How the Brutal Cybercrime of Pig Butchering Goes In for the Kill

If the name of the increasingly common form of cybercrime known as "pig butchering" makes you recoil, wait until you hear about the crime itself.

Pig butchering drained Mississippi retiree Barry May of $500,000 — his entire life savings.1 For the family of 82-year-old Dennis Jones of Virginia, the fallout was even worse: Jones took his own life after losing everything to pig butchering.2

Elements of this horrendous cybercrime may sound familiar. Pig butchering is part cryptocurrency scam, part romance or confidant scam and part investment scam. What sets it apart is both its specific methodology and its goal of draining victims of every last dollar they have. And it's so effective that a 2024 academic study estimated it has robbed victims of up to $75 billion worldwide.3

Here's what everyone should know about pig butchering, from what it is to how to protect yourselves and your loved ones from this brutal cybercrime. 

What Is Pig Butchering? (And Why the Graphic Name?)

As disgusting as the name is, the metaphor is fitting: Pig butchering is a cybercrime in which a scammer slowly nurtures a relationship with a victim — not unlike how a farmer nurtures a pig while fattening it up. When the scammer manipulates every bit of money out of the victim they can (think: the pig is maximally fattened up), they suddenly "slaughter" the relationship, disappearing with the victim's money. 

How Does Pig Butchering Work?

Pig butchering is a cybercrime that, as noted above, shares elements with other known scams but has its own distinct method. It begins as terribly as it often ends: Pig butchering is often perpetrated by organized crime rings outside the U.S. that typically force human trafficking victims to carry out the scam.4

These victim-scammers (referred to going forward as simply "scammers," though it is important to remember they are victims themselves) then follow a reliable pattern, according to FinCEN, the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network:4

• The scammer contacts a potential victim on dating sites, social media channels, online professional networks, or messaging apps. The first message is often under the guise of messaging an old friend at the wrong number.
• If the victim responds, telling them they have the wrong number, the scammer strikes up a charming, casual conversation anyway.
• The scammer takes their time establishing a deep relationship with the pig butchering victim. It can be romantic or simply a friendship. As the relationship slowly grows, the victim may connect with the scammer's fake social media identity showing a lavish lifestyle. The scammer will claim to have a job in finance, like as an investor or money manager.
• After building trust, the scammer will introduce a fake investment opportunity using cryptocurrency. They'll direct the victim to legitimate-seeming websites or apps that supposedly manage the investments.
• Once the victim is interested, the scammer will offer to help them purchase the cryptocurrency using remote access to the victim's device or requesting screenshots. They are also sometimes directed to make write transfers or purchase prepaid cards to buy the crypto.
• Once the victim has purchased the cryptocurrency, the scammer asks them to invest the funds in the supposed investment websites or apps.
• The scammer shows the victim excellent supposed returns on their investment through the fake website or app, sometimes even allowing them to withdraw some funds as proof. Then, they pressure the victim to invest more. The returns appear to be so great that maximizing their investment seems like a smart move.
• Once the victim has invested all they are willing to — which, for many, includes liquidating assets or taking out a home equity loan — the scammer will make a final push for funds, asking for withdrawal fees or tax payments to release the victim's supposed investment returns.
• Finally, when the scammer is satisfied that the victim cannot or will not hand over any more money, they'll abruptly end communications with the disappear — with the victim's entire investment.

Why Pig Butchering Is So Effective

It's easy to assume you'd never get drawn into a pig butchering scam. But even a Kansas bank CEO was taken in so fully by pig butchering that he turned to crime himself, embezzling $47 million from his bank customers and stealing tens of thousands from his church, investment club and his daughter's college fund — all to invest in the scam.5