpreted as disappearance
because “disappearance.”
was the only state the system couldn’t exploit.
When he asked, “Are you still alive?”
I finally understood one thing:
To him,
being alive meant being reachable.
But to me,
being alive meant leaving.
And precisely because of this—
leaving was the only path to survival.
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