“Pig butchering” cryptocurrency investment scam sets victims up for financial ruin

A growing type of scam involving fake online investment opportunities is successfully duping a new wave of financial victims.

This November, a Waltham man reported to the Waltham Police Department that he had been targeted by a cryptocurrency scammer via WhatsApp. The man ultimately lost $400,000. 

The scammer, who built a connection with the man based on a purported shared Indian background, convinced him to invest in cryptocurrency through a link sent via WhatsApp. While he was convinced to continue investing until he had spent $400,000, the scammer’s link showed his investments growing to $6 million. 

When he tried to withdraw money from the app, however, it didn’t allow him to remove his money, telling him his accounts were frozen until he paid a 3% fee to the IRS.

The man reported the incident to the Federal Bureau of Investigations and the WPD, who are both currently investigating the case.

This Waltham man is not alone. This particular scam, commonly known as “pig butchering,” is an increasingly common online scam that has cost victims billions of dollars globally.The name refers to the manner in which the scammer spends time to build a trusting relationship with the victim, comparing it to fattening pigs before they’re slaughtered. 

“Pig butchering” scams

Pig butchering scams seem to have started in Chinese organized crime networks throughout Southeast Asia, but have spread internationally and risen to greater prominence in the last five years. Many of the scammers in pig butchering are victims of human trafficking and forced labor who are made to carry out these schemes for the benefit of criminal organizations.  

To enact a pig butchering scam, the perpetrator reaches out through text, a social media platform or a dating app, and then builds a personal relationship with the victim. These schemes may target people who speak a particular language or share a particular culture. Once they’ve built trust — often through claiming similarities to the victim or building up a romantic relationship — the scammer pitches some kind of investment.

The scammer will direct the victim to send money to a fake investment platform, often in the form of cryptocurrency. At that point, the platform usually shows the victim’s investment growing, and may provide additional incentives to avoid withdrawing money and instead invest further. If the victim does attempt to withdraw their money, the scam platform usually locks them out, telling them they have to pay some kind of fee to access their investment. 

Victims of this kind of scam can rack up startling losses. The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) said that it received reports of over $5.8 billion in losses from cryptocurrency investment scams in 2024 alone, and that the number has been rising every year. It also reported that it had referred victims to suicide prevention specialists in 42 cases. One 2024 study from the University of Texas estimated that the scam had already stolen over $75 billion from victims globally. 

The scam isn’t new to Massachusetts — the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office undertook a high-profile investigation of a cryptocurrency investment scam in 2023 that targeted Russian-speaking seniors, eventually retrieving some of the victims’ money. 

The WPD says that the department has seen pig butchering before. “These [scams] usually start with someone building trust over time,” wrote Detective Sergeant Patrick Dean in an email to The Waltham Times.

According to Dean, indications you’re being scammed include being contacted “out of the blue,” requests to invest in cryptocurrency through unfamiliar apps or websites, promises of uncommonly high returns and instructions to avoid mentioning your investment to others.

“We haven’t seen one specific group being targeted. People from all backgrounds have fallen victim,” Dean noted.

In order to avoid being targeted by these scams, the federal government recommends that people avoid responding to wrong-number texts, avoid sharing personal information over the internet and exercise skepticism around unfamiliar communications. If you think you have been targeted by such a scam, you should report it to the IC3 and the Federal Trade Commission’s Fraud Center.

Additionally, Dean advises that anyone who thinks they might have fallen victim to a cryptocurrency scam to stop investing money immediately and contact their local police station.