The term “pig butchering scam” is popularly used to refer to a combination fraud where attempts are made to build a relationship, social engineer, and use a fake investment platform, typically but not always related to cryptocurrency. The criminal jargon itself can stigmatize victims and is increasingly being termed by law enforcement and regulators as a relationship investment scam, romance baiting, or cryptocurrency confidence scam. The process is the same in operation: approach the victim unsolicited, build a rapport over days or months, lead victim through a simulated investment process that includes false profits, increased investment amounts, restrictions on withdrawals and a second round of “recovery” scam targeting the same individual.
More than $47 million is stolen from ordinary people globally every day from a single type of fraud. They aren’t rushed into a tricking. They are courted, believed, loved and then financially ruined. The pig butchering scam is the most highly profitable, most emotionally damaging, and most rampant financial fraud in history.
The FBI’s IC3 2025 Annual Report shows that losses in the U.S. from investment scams increased by 24% in 2025, with the most common being pig butchering, which reported $1.1 billion in losses alone in the U.S. alone. According to the Chainalysis 2026 Crypto Crime Report, total losses for cryptos in 2025 are estimated at $17 billion. The researchers at the University of Texas discovered that pig butchering networks conducted over $75 billion of transactions on crypto exchanges from January 2020 to February 2024.
This is not a niche crime. It’s an international business.
It explores what pig butchering is, the exact psychological strategy employed by the scammers, the human trafficking network behind it, the upcoming law enforcement efforts to combat pig butchering in 2025 and 2026, how to detect every red flag, and how to verify if a crypto wallet is legitimate, as well as what to do if you or someone you love has been targeted.
What Is a Pig Butchering Scam?
Confidence-based cryptocurrency investment fraud, the Pig Butchering Scam or shā zhū pán (杀猪盘), is a scam that involves romance scams, fake investment platforms, and psychological manipulation to secure the maximum financial losses from victims before making its getaway.
The title is quite a hard-hitting one. The scammers take their victims and fatten them up, giving them attention, affection and making them believe they are making a profit, and then slaughter them when they have removed every dollar.
Pig butchering scams are a long-term, slow-moving operation which lasts for weeks or months while smash and grab scams are an instant action. The average victim communicates with his/her scammer for 90 days prior to making a contribution. Some relationships last a year and more. When victims are tricked into losing money, they are also losing an emotional connection for which they had hoped and dreamed.
Pig butchering first emerged around 2016, and was originally directed at users of Chinese same-sex dating apps. By the time of the COVID-19 pandemic, it had spread across Southeast Asia and around the world, and organized crime syndicates had established entire industrial compounds, which are often filled with trafficked workers, either coerced or recruited.
The $17 Billion Industry: Key Statistics You Need to Know (2025–2026)
These are the figures that get caught up in news coverage & academic citations, as it is only by knowing the true scale of the problem that people are interested.
- A total of $17 billion is estimated to have been lost in crypto scams worldwide in 2025 (Chainalysis, 2026).
- The U.S. investment scam losses in 2025 were the top dollar loss category in cybercrime losses, at $7.2 billion (FBI IC3, 2025).
- 22% jump, to $11.36 billion, in total U.S. crypto-linked fraud losses in 2025 (FBI IC3)
- 21% rise in cryptocurrency frauds reported to the FBI in 2025 compared to 2014, reaching 181,565 reports.
- $62,000+: average reported loss per victim
- $2,764: average scam payment per transaction in 2025, up 253% from $782 in 2024 (Chainalysis)
- In 2025, there was a 1,400% increase in impersonation scams compared to the previous year.Impersonation scams increased by 1,400% year-over-year in 2025.
- The 4.5× ratio refers to the revenue generated per operation by the AI scams compared to traditional scams.The 4.5× ratio indicates the number of times more revenue that the AI scams generated per operation compared to traditional scams.
- University of Texas, Griffin & Mei: $75 billion worth of pig butchering transactions made it through crypto exchanges (2020-2024)
- It is estimated that there are 200,000+ trafficked persons in Southeast Asian scam compounds (UN Human Rights Office)
- As of March 2026, 8,935 victims were proactively notified by FBI’s Operation Level Up, with 77% who they were victims of a scam.
