.svg)
How Can You Tell if an Investment Is Legitimate?
If someone you’ve met online has ever bragged about huge returns from “special” cryptocurrency investment opportunities, you’ve been targeted by a pig butchering scam.
Almost exclusively perpetrated by organized crime gangs based in Southeast Asia employing human-trafficking victims, pig butchering scams are long-term cons where fraudsters build online connections in order to convince victims to invest in fake cryptocurrency investment platforms.
Investment schemes like the pig butchering scam cost Americans nearly $8.7 billion in 2025 alone, according to the FBI.
Before you invest in any new cryptocurrency platforms or take trading advice from an online friend or love interest, get familiar with the red flags of pig butchering scams so that you know how to avoid becoming a victim.
How Does The Pig Butchering Scam Work?
Drawing its name from the Chinese phrase, Shāzhūpán, pig butchering scams are often the end goal of a number of other schemes — from romance scams to fake investment groups on messaging platforms like Telegram.
Here’s how a pig butchering scam typically plays out:
Initial contact
The scammer — or “host” — initiates contact with a target online via social media, a dating app, messaging apps like WhatsApp and Telegram, or by sending a “wrong number” text message.
For example, you may receive what seems like a realistic text message intended for somebody else. The message may be flirtatious or mature in nature and the sender often has an attractive profile photo. Even after you tell the sender they have the wrong number, the person will continue the conversation, claiming they’re looking for friendship, or more.
Building the relationship
Once a host finds a potential victim — the proverbial “pig” — they stay in constant contact to build a relationship and trust. This could be through love bombing on dating sites or persistent and increasingly personal messages designed to keep you engaged.
Scammers may research victims on social media platforms or use information they’ve already provided for emotional manipulation.
Introducing the “opportunity”
After earning the victim’s trust, the host will start talking about profitable cryptocurrency investment opportunities — claiming to have “insider tips” or family connections that allow them to get guaranteed returns.
📚 Related: How To Tell if Someone Is Scamming You Online →
Signing up for the “special” trading platform
The host then encourages the victim to download a special trading platform app or sign up for a brokerage website. These services are either hosted on convincing fake websites or are only accessible via non-mainstream app stores (i.e., they’re not on Google Play or the Apple App Store).
The host will be very active during the setup process, sometimes even sharing screenshots of each step required or using deepfake technology to conduct a video call.
Coaching the first few trades
To help get you started, scammers will offer to go through a few small trades together, showing you how easy it is to yield returns.
Releasing small initial “earnings”
Once victims join the platform (controlled by the scam operation), the host simulates trades to make it look like they’re earning profits. The host may even encourage victims to withdraw some of their “gains” to build their confidence in providing more money to the investment scam.
Encouraging more investments (i.e. “fattening the pig”)
Convinced that everything is bonafide, victims invest larger and larger sums of money. Over time, the host continues to manipulate victims (and the platform) to keep them investing. This step is known as “fattening the pig” before a proverbial slaughter.
Some fake trading platforms offer different “tiers” with minimum investment amounts (but higher guaranteed returns) to pressure you into investing more.
📚 Related: Is Coinbase Safe? How To Protect Your Cryptocurrency →
Extending the scheme with taxes and fees
When victims eventually try to withdraw their money, the platform will claim there’s an issue with the account — or will inform them that they need to pay massive fees and taxes to get their cash.
Disappearance and recovery scams
When victims realize the truth and demand their money back, the fraudsters and trading platform disappear. As all transactions happen on the blockchain, recovering the funds is almost impossible.
To add insult to injury, scammers may target victims with crypto recovery scams — reaching out to them under the guise of a professional “recovery agent” able to retrieve their money. In reality, this is just one more way to extend the scam.
8 Warning Signs of a Pig Butchering Scam
Pig butchering scams use social engineering to build your trust over weeks and months. If you see any of these warning signs, break off all contact with the scammer.
- You receive a “wrong number” text. This could be as simple as a “hi” from an unknown phone number or a seemingly realistic text message meant for someone else. Regardless of the approach, this is no mistake — the message is bait to see if you’ll engage with a stranger.
