A new scam, known as ‘pig butchering’ is targeting people online with victims persuaded to invest in fake cryptocurrency schemes.
The scam combines romance fraud with crypto cons as victims are promised a “happily ever after” and big crypto wins.
In reality, they are left financially and emotionally devastated.
The cybercriminals operating this long con spend months gaining online daters’ trust, using romance and the lure of fast crypto returns to swindle victims out of their savings.
This can cause irreparable financial harm, on top of lasting emotional and psychological trauma.
i spoke to Jane Lee, a researcher at Sift, an online fraud prevention firm, to find out more about how the scams operate.
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How does the scam work?
The scammers meet victims on popular dating apps, before moving the conversation on to WhatsApp, and bombarding the victim with flirtatious messages until turning the conversation to cryptocurrency.
The fraudster, posing as a successful crypto trader, offers to show the victim how to invest their money for fast, low-risk gains.
From here, the scammer helps the victim buy cryptocurrency on a legitimate site, like Coinbase, and provides instructions for transferring it to a fake cryptocurrency exchange.
The victim’s money appears on the exchange’s website, and they start “investing” it in various crypto assets, under the scammer’s guidance.
This phony third-party trading site is simple in design but mimics a real crypto trading…