- $562 million – estimated savings through Operation Level Up victim notifications
- 93 victims, called a FBI specialist for suicide intervention (this number doesn’t make news headlines very often, but it should):
- In October 2025, the U.S. Department of Justice seized $15 billion worth of cryptocurrencies, representing the largest forfeiture action in history, from the Prince Group from Cambodia (127,271 Bitcoin)
- The Prince Group scam operation, at its peak, made $30 million a day.
- Estimated global fraud losses in all types in 2025 was $442 billion (Global Anti-Scam Alliance, survey of 46,000 adults in 42 countries)
How the Pig Butchering Scam Works: The 6-Phase Playbook
Southeast Asian compounds are run by scammers who have a well-documented, trained playbook. The Journal of Cybersecurity by Oxford Academic (Frank Asyalı & Thomas Hölzmer, 2026) reviewed real scam manuals that were found in compounds and found that operations are based on a systematic way of exploiting interpersonal communication theory, relationship psychology, and motivational manipulation.
These are all the phases, in order:
Phase 1: The First Contact (The Hook)
Contact starts almost always by one of three vectors:
- Wrong-number text: A message that looks like it happened by mistake, “Hi, is this Anna?”, that you’re meant to answer. Once you do, you’ve opened the door.
- Dating apps or social media: Scammers create fake profiles, with often good profile pictures (usually AI-generated or from real users who have been altered), and pretend backstories of success, wealth and sophistication.
- Random connection requests: LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp, Telegram, anything where an unsolicited ‘hello’ makes any sense.
The scammer, who may be a trafficked person forced to run 10-30 “targets” at a time, is trained in a manner that is non-threatening and casual. Asks about the day. They share light personal stories. They are kind, tolerant, and not pushy about money.
Phase 2: Trust Building: “Fattening the Pig”
This is the extended duration and the psychologically most advanced. The scammer works hard to create a real emotional bond over weeks, or even months. They’ll wish you a happy birthday, inquire about your sick parent, or congratulate you on your promotion. They provide false information about their lives: a prosperous family business in Hong Kong, a recently divorced partner, and a daughter studying at university.
Oxford researchers discovered that scammers have a strategy to speed up intimacy: reciprocal vulnerability (disclosing fake personal problems to gain insight into your real ones), mirroring (reflecting your values and interests back at you), and social proof (name-dropping well-known institutions).
At the end of this period, many victims report that they are in love or at least in the position of finding their best friend. This emotional investment is the whole idea, it is what will stop rational thinking when money comes into the picture.
Phase 3: Introducing the Investment “Opportunity”
The transition to monetary is done slowly and carefully. The scammer also never sells. They mention. Their uncle is a crypto trader at an independent trading floor. These are all returning fantastic dividends for them. They don’t want anyone to know that they have one. Would you like to see what it does, like something educational?
They create a fake trading platform, a well-designed and professional-looking site or app that shows real-time price tickers, a slick dashboard and a balance account named after the victim. A lot of these platforms are pixel replicas of the legit exchanges, like Binance or Coinbase, and the slight change in the URL is something that the victim doesn’t bother to check.
The website displays fake profits as they occur. The victim is helped to learn what to do. The interface is made to look like a real website.
Phase 4: The Investment Escalation
The first deposit is small, $500, maybe $1,000. The platform will have an instant returns page. Victim is happy. The scammer claims that it is nothing more than a start.
In subsequent weeks, the victim is prompted, using a mix of FOMO, love pressure and “proof” of steady returns, to increase and increase the amount they put in. Usually, deposits increase from thousands to tens of thousands to a hundred of thousands of dollars.
A Kansas community bank president was charged with embezzlement to the tune of $47 million from his own bank to invest in a “legitimate” crypto investment that he believed he was being offered by a “pig butchering” fraudster. He was found guilty of 24 years in prison. The bank collapsed.
