What Is Pig Butchering?

Pig butchering is a type of online scam where criminals spend a long time building trust with their victims before stealing their money. The name comes from the idea of “fattening up the pig before slaughter.” In this case, the "pig" is the victim. The scammer spends time "feeding" the victim with attention and trust to build an emotional and financial relationship. Once the victim is deeply invested, the scammer "butchers" them by disappearing with all their money.

It’s a slow, carefully planned scam designed to emotionally trap people and drain them of as much money as possible.

How Does Pig Butchering Work?

Pig butchering works by a scammer acting like a friend, a potential lover, or a financial advisor, slowly gaining the victim’s trust over weeks or months. They often convince the victim to invest in fake cryptocurrency schemes or business deals, showing fake profits to make the scam seem real. Once the victim has put in a large amount of money, the scammers disappear with everything.

Here's how it typically unfolds:

• 1

  Initial Contact

  The scammer reaches out to the victim via dating apps, messaging platforms, or social media, pretending to show an interest in them.

• 2

  Gaining Trust

  Over a period of days, weeks, or even months, the scammer builds a relationship. This is carried out in a consistent, friendly, and often flirtatious manner to build emotional trust.

• 3

  Introducing The Scam

  Once trust is built, the scammer mentions a successful investment opportunity, which is usually in the form of cryptocurrency or online trading, or they may invent an emergency where they need money to overcome the issue.

• 4

  Small Request Phase

  The victim is encouraged to invest small amounts of money, which generates quick returns or alleviates the temporary emergency. The scammer even sometimes allows the victim to withdraw money or returns a portion of their money so it seems legitimate.

• 5

  Large Request Phase

  The scammer pressures the victim to invest or send more and more money, stating that it's time sensitive to claim higher profits, or it’s required to overcome progressively more dire emergencies. The victim might drain their savings or even take out a loan, believing the scammer to be trustworthy.

• 6

  The Exit

  Once the scammer has extracted as much money as possible, they vanish by blocking the victim and shutting down any fake websites or assets they’ve created. The victim is left with nothing, and it's often too late to recover any lost funds.

Who Are The Typical Targets Of Pig Butchering Scams?

Victims of pig butchering scams are often people who are emotionally vulnerable. Common traits of individuals targeted in pig butchering scams include being trusting, emotionally open, or seeking a relationship, which the scammers deliberately exploit. People looking for a romantic connection online or those interested in investment opportunities tend to be high-level targets.

What Motivates People To Become Pig Butchers?

The main motivation behind pig butchering scams is financial gain. After a long period of time gaining trust, a scam can bring in large amounts of money quickly, especially if the victim has invested thousands or even millions of dollars. Organized criminal groups sometimes run the scam, or it is committed under forced labor conditions, where individuals are pressured or coerced into carrying out the fraud. Due to the low-risk nature of the crime and the anonymity of the internet, scammers are encouraged to keep doing it. The scammers are ultimately driven by opportunity and profit.

Notably, pig butchers are often located in underdeveloped countries, where the profits they can gain massively outweigh what can be earned doing legal work.

He's helping authorities get the evidence they need to fight organized online crime.

The Rise Of AI In Pig Butchering

The rise of AI has made pig butchering scams more convincing and harder to detect. Scammers are using AI tools to generate realistic text, fake identities, and even deepfake voices, images, and live footage. Deepfake technology has been improving at an alarming rate in recent years and can now work convincingly in real time. This enables scammers to craft more convincing personas and sustain them through longer, more intricate interactions. Face-swapping technology can also be used to impersonate celebrities in fake investment schemes or pose as family members or police officers to scare victims into handing over money.

AI has also enabled scammers to automate key parts of their operations, such as sending messages and identifying targets to fall for the scam. This means they can operate at a larger scale and with greater efficiency. As a result, these scams are becoming more personalized, sophisticated, and more dangerous.

There's software available that integrates voice cloning, which can imitate a target with an alarming similarity rate. It figures out the person's speaking rhythm, speaking habits, stress, tone, and even the rolling of the tongue.

