Pig Butchering scam is a practice of fattening a pig before slaughter. It is a type of confidence and investment fraud in which the victim is gradually lured into making increasing monetary contributions, generally in the form of cryptocurrency, to a seemingly sound investment before the scammer disappears with the contributed monies.
How the Scam Works
- Perpetrators will contact you out of nowhere via text messages, dating apps, social media platforms, and later switch to VOIP chat applications.
- Perpetrators will try to develop meaningful relationships with you, gain your trust, and offer you high-yield investment opportunities in virtual assets, such as cryptocurrency.
- Perpetrators will tell you to open accounts on online investment websites and instruct you to deposit money via wire transfer to shell companies, or direct transfers on legitimate virtual asset service providers (VASPs) or cryptocurrency exchanges.
- Perpetrators will pressure you to invest more money, or your relationship with them will end.
- You can be duped and the fraud will end: When you attempt to withdraw money, websites may demand that you pay additional fees to do so; or you may be locked out of the account and never hear back from the perpetrator. Perpetrators disappear with all of your funds.
Pig Butchering scam typically combines elements of romance and investment fraud, and often involve the gradual building of a relationship with the victim, leading to significant financial losses. Victims are lured into investing in fake opportunities, particularly with cryptocurrencies, and end up losing large sums of money. The psychological impact is equally severe, as victims not only face financial ruin but also the loss of what they perceived as a genuine, intimate relationship. These type of scams are particularly insidious because they play on both the financial aspirations and emotional needs of individuals, leaving victims feeling betrayed, embarrassed, and reluctant to discuss their experience with others or report it to authorities.