What is a Pig Butchering Scams?
How It Works β Step by Step
- Contact initiated via random text ('wrong number'), dating app, or LinkedIn β often a beautiful stranger
- 'Fattening' phase (weeks to months): daily conversation, emotional bonding, appearing wealthy and successful
- Naturally mentions crypto investment success; offers to 'teach' you using a connected platform
- Victim invests small amount, sees rapid large gains on the fake dashboard
- Allowed to make small withdrawals to build trust
- Encouraged to invest life savings, retirement funds, take out loans
- 'Slaughter': withdrawal blocked (claims taxes, fees, regulations), or platform vanishes
Top Countries (Victims)
Top Platforms Used
β οΈ Warning Signs
- Random contact from an attractive stranger via text or social media
- Relationship develops unusually quickly, they seem almost too perfect
- Discussion of crypto or investment very natural and gradual
- Recommends a specific trading platform you've never heard of
- Huge profits visible but you're told to invest more before withdrawing
- Platform is only accessible through a specific app or website
- When you try to withdraw, there are fees, taxes, or 'compliance requirements'
β How to Protect Yourself
- Be very skeptical of unsolicited contact from strangers, especially attractive ones
- Never invest on a platform recommended by someone you only know online
- Research any investment platform independently β not through links they provide
- Verify the platform with your financial regulator before depositing anything
- Talk to someone you trust IRL before making any investment decisions
- If you can't find a platform on App Store/Google Play, it's almost certainly a scam
Real Cases from Our Database
US: Is this a new kind of scam? I occasionally get those pig butchering scam texts and I just delete them. Yesterday, I got a text from an unknown Florida number. I donβt live in Florida or know many ...
US - Pig Butchering or Sophisticated AI? Got followed and then followed an F on Threads. I pursue these on occasion to check out their angle and maybe troll them, figure out their scam, and eventually...
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This one show three separate days of posts and pics, supermodel body with massive implants. The usual chatty stuff for a while, and then got to be more thoughtful and interesting. She sent me a vivid ...
[US] Pig Butchering Scam using Real Crypto Apps? **Who:** My Ex-Wife and her Grandmother ...
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**What:** I'm 99.9% sure they're being scammed. They're supposedly "making money" with Grandma's "country singer from Tennessee boyfriend" she messages on Telegram, but I don't have a ton of details. ...
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**When:** I don't know how long it's been going on with my ex-wife's grandmother. Probably at least a year or two since her husband died from Heroin use. The ex-wife has been increasingly involved ove...
[US] in-laws being tempted into what we think is a pig butchering scam I'll try to keep this succinct. ...
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My in-laws recently told my husband that the son of one of their close friends was offered "a great deal" via a crypto investment. Six months ago someone helped him "invest" 2,500 in a crypto market. ...
[US] Whatsapp Investment Scams: Here are three potential candidates The other day, on a lark, I accepted an invite to a group on Whatsapp. I was almost immediately joined to three different groups, al...
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The first one was most definely sketchy, as they wanted to voice/video verify me as to prove I wasn't some kind of bot, and shortly after a very brief call where I appeared in a most dishevled way, I ...
[US]Whatsapp scams? What to think about these. The other day, on a lark, I accepted an invite to a group on Whatsapp. I was almost immediately joined to three different groups, all supposedly dealing...
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The first one was most definely sketchy, as they wanted to voice/video verify me as to prove I wasn't some kind of bot, and shortly after a very brief call where I appeared in a most dishevled way, I ...
π Where to Report Pig Butchering Scams
- FBI IC3 (ic3.gov)
- FTC (reportfraud.ftc.gov)
- Global Anti-Scam Organization (globalantiscam.org)
- Your bank if funds were transferred