In October 2025, the U.S. government seized almost $15 billion worth of Bitcoin associated with the Prince Group’s scam scheme in Cambodia, the biggest asset forfeiture in the DOJ’s history.
Phase 5: The Squeeze, Withdrawal Blocked
Platforms block the victim from withdrawing money when they attempt to do so. First a “tax” should be paid. Next, a “compliance fee. Next, a “verification deposit. For every need to have money, there is another need for money. The platform’s support team, which is also involved in the scam, shifts to defensive or aggressive behaviour.The platform’s support team turns defensive or even hostile.
During this stage, another wave of losses can be inflicted on victims who feel “invested” in recovering what they’ve already “invested” and thus accept increasingly more demands.
Phase 6: The Slaughter, Ghosting and Disappearance
At a sudden moment, the scammer goes dark. The website goes away or doesn’t load. The “investment platform” vanishes. The victim fell in love with, who is not there, just ceases to respond.
Victims are left with:
- Total financial loss: often life savings, retirement accounts, home equity loans
- Emotional damage: sorrow over a non-existent relationship.
- According to ScamWatchHQ, 73% of those who have been scammed by pig butchers have experienced embarrassment or humiliation and 26.9% are afraid of judgment if they seek assistance.
- Another trick that scammers use is to re-contact their victims using the guise of a crypto recovery service, demanding additional funds from people in crisis.
The proceeds normally come from fiat and go back to layered crypto laundering. Victims could initially make bank transfers or card payments, or trade purchases for Stablecoins (like USDT), typically on a high-volume blockchain like Tron. The funds then flow through various receiving wallets controlled by scams, consolidation wallets, OTC brokers, centralized exchanges, cross-chain services, and informal/underground banks. There are different versions of this pattern, every one of which is described by FATF, FBI, Chainalysis, and Elliptic, albeit with varying routing structures.
The New Threat: AI-Powered Pig Butchering in 2026
The scam has changed so much over the years. AI has now become a mainstay for the business in 2025 and 2026:
AI-Generated Personas
Generative AI is now being used by scammers to produce completely fake identities: fake photos, AI-generated calls and even real-time video deepfakes that trick casual viewers. The investigation by the Guardian in 2025 uncovered more than £35 million lost through deepfakes featuring celebrity ads in connection with the pig butchering schemes.
Deepfake Video Calls
Victims who ask for video proof of their romantic partner now sometimes receive AI-generated live video. These deepfakes can also malfunction when instructed to do an unusual physical maneuver, one method of detection we discuss below.
AI-Assisted Targeting
Previously, scammers would blast thousands of numbers and hope to hear back now, AI helps them pre-screen and profile targets on social media, and only message those who are highly susceptible to both financial and emotional triggers. Chainalysis estimates that AI-powered scams are 4.5 times more profitable per transaction than non-AI scams.
Approval Phishing: The 2026 Evolution
With a growing variant, no fake trading platform is necessary. Rather than asking a victim to wire crypto to a fake exchange, scammers trick the victim into signing a wallet permission (token approval) which gives the victim the freedom to spend the crypto on behalf of the attacker. After being authorized, the victim’s money can be emptied from their wallet in a matter of seconds. It is known as approval phishing and was the foundation for Operation Atlantic, a U.S., UK and Canadian law enforcement investigation carried out in March 2026. You may also like our guide on Internet Chicks.
The Dark Side Nobody Talks About: Human Trafficking Powers this Industry
One of the most troubling aspects of pig butchering is that the individual you are talking to (romantic interest, helpful friend) is also frequently a victim.
The model used, said former Santa Clara County Deputy DA Erin West, who led early U.S. prosecution efforts, is that criminal syndicies post legitimate-looking job ads that offer high pay for data entry or call center work. On the arrival of the applicants on Southeast Asia, their passports are confiscated, which are mostly from India, China, Philippines, Indonesia, Ethiopia and Kenya. They are driven to fortified compounds where they are surrounded by armed guards. They have to operate scam operations 16-17 hours every day under the threat of violence.
