Look Out For This Emerging Threat Known As Pig Butchering

These long-term frauds tend to combine investment schemes, romance scams and cryptocurrency frauds.

Scammers typically approach victims via social media, dating apps or other online methods and quickly strive to build a relationship & gain trust. They may try to move conversations onto a different messaging service with less protections or safeguards in place for the user.

Scammers will begin to talk about successes they have had in investing in property or cryptocurrency, before offering to invest a victim’s money. They might introduce a victim to a cypto-trading platform that is actually being controlled by the scammer.

Victims may at first see some ‘winnings’ and might even be encouraged to withdraw their ‘profits’ but this is just another ploy to build confidence in the scheme. Buoyed up by their experiences, victims are then often encouraged to invest larger & larger amounts of money. They might subsequently encounter difficulties trying to withdraw their funds and ultimately their cash and the scammer disappear.

Criminals in this instance are preying on individuals, trying to befriend them over a lengthy period of time to build trust, with the sole purpose of manipulating them to invest in bogus investment schemes.

The term pig butchering is a derogatory term where scammers attempt to ‘fatten up’ their victims by forming romantic connections before executing the ‘investment’ part of the scam.

To keep you safe, please be wary about revealing personal information about yourself to anyone you meet online. Scammers may use emotional manipulation to build your trust and might well be initially available to you day & night.

Be concerned if conversations move towards investment opportunities, particularly in cypto-currency or property, and look out for ‘quick wins’ as this can simply be an attempt to boost your confidence in the scheme.

If you think you may have been a victim of this type of fraud, contact your bank at the earliest opportunity and report it to Action Fraud.