A pig butchering scam (, ''sha zhu pan'' or ''shazhupan'', translated as the killing pig game) is a type of online scam where the victim is encouraged to make increasing financial contributions over a long period, usually in the form of

cryptocurrency A cryptocurrency (colloquially crypto) is a digital currency designed to work through a computer network that is not reliant on any central authority, such as a government or bank, to uphold or maintain it. Individual coin ownership record ...

. Such scams are commonplace on

social media Social media are interactive technologies that facilitate the Content creation, creation, information exchange, sharing and news aggregator, aggregation of Content (media), content (such as ideas, interests, and other forms of expression) amongs ...

and

dating app An online dating application, commonly known as a dating app, is an online dating service presented through a mobile phone application. These apps often take advantage of a smartphone's GPS location capabilities, always on-hand presence, and acc ...

s, and often involve elements of

catfishing Catfishing refers to the creation of a fictitious online persona, or fake identity (typically on social networking platforms), with the intent of deception, usually to mislead a victim into an online romantic relationship or to commit finan ...

, investment fraud and romance scams. The scammer builds trust with the victim through online communication, subsequently persuading them to invest in a fraudulent cryptocurrency scheme. The "butchering" or "slaughtering" of the victim transpires when their assets or funds are stolen. Perpetrators are typically victims of a fraud factory, where they are lured to travel internationally under false pretenses, trafficked to another location, and forced to commit the fraud by

organised crime Organized crime is a category of transnational, national, or local group of centralized enterprises run to engage in illegal activity, most commonly for profit. While organized crime is generally thought of as a form of illegal business, some ...

gangs. Contact begins with unsolicited telephone calls with extended or repeated contact, fake profiles on

s, or romantic interest from strangers, all with requests for personal information with the view to financially profile the target. After gaining the victim's trust, the scammer offers too-good-to-be-true rates of return on trades or investments using genuine-looking but fraudulent websites or apps. The scammer may pressure the victim to invest quickly, offer extravagant gifts which require the release of money, claim difficulties in withdrawing funds from supposed investment returns, and give inconsistent or vague details about the investment. A scammer will often try to isolate their victim by monopolizing their attention away from loved ones, who may otherwise realise the victim is falling prey to a scam.Pig butchering scam explained: Everything you need to know
13 Jan 2025.Pig Butchering Scams: What They Are, Warning Signs, and How to Avoid Them
Investopedia, 26 March 2024. Scams can be detected using simple precautions. To avoid being scammed, conduct due diligence and verify the identity of the fake persona, such as by asking for their long-used legitimate

LinkedIn LinkedIn () is an American business and employment-oriented Social networking service, social network. It was launched on May 5, 2003 by Reid Hoffman and Eric Ly. Since December 2016, LinkedIn has been a wholly owned subsidiary of Microsoft. ...

and

Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...

accounts with their verifiable family and colleagues in their social network. Scammers get angry and abusive when pressed for verifiable details for them or their investments scams. To avoid being detected, scammers also often avoid giving out their

WhatsApp WhatsApp (officially WhatsApp Messenger) is an American social media, instant messaging (IM), and voice-over-IP (VoIP) service owned by technology conglomerate Meta. It allows users to send text, voice messages and video messages, make vo ...

number, and prefer apps where their phone number is hidden such as

Telegram Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages where the sender uses symbolic codes, known to the recipient, rather than a physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus flag semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas pi ...

WeChat WeChat or Weixin in Chinese ( zh, c=微信, p=Wēixìn , l=micro-message) is an instant messaging, social media, and mobile payment mobile app, app developed by Tencent. First released in 2011, it became the world's largest standalone mobile a ...

. Many scammers obtain their own

-linked fraudulent phone number through a burner phone,

virtual number A virtual number, also known as direct inward dialing (DID) or access numbers, is a telephone number without a directly associated telephone line. Usually, these numbers are programmed to forward incoming calls to one of the pre-set telephone n ...

, phone number mule, or

caller ID spoofing Caller ID spoofing is a spoofing attack which causes the telephone network's Caller ID to indicate to the receiver of a call that the originator of the call is a station other than the true originating station. This can lead to a display showin ...