According to the U.N. Human Rights Office:
- There are an estimated 200,000 individuals in Southeast Asia trapped in scam compounds.
- Trafficking victims come from at least 66 countries
- Out of 7 women leaving these compounds, 7/10 said that they had been sexually assaulted.
- DOCUMENTED punishments include beatings, electrocution and murder.
The biggest of these, Cambodia’s Prince Group, led by a Chinese national named Chen Zhi, had at least 10 scam compounds and was able to collect more than $30 million a day at height, and was finally taken down in a historic DOJ action in October 2025 that secured the seizure of 127,271 BTC valued at approximately $15 billion. Treasury also imposed sanctions on 146 individuals and entities in the Prince Group TCO and severed financial links between Huione Group, the group’s financial entity, and the U.S. financial system, despite the fact that FinCEN had determined it has been linked to at least $4 billion in illegal activity since 2021.
Despite the steps taken, over 250 scam factories remain open in Cambodia alone (Foreign Policy, December 2025). The industry is not retreating. It is moving to new places, with INTERPOL now recording new centres in the middle-east, West Africa and Central America.
12 Pig Butchering Warning Signs: How to Spot It Before It’s Too Late
These are those exact “red flags” that have to be taken into account. Save this list:
- Any contact made from an unknown number, particularly a call that results in a lengthy friendly conversation, is considered “wrong number” text.
- The connection goes to the extreme level with declarations of deep connection within days of weeks of initial contact.
- They always have an excuse not to video call, or when they do, the video appears a bit “off” (deepfake artifacts).
- They bring up investment issues after gaining trust, never at first contact
- The one they recommend as a “platform” is a platform you have never heard of, or one which closely resembles a popular exchange, but with a slightly different URL.
- Profits appear too good to be true, returns of 3-10% a day or “guaranteed” profits are too good to be true.
- The platform cannot be regulated by any third party financial regulator.
- Withdrawals are denied via these new “taxes” or “compliance requirements” or new fees.
- They play on your emotions, “I thought you trusted me,” “This offer is only good to-morrow.
- They dissuade you from sharing the investment with your friends or family.
- The platform does not have any verifiable company address, license number, or registered with any regulator.
- Only crypto will be accepted as a payment, legitimate investments will not need to involve crypto.
How to Check a Crypto Wallet Address before You Send Money
You can and should verify the wallet address before sending a single dollar if someone asks you to send cryptocurrency to a wallet address.
Step 1: Use a crypto wallet scanner. Sites such as Crypstudio provide the ability to paste any wallet address (Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, TRON and others) and instantly see if it’s listed in any scam databases, and if it is, see its transaction history and confirm the wallet is of the correct format for the claimed blockchain network.
Step 2: Match against existing scam data bases. There are lists of known fraudulent addresses maintained by popular database, and other community reported lists. If a scammer has been around before, he will generally use the same wallet infrastructure.
Step 3: Verify on the blockchain explorer. Etherscan for Ethereum, Blockchain.com for Bitcoin, Solscan for Solana, these explorers display all the transactions that have occurred from a wallet. Identify patterns: Many inflows to a small number of addresses is a typical laundering “signature.
Step 4: Look up the platform’s name + the word “scam” on the platform. Always check if there is a scam with [platform name] and [platform name] withdrawal issue before depositing on any trading platform. Often, victims will share posts within days after they are defrauded.
Step 5: Verify regulatory registration. If a legitimate investment platform serves U.S. residents, it has to be registered with the SEC, FINRA or CFTC. For the UK, visit the FCA register. If it is not registered, STOP.
Step 6: Analyze the URL, one character at a time. Fake platforms can look identical to real platforms with almost the same URLs, e.g., “binnance.com” versus “binance.com” or with a different TLD. Check for a URL and look for HTTPS, but understand that this is no guarantee of validity.
84% of pig butchering profits go to Tether (USDT): here’s why
University of Texas researchers Griffin and Mei found that of all pig butchering proceeds, 84% flowed through Tether (USDT). This is important for protection because:
- Tether has the power to freeze wallets associated with criminal activity, and has started to do so in conjunction with law enforcement agencies.
