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He’s far from the only victim of pig butchering. Victims like these another person, such as “Jessica,” sprinkle things into the
find themselves among the thousands of people who fall for conversation like similar interests or family backgrounds.
pig butchering scams each year. The problem is global in scope, Anything that’s just enough to intrigue the victim and keep them
costing billions of dollars each year. Yet as pig butchering chatting.
represents a new type of scam, it uses some age-old tricks to
separate people from their money. From there, scammers play a long con game, building trust FEATURE
with their victims over time. Things tend to get increasingly
personal. The scammer pumps the victim for more and more
What’s a pig butchering scam? news of their life. What they’re worried about. What dreams
they have. And in cases where the scam takes a romantic turn,
It’s a con game with a vivid name. Just as a livestock farm how they’ll build a life together.
raises pork for profit, scammers foster long-term relationships
with their victims for profit. The scammers start by taking small Then, money comes into play.
sums of money, which increase over time, until the victim finally With a solid read on their victims and their lives, scammers
gets “fattened up” and “butchered” for one final whopping sum. drop hints about investment opportunities with big returns. The
The term appears to have origins in the Chinese phrase zhu zai, scammer rarely takes the money themselves. In fact, they almost
meaning “to slaughter a pig.” always insist that the victim handles the money themselves.

What sets pig butchering scams apart from romance scams, Instead, scammers lure their victims into using bogus apps
elder scams, and other con games is cryptocurrency. Scammers that look like they support a legitimate trading platform. Yet
lure their victims into investing in ventures, seemingly profitable they’re not. These apps act as a direct line to the scamming
ones because the scammers appear to make the same operation that the scammer’s working for. The money goes
investments themselves. With great success. Victims then mirror right into their pocket.
those investments, yet the “market” is rigged. With phony sites
and apps, the scammers point to big gains — which are all Meanwhile, victims see something else entirely. Scammers
mocked up on the screen. Instead, the money goes straight to give them step-by-step instructions that cover what to
them. invest, where, and how to conduct transactions with
cryptocurrency. The sums start small. First $5,000 or $10,000.
The scam follows a script, one that “Jessica” played out to the The victim checks in with their new investment “app” and sees
letter. You can see the steps. It starts out innocently enough. a great gain.
A text on the phone, a note on a messaging app, or a direct
message on social media comes to the victim from out of the The process repeats, as the sums get proverbially fatter and
blue. It’s from someone they don’t know, and they might ask a fatter. Finally, the truth comes out. Hard reality strikes when
simple question, like … victims try to transfer their cryptocurrency out of their app. They
“Is this John? We shared a tee time at the course last week and can’t. There’s nothing there. The scammers manipulated the
I have that extra club I said I’d give you.” info on that bogus app. All the investments, all the transaction
“Hi, Sally. It’s me. Sorry I can’t make lunch today. Can we history, and all the earnings — fake.
reschedule?”
Or even as simple as … And because the scammers did their dirty work in cryptocurrency,
“Hey.” that money is gone. Practically untraceable and practically
impossible to get back. Clearly, “Jessica” followed this scam to
These “wrong number” texts and messages are anything but the letter. However, it’s highly likely “Jessica” didn’t work alone.
unintended. In some cases, victims get randomly picked. Blasts
of texts and messages get sent to broad audiences, all in the
hope that a handful of potential victims will reply. Pig butchering scams and organized crime.

Yet, by and large, victims get carefully selected. And researched. Organized crime props up the vast majority of pig butchering
The scammers work from a dossier of info gathered on the scams.
victim, full of tidbits harvested from the victim’s online info and
social media profiles. Who puts together those dossiers? The United States FBI points to several large-scale pig
butchering operations, centered mostly in Southeast Asia.ii
Often, it’s a large, organized crime operation. The scammer Other findings point to operations in Nigeria, where thousands
behind the messages is only one part of a much larger of “Yahoo Boys” fire off romantic messages in their form of a pig
scamming machine, which we’ll cover in a bit. butchering ring. iii

With that intel in hand, the scammers have their opening. In another account, a Reuters Special Report traced $9 million
After an introduction, the scammer kicks off a conversation. to an account registered to a well-connected representative
Over time, the conversations get personal. And those personal of a Chinese trade group in Thailand — which hinted at yet
touches have a way of luring people in. Scammers pose as broader collusion and fraud.

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