Pig butchering
A long grooming scam that blends romance with a fake investment platform before taking everything.
Pig butchering is a slow, cruel investment scam that fuses romance with fake trading. The grim name comes from the scammer's own jargon: 'fattening the pig' by grooming the victim with warmth and trust over weeks, before the 'slaughter' of taking everything. Contact often begins with a stray, friendly message that seems misdirected, or a match on a dating app.
Once rapport is built, talk turns to a can't-miss opportunity on a crypto or trading platform the scammer controls. Early 'investments' show glowing paper profits, and small withdrawals are even allowed, all to encourage larger deposits. When you try to cash out the real sum, fresh 'taxes' or 'fees' appear, and eventually the platform and the person vanish together. It weaves romance-scam manipulation into a fraudulent investment front, which is what makes it so devastating. The defences are those of any investment: verify the platform independently, be sceptical of anyone who slides from affection to money, and remember that a withdrawal you cannot freely make was never really yours.