- When a scammer only accepts USDT (TRC-20 in particular), it is a big warning sign.
- USDT transactions on the TRON (TRC-20) network are the primary means for laundering scams due to their minimal transaction costs and quick processing times.
- Always check the TRC-20 USDT transaction history when verifying a wallet or even if the scammer states that you are investing in Bitcoin or Ethereum.
What happens to victims: The emotional reality.
While the financial loss is just one part of the story, it isn’t the whole of it. The academic literature and FBI data on butchering victims consistently reveal that the victims’ experiences are similar to those of traumatic bereavement:
- 69% say that they have extreme stress and anxiety levels.
- 17% lose their confidence completely and don’t feel safe again.
- 73% say that they are deeply humiliated.
- The FBI’s Operation Level Up has referred 93 victims to suicide intervention specialists, individuals who were already planning to liquidate 401(k) plans, sell homes or take out loans to send additional funds to scammers before they were alerted by the FBI.
The emotional loss is worsened by the type of fraud: you are not only losing money but you are losing your mind. You are grieving a relationship (however made up) that felt real. You trusted someone WHOLELY and that trust was used against you.
I Think I’m a Pig Butchering Victim: What Do I Do Right Now?
If you think you are being scammed:
- Immediately stop all transfers. Never send another dollar, even if the con person tries to convince you of a reason.
- Avoid engaging in any back-and-forth with the scammer. When confronted, scammers are likely to increase the pressure and switch personas to rehook you.
- Record all conversations, platform URL, wallet addresses, transaction IDs and any phone numbers or usernames for record.
- Notify your bank or exchange as soon as possible. There might be a “recall window” for transfers made using bank wire in the previous 72 hours. Crypto transactions are irreversible and exchanges can also freeze wallets receiving cryptos.
- Using Crypstudio scan the wallet address you sent the money to and note if it’s flagged or not.
Where to report a pig butchering scam:
- The FBI IC3: ic3.gov is the main federal reporting website for Internet-related crimes in the United States.
- FTC: reportfraud.ftc.gov
- CISA: cisa.gov/report
- Your State Attorney General’s Office
- Notify scam wallet addresses and stop them on Chainabuse.com
- If you are outside the U.S.: INTERPOL’s I-GRASP (Global Rapid Intervention Against Proliferating Scams) system provides assistance to victims in multiple countries.
On recovering stolen crypto:
Be clear: The chances of getting your cryptocurrency back are extremely small. Blockchain transactions are irreversible and fraudsters send money to other wallets or exchanges on many different jurisdictions, using layered wallets and mixers.
But never pay a crypto recovery service that reaches out to you. It’s nearly always a follow-up to someone who is in serious financial distress. The only way to get the recovery help legally is through the police.
The FBI’s Operation Level Up has been able to reach 8,935 victims and recover an estimated $562 million, but that’s done before any funds are transferred. The sooner the report the better the odds.
Law Enforcement Crackdown: 2025–2026 Actions
In the first four months of 2026, enforcement against pig butchering was more than the total in the last 10 years.
Key actions:
- October 2025: DOJ files biggest-ever forfeiture lawsuit against the Prince Group TCO, seizes $15 billion worth of Bitcoin (127,271 BTC). Cambodian national Chen Zhi charged with wire fraud conspiracy and money laundering.
- November 2025: U.S. Treasury FinCEN removes Huiene Group from the U.S. financial system, alleging that it laundered $4+ billion.
- November 2025: DOJ officially launches the Scam Center Strike Force, comprising of DOJ, FBI, Secret Service, OFAC, FinCEN, HSI, and State Department.
- In January 2026, the U.S. government sends $225 million USDT it seized from the pig butchering directly to Tether for the first time in federal history.
- February 2026: Two Chinese nationals who were operating the Shunda Compound in Burma are the subject of complaints filed by DOJ’s Strike Force in February 2026, in which one subordinate defrauded one American victim of over $3 million.