, and then avoid videocall verification. Potential victims should insist on multiple, long videocalls to verify the identity of the potential scammer, confirm the identity of mentioned companies with registration and regulatory bodies, never invest in any scheme through people met online but not in person, cut off contact with potential scammers and their platforms, and immediately alert local, state, or federal authorities and loved ones. Legitimate opportunities rarely require rushed decisions. In 2024, crypto fraud was estimated to have had a value of US$12.4 billion, of which high-yield investment program (HYIP) scams and pig butchering scams contributed 50.2% and 33.2% respectively, with pig butchering scams growing at the rapid rate of 40% over the previous year.Crypto Scam Revenue 2024: Pig Butchering Grows Nearly 40% YoY as Fraud Industry Leverages AI and Increases in Sophistication.
chainalysis.com, 13 Feb 2025. In October 2023, 12% of Americans using dating apps experienced exposure to this type of fraud, up from 5% in 2018. The scam originated in

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

in 2016 or earlier, and proliferated in

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, southeastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of China, east of the Indian subcontinent, and northwest of the Mainland Au ...

amid the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

History

Pig-butchering scams originated in 2016 or earlier as a regional scam in

, originally finding their victims on same-sex dating sites before expanding to opposite-sex dating sites as well. The term "pig butchering" arises from an analogy comparing the initial phase of gaining the victims' trust to the fattening of pigs before slaughtering them. The

modus operandi A (often shortened to M.O. or MO) is an individual's habits of working, particularly in the context of business or criminal investigations, but also generally. It is a Latin phrase, approximately translated as . Term The term is often used in ...

later spread throughout

at the height of the

. In Sihanoukville, Cambodia—once a prosperous gambling town—many local gambling gangs transformed casinos into scam operation centers performing pig-butchering scams. This was likely a result of a lack of casino attendance on account of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Cambodian government cracking down on commercial gambling. Many operations are also run from areas of

Myanmar Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar; and also referred to as Burma (the official English name until 1989), is a country in northwest Southeast Asia. It is the largest country by area in Mainland Southeast Asia and has ...

which are outside central government control because of the ongoing civil war, with one important hub being the town of

Myawaddy Myawaddy (; ; ; ; Eastern Pwo language, Phlone ) is a town in southeastern Myanmar, in Kayin State, close to the border with Thailand. Separated from the Thai border town of Mae Sot by the Moei River (Thaungyin River), the town is the most impo ...

Kayin State Kayin State (, ; ; , ), formerly known as Karen State, is a Administrative divisions of Myanmar, state of Myanmar. The capital city is Hpa-An, also spelled Pa-An. The terrain of the state is mountainous; with the Dawna Range running along the ...

, near the

border Borders are generally defined as geography, geographical boundaries, imposed either by features such as oceans and terrain, or by polity, political entities such as governments, sovereign states, federated states, and other administrative divisio ...

with

Thailand Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand and historically known as Siam (the official name until 1939), is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. With a population of almost 66 million, it spa ...

. According to the UN Human Rights Office, hundreds of thousands of people have been trafficked and are trapped in scam centres in Cambodia and Myanmar, with other operations being run from

Laos Laos, officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic (LPDR), is the only landlocked country in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by Myanmar and China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the southeast, and Thailand to the west and ...

, the

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

and

. Many of the groups that run pig-butchering scams are overseas Chinese criminal syndicates based in Southeast Asia, who traffic ethnic Chinese and others into fraud factories and force these people to commit the fraud. Pig-butchering scams gained international momentum through the exploitation of online dating apps and

social media platforms Social media are interactive technologies that facilitate the creation, sharing and aggregation of content (such as ideas, interests, and other forms of expression) amongst virtual communities and networks. Common features include: * Online ...

. Scammers crafted elaborate fake identities to establish romantic or emotional connections with victims, thus marking a departure from conventional financial scams by integrating

psychological manipulation In psychology, manipulation is defined as an action designed to influence or control another person, usually in an underhanded or subtle manner which facilitates one's personal aims. Methods someone may use to manipulate another person may includ ...