- An online acquaintance brings up crypto trading. If someone you’ve only met online starts talking about guaranteed or large returns from cryptocurrency trading, or niche crypto fields such as “liquidity mining”, they’re most likely a scammer.
- They downplay any risk involved in the investment. Scammers will say that the investment is a sure thing and promote larger-than-average returns, such as 20-40%, on your initial deposit.
- Love bombing and other forms of emotional manipulation. Pig butchering scammers rely on building a strong connection to gain your trust. Common tactics include quickly sharing intimate details and photos, professing their love for you, or constantly reminding you of your own struggles (and how this investment could help “solve” them).
- You’re required to sign up for or download a special trading app. Fraudsters create fake trading platforms that they control. In some cases, scammers use plug-ins for legitimate trading apps (such as Virtual Dealer for MetaTrader) to manipulate market prices and simulate account balances, profits, or losses. These almost never pass the security checks on traditional app stores and are instead hosted on fake websites.
- Investment sites offer tiers with minimum investment amounts. This form of investment fraud is a long-game, and scammers craft their fake platforms to promote larger and larger investments — for example, by offering larger guaranteed returns for higher deposits.
- You can’t withdraw your full initial investment. The fake platform will often permit small withdrawals at first, potentially in the tens of thousands. But as you invest more, the platform requests that you pay taxes or fees if you want to withdraw your investment. Eventually, you won’t be able to withdraw any money — even your initial investment.
- A friend or family member is promoting the investment. Scammers may entice people you actually know to unknowingly promote their crypto scams. Just because the advice is coming from someone you know doesn’t mean it’s safe.
What To Do if You’re Targeted by a Scammer
- Withdraw whatever money you can. If you suspect you might be caught up in the early phases of a pig butchering scam, but are able to withdraw money, make your withdrawal immediately and stop right there. Quit while you're ahead.
- Break off all contact with the scammer. Effective immediately, stop all communications across text, social media, apps, and email. Don't send any explanation or say goodbye, as you don't want to arouse their suspicions.
- Block and report their account. It’s common for gangs to use multiple digital “friends” of the host to add credibility to the long-term scheme. Make sure to report every profile that might be part of the scam.
- Change all your passwords and login credentials. If you share any account numbers or access codes for your cryptocurrency accounts or online platforms, you'll need to create new, complex passwords that aren’t easy to hack.
- Report the scam. Help protect others by reporting details of the fraud — like screenshots of email, text, and WhatsApp conversations — to the proper authorities. Submit this information to both the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) at www.IC3.gov and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) at ReportFraud.ftc.gov.
- File a police report. If you’ve lost money or have information that you think could lead to an arrest, inform local law enforcement agencies of the fraud and ask them to contact the crypto exchange.
- Monitor your online and financial accounts. If you provided personal or financial information, you could be at risk of identity fraud. Keep a close eye on all your credit reports, bank accounts, and credit card statements to spot any unfamiliar transactions.
Can you get your money back from a pig butchering scam?
Unfortunately, the chances of getting your money back from a pig butchering scam are slim to none. Scammers use cryptocurrency because it’s almost impossible to track or refund.
Even worse, many people get retargeted by "crypto recovery services" that claim to help victims recover their losses. But these companies are almost always fraudsters who run refund scams to hit victims a second time when they’re vulnerable.
In almost all cases, it’s better to accept the losses and protect yourself from further scams.
The Bottom Line: There’s No Such Thing as a “Guaranteed” Investment
Every investment comes with a level of risk. But scammers prey on our human desire to get rich quick to scam victims out of their hard-earned money. While cryptocurrency may seem like an exciting way to make money, you need to make sure you know what you’re getting into first.
Research all apps and investment accounts before disbursing any money. You can stay up to date on the latest scams going around by checking Reddit, the Better Business Bureau Scam Tracker, and the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3)
And for added safety, consider signing up for Aura’s all-in-one online safety solution. Aura helps keep you private and safe online with identity theft protection, credit monitoring, scam blocking, and more.