- March 2026, and involves a coordinated joint U.S. Secret Service, UK National Crime Agency and Canadian action against approval phishing scams in multiple jurisdictions.
- On April 2026, the Dubai Police have made the largest one-off arrest in pig butchering history with 275 suspects from nine fortified scam compounds.
- March 2026: President Trump signs an Executive Order to prioritize cybercrime and fraud against American families.
Thousands of scam compounds remain in Cambodia and INTERPOL documents active expansion into new regions around the world despite these historic actions. The industry is adapting, while police officers are speeding up.
A 10-Point Crypto Safety Checklist to help protect yourself
- Double check all wallet addresses before transferring money, Don’t use wallets without a scanner like Crypstudio.
- Avoid making any investments through a platform that has been introduced by people that you only know from the internet, no matter how confident you are in them.
- Test video calls, have your contact do a random physical action touching ear, sharp head turn, deepfakes will flub if the action is unexpected.
- Establish a personal crypto transfer limit: Only transfer after checking the platform with a licensed financial regulator.
- Share with a trusted individual any online friendship which results in investment advice, isolation from trusted social networks is a scam trick
- For large amounts of funds, use a hardware wallet, there are no remote vectors of attack.
- Use a tool such as Revoke.cash to regularly check on token approvals on your wallets, and revoke those you do not recognize,
- Review platforms’ registration: SEC (sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar), FINRA (finra.org/investors/tools-calculators/brokercheck), FCA (register.fca.org.uk)
- This is a red flag of a scam: Never pay fees, taxes or compliance deposits to withdraw money.
- Report early: If it seems suspicious, report to IC3.gov as early as possible, early reporting is the only intervention that makes a difference in outcomes.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Can I get my money back from a pig butchering scam? The on-chain transactions are irreversible for Cryptocurrency. In rare cases, recovery is possible through law enforcement, with quick reporting and if there has not been a movement of the funds from major exchanges. Avoid giving money to a private “recovery service”.
Who are the typical victims of pig butchering? Anyone. Americans aged 60+ experienced the largest dollar loss ($7.7 billion in 2025), although age 40-49 was the most targeted age group, according to FBI data. It is a fact that the key targets have been tweaked and changed – from tech executives to retirees to grieving divorcees, all with disposable cash and emotional vulnerability.
What is the sha zhu pan scam? The Chinese language name of pig butchering is sha zhu pan (杀猪盘) which translates as “pig butchering plate”. It means literally “killing pig plate” and is a metaphor for fattening a pig before they are killed. The scam was reportedly launched in 2016 from China.
Is pig butchering only about crypto? The University of Texas found that most of the money, 84%, goes through USDT (Tether). But variants with spot gold (XAUUSD) and forex trading platforms are also available.
How do scammers find their targets? The telephone numbers are usually bought from data brokers or acquired due to data breaches. The “wealth and vulnerability” signals are extracted from social media profiles. AI is being used more and more to pre-screen targets before coming into contact with one another.
What is approval phishing? A newer version in which the victim is tricked into approving a token, a blockchain-based transaction that gives a scammer access to spend the victim’s crypto without limits. If the wallet is signed, the victim can drain the wallet without taking any further action.
Final Word: Check Before You Trust
The pig butchering scam works on the assumption that there is nothing such as trust that is free. It isn’t. Not online. Not with someone that you have not met in person. Not on any platform, where you were introduced by a romantic contact.
Any and all cryptocurrency addresses need to be verified before any deposit is made to them. Scan the wallet. Verify the platform. Use reverse image search to find the scammer’s photo. When you say it out loud to someone who isn’t being manipulated, the red flags become evident, so call a friend and tell them what you’re experiencing.
According to the FBI, 77% of pig butchering victims didn’t know they were being scammed when they first were contacted by the agents. It’s not your fault if you were targeted. You were attacked by specialists with a proven strategy, and frequently under armed protection, with the clear intent of overcoming your doubts, working 16 hours a day, specifically targeting you by name. The key to prevention is information, timely reporting, and a wallet checker you know and trust.
