Organised criminals are raking in fortunes with a devastating new scam, leaving many unsuspecting victims with their finances in ruins and their lives broken.
Pig butchering sounds incredibly brutal… and it is.
This type of scam has proven so effective that criminals are likely to have bagged record revenues from the technique last year, according to blockchain analysis firm Chainalysis.
Its verified figures suggest these scams last year earned a staggering $9.9billion worldwide ‘on-chain’, meaning transactions on a crypto blockchain.
But Chainalysis estimates the true figure could be above $12billion.
These revenues have increased each year since it began tracking the data in 2020, owing to increased scam sophistication and improved scam infrastructure.
Pigs for slaughter: Scammers ‘fatten up’ their victims, persuading them to invest as much money as possible before they ‘butcher’ them
What is pig butchering?
Pig butchering is a type of investment scam whereby criminals lure victims into making investments into fraudulent platforms and schemes by masquerading as legitimate ventures.
The fraudsters promise high returns, and use their scam-platforms to make these returns seem real to their victims.
The scammers use the relationship they have built to squeeze as much money as possible from the victim, before cutting and running.
‘It’s like fattening a pig and then finally killing it right at the at the very end,’ David Sancho, senior threat research at cybersecurity firm Trend Micro says.
Unlike some quick payoff scams, pig butchering can be a lengthy process, with scammers stringing their victims along for months or even years.
For a scammer though, this hard graft is worth the wait. Once the ‘pig’ is butchered, the payouts can reach into the hundreds of thousands, or even into the millions of pounds.
How does the scam work?
These scams begin with unsolicited contact from a stranger – often through social media.
Many such pig butchering attempts begin with seemingly innocuous greetings out of the blue.
In many cases, the scammer won’t approach their victim about an investment opportunity – that could come weeks or months later.
These approaches might be romantic in nature, or simply friendly, as the scammer looks for a way to make the victim drop their guard.
Sometimes, however, a scammer will contact their victim via text message addressing somebody else and using the fact they have supposedly got the wrong number as their hook.
Sancho said: ‘It’s very manual, very low tech, and that makes it super easy for scammers to start attacking and to scale it up. They don’t need people with very high computer expertise to start scamming.’
After making contact, the scammer will casually mention investing.
The scammers could, for example, indicate they were trying to contact a client they proport to act as a broker for.
‘If you come back to them then they know they have someone willing to invest or who is interested in the investment world,’ Sancho said.
Either way, the scammer will eventually steer the conversation towards investing, making the most of the trust that they have developed with their victim.
Often, these scams are linked to crypto investments, the reason being that once money is transferred via a crypto wallet it is much harder to track or recover.
‘The scammer convinces their victim to invest, and they do so via a crypto wallet. There is no bank in the middle, so its not in a bank’s interest to do anything about it.’
Scammers ensnare their victims by promising high returns and pressuring them to invest further.
The goal of a scammer is always to make their victim invest more money into their scheme.
This could be as a result of showing them false evidence that their investments are rising, asking for more funds in order to withdraw their initial investment and even allowing victims to withdraw some of the funds they have invested.
These criminals make use of fraudulent investment platforms, or even apps, that will show unsuspecting victims that their investments are performing well. In reality, the figures are controlled by the scammer, and the money is long gone.
Once the scammer has cashed in what they deem to be enough money from their victim, they will disappear, leaving the victim with no way of contacting them.
This is the slaughter.
If it seems too good to be true, it probably is.
David Sancho, Trend Micro
Scams are evolving
If scams seem like they are becoming more prevalent in recent years, its because they are.
Scams are a lucrative business. Far from isolated bad actors, those behind scams are often organised criminal enterprises tapping into a market similar in scale to the global drugs trade.
According to one estimate from the Global Anti-Scam Alliance, a staggering $1.03trillion was lost to scammers in 2024, similar to 2023. In 2022, GASA estimated that just $55.3billion was lost to scams.
Of course, these figures can only go so far to illustrate the issue, as a large chunk of scams go unreported.
Last year, Interpol’s Secretary General Jürgen Stock said: ‘We are facing an epidemic in the growth of financial fraud, leading to individuals, often vulnerable people, and companies being defrauded on a massive and global scale.’
According to Sancho, part of this upsurge in scams comes as a result of the proliferation of AI over the past few years.
He said: ‘AI gives more believability so the text can be done at scale, so scammers can create lots of the different templates, but instead of being the one single monolithic template, you can have 20 for 20 different people, so that it creates variation.
‘AI lets scammers automate the process in a way that isn’t obvious.’
On top of an increase in scale, AI can also help scammers to create believable false identities, fabricating images and audio, and even deploying deepfake technology in video calls.
Sancho added: ‘The [scammer] could show an image of himself in the Bahamas, and thanks to deepfakes the same guy could be put in Paris or Rome the next week.’
Trend Micro says scammers are also increasingly using group chats to throw their net to a wider pool of possible victims, before engaging those that show interest in one-on-one conversations.
Most scammers aim to move their conversations away from their point of contact, such as social media or SMS, towards encrypted platforms like WhatsApp. These messaging platforms prevent them from being traced.
How can you protect yourself?
‘You need to be more sceptical with who you’re dealing with on the Internet,’ Sancho says.
Unsolicited messages, regardless of how innocent they seem, should raise red flags.
With the growth of social media over the past two decades, scammers have ready access to a treasure trove of information that potential victims have willingly plastered over their online profiles.
Sancho says this information is even more useful to romance scammers, as they are able to locate and prey on lonely and vulnerable victims.
Those using social media should consider what privacy settings they have turned on, and how much of their personal information is accessible to bad actors.
Sancho added: ‘If it’s large amount of money, if it’s investments, then you really need to be sceptical of what the investments really are. If it seems too good to be true, it probably is.’
Scammers, in many cases, will also put pressure on victims to make rash decisions, so that they don’t have time to stop and realise a scam is taking place.
Regardless of whether an investment has been pitched via a stranger on WhatsApp, or your financial adviser, it is always worth doing your own research ahead of making any decisions.
It is essential to verify any such investment opportunities are legitimate before committing your money.
Even then, it is of course not advisable to take investment advice from strangers online, regardless of how well you think you know them.
Before making investments with such platforms, it is wise to consult the FCA register as well as online reviews that could indicate whether something is a scam.
However, just because there is an absence of information about a platform online, this does not mean that it is safe to use – often negative reviews of scam platforms only appear after the scammers have already racked up a number of victims.
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