Pig Butchering Tactics To Look Out For

There are multiple red flags to look out for when it comes to pig butchering scams, and one is that the conversation often starts off subtle and builds up over time. Here are some telltale signs to look out for:

• Uninvited Contact: A stranger messages you, often claiming they contacted you by mistake, and they seem overly friendly or flirty right away.
• Quick Emotional Attachment: The person quickly tries to build a close relationship, showing unusual attention and interest in the beginning stages.
• Too Good to Be True Investments: They propose a “once in a lifetime” or “guaranteed” investment opportunity, often in cryptocurrency or trading, with unusually high returns.
• Pressure to Act Fast: You’re urged to invest or send money quickly, sometimes with emotional manipulation.
• Fake Platforms or Apps: They direct you to unfamiliar trading apps or websites, often with fake dashboards showing profits to encourage more investment.
• Small Gains Then Big Requests: You may be allowed to withdraw small “profits” at first, but later pressured to invest larger amounts to unlock funds or cover phony fees.
• Refusal to Return Money: When you try to withdraw larger sums, you're blocked, stalled, or asked to pay more, and then communication stops entirely.

How To Prevent Being Pig Butchered?

To protect yourself from being pig butchered, stay cautious when strangers contact you online, especially if you didn't initiate it. Remain skeptical of anyone who brings up investment opportunities, no matter how convincing or successful they sound. Avoid sending money to platforms you can't verify. If an offer seems too good to be true, it probably is. Don’t share personal or financial information with people you haven’t met in person, and never feel rushed to make financial decisions.

Finally, trust your instincts. If something feels off or someone is pushing you to act quickly, take a step back, do your research, and talk to someone you trust.

What Should You Do If You've Been Targeted?

If you suspect you've been pig butchered, take these steps immediately:

• Stop Communications: Cease all communications between you and the scammer. Stop sending them money, no matter how high the returns are.
• Document Everything: Gather and collect all the information you have. Save all messages, transaction records, emails, and any evidence that might be helpful to the investigation.
• Report It: File a police report in your area and, if applicable, contact your country's national cybersecurity authority. Bring all documentation, including message logs, payment records, and screenshots.
• Notify The Platform: If the scam originated on a social media platform, dating app, or messaging service, report the user’s profile to help stop them from targeting others.
• Check For Identity Theft: If the scammer knows personal details about you, monitor your bank activity and check your credit history using free credit check resources. Consider freezing your accounts if you spot anything unusual.
• Seek Support: These scams have devastating effects on the victims. Speak to someone you trust or, better yet, someone who specialises in scam victims.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why is cryptocurrency often used in pig butchering scams?

Cryptocurrency is used in pig butchering scams because it’s harder to trace. Unlike normal bank transfers, crypto transactions don’t require account numbers or names tied to real identities, making it ideal for criminals to stay anonymous. If the victim sends money, there’s usually no way to reverse the transaction or figure out who received it. Scammers also take advantage of the fact that many people are inexperienced with how crypto works. This allows them to create fake investment platforms, show false profits, and convince victims that their money is growing, when in actual fact, it’s been stolen. Cryptocurrency's fast, unregulated, and anonymous nature makes it a perfect tool for this type of fraud.

How do scammers make fake investment platforms look real?

Scammers have many tools available to make fake platforms look real by copying the design and features of legitimate websites or apps. They use clean layouts, professional-looking logos, and convincing user interfaces to create a sense of trust. The platforms show misleading data, such as account profits, balances, or investment returns, that fluctuates over time to simulate real activity. The scammer might also create fake reviews, add live chat support, and even register domain names that closely resemble genuine ones. The goal is to trick victims into believing they’re using a legitimate service so they’ll continue depositing money.

How can you verify if an investment or advisor is legitimate?

To verify if an investment is legitimate, research the company online. Check if it’s registered with a government financial regulator. Licensed investment companies will appear in official databases, so you can search them by name or license number. Look for independent reviews on scam alert sites. Legitimate businesses typically have clear contact information, including working phone numbers, email support, and physical addresses. When in doubt, it’s wise to consult a certified financial advisor. Ultimately, if something feels too good to be true or just seems suspicious, trust your instincts, it likely is a scam.

How do I spot a deepfake?

With all the technology available, deepfakes can be challenging to spot. Here are some signs to look out for:

• Limited facial movements
• Mismatched lighting
• Glitches where the face blends into the background
• Inconsistent eye-blinking
• Lips don't quite sync with their voice
• Their side profiles might not line up correctly with their neck
• They use complicated terminology
• Images that don't look real

Are there laws specifically addressing pig butchering scams?

In short, yes, there are laws in place that specifically address pig butchering. However, despite these laws, challenges remain due to the international nature of pig butchering scams, the use of cryptocurrencies, and the anonymity of the internet. Victims often face difficulties in recovering lost funds and bringing perpetrators to justice, mainly when scammers operate from jurisdictions with limited extradition agreements. So while laws and regulatory measures are in place to address pig butchering scams, ongoing vigilance, international cooperation, and public awareness are crucial to combat these complex fraud schemes.