. This early phase of these scams primarily targeted local populations but quickly expanded as digital connectivity grew. The scams evolved significantly with the integration of sophisticated techniques, including the creation of fake online investment platforms and the use of social engineering. A key aspect of this evolution was the use of cryptocurrency for transactions, which appealed to scammers due to its difficulty to trace and recover. The scams' globalization can be attributed to the increased ubiquity of digital interactions and the rising popularity of cryptocurrencies, which provided a new avenue for such fraudulent activities on a global scale.

Notable cases of pig butchering

The 2023

failure Failure is the social concept of not meeting a desirable or intended objective, and is usually viewed as the opposite of success. The criteria for failure depends on context, and may be relative to a particular observer or belief system. On ...

of Heartland Tri-State Bank in

Elkhart, Kansas Elkhart is a city in and the county seat of Morton County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 1,888. The southern edge of the city is the Kansas-Oklahoma state border, and the city is from the Kans ...

, United States, was directly tied to a pig-butchering scam; CEO Shan Hanes was discovered to have embezzled $47 million from the bank in an attempt to secure his presumed funds. Hanes was charged in federal court with embezzlement in February 2024 and pleaded guilty in May 2024. He was later sentenced to 24 years in prison.

Implementation

Pig-butchering scams involve a series of meticulously planned steps to deceive and exploit victims, typically focusing on cryptocurrency investment fraud. # Gaining trust: Scams often begin with casual conversations initiated by the scammer, who may pretend to have received the victim's contact details accidentally or through a mutual acquaintance. These initial interactions are designed to build trust and may involve the use of attractive profile images to lure victims. # Introducing the investment: As trust is established, the scammer introduces the victim to a fraudulent investment scheme, promising significant returns in a short period. The scammers use persuasive tactics and counterfeit investment portfolios to convince victims of the scheme's legitimacy. # Collecting money: After persuading the victim to invest, scammers collect funds, often through digital payment platforms or cryptocurrencies, to complicate tracking and tracing of the transactions. # Disappearance of the scammer: Once a substantial amount has been collected, or when victims attempt to withdraw funds, scammers become unreachable, delete their online presence, or create new identities, leaving the victims with no way to recover their funds. Furthermore, the scammers develop fake

broker A broker is a person or entity that arranges transactions between a buyer and a seller. This may be done for a commission when the deal is executed. A broker who also acts as a seller or as a buyer becomes a principal party to the deal. Neither ...

age websites and

mobile app A mobile application or app is a computer program or software application designed to run on a mobile device such as a smartphone, phone, tablet computer, tablet, or smartwatch, watch. Mobile applications often stand in contrast to desktop appli ...

lications to add legitimacy to their scheme, making it difficult for victims to distinguish them from genuine platforms.

Countermeasures

The

IRS The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is the revenue service for the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government, which is responsible for collecting Taxation in the United States, U.S. federal taxes and administerin ...

has issued warnings about the rising prevalence of these scams, particularly targeting U.S. taxpayers. The agency notes that losses often reach hundreds of thousands of dollars, with some victims losing as much as $2 million. An important aspect of countering pig-butchering scams involves tracing stolen cryptocurrencies. This process is intricate due to the

decentralized Decentralization or decentralisation is the process by which the activities of an organization, particularly those related to planning and decision-making, are distributed or delegated away from a central, authoritative location or group and gi ...

and pseudo-anonymous nature of cryptocurrencies, and requires specialised tools and knowledge. In 2022, for example, the FBI set up the Virtual Assets Unit, with the express remit of addressing crypto-based financial crime. The process typically begins with the collection of relevant transaction data, such as transaction IDs and wallet addresses associated with the scam. Advanced blockchain analysis tools are then employed to trace the path of the stolen funds. These tools can identify patterns and link different transactions to specific wallets, which are essential in building a case against the perpetrators.

Consequences

The 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 types 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.

In popular culture

The 2023 Chinese movie '' No More Bets'' is a crime drama based on interviews with real victims of the scams. It garnered attention and success in China, bringing the scams and the issues related to them to the forefront of public discourse. The movie highlights the plight of the numerous low-level scammers who are themselves victims of coercion, having been lured from their homes by promises of stable employment, only to find themselves trapped and forced into committing these scams.

References

External links

FBI Public Service Announcement: Cryptocurrency Investment Schemes
{{Scams and confidence tricks Confidence tricks Cryptocurrency scams Human trafficking Fraud Online dating Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic 2020s fads and trends