How You Can Spot and Avoid ‘Pig Butchering’ Scams
A new cryptocurrency scam called Pig Butchering targets victims and takes advantage of cryptocurrency systems to drain people of their life savings.
Pig Butchering AKA Crypto Romance Scams
A new type of crypto scam is in the news these days, where victims are befriended through dating or social media apps and then tricked into investing in bogus investment schemes on fake crypto brokerage platforms. Thousands of “Pig Butchering” victims have been identified, with the average amount lost being over $150,000, according to Global Anti-Scam Org.
Pig Butchering scams began surfacing in 2020. The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center issued an alert on Oct. 3, warning people to be wary of such schemes. In the U.S. alone, FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center estimated more than $429 million was stolen in 2021. Coinbase, too, has issued an alert urging customers to be vigilant.
Originating mainly from East Asian countries, the term Pig Butchering refers to how scammers “fatten” up the victim by showing eye-catching returns on their initial investments. This convinces them to deposit as much money as possible into fraudulent crypto accounts, before the “pig” is “slaughtered” by being frozen out of the funds.
Also known as a “Crypto Romance” scam, targets are set up over weeks and months by befriending them via text message or social media. The scammers get victims to trust them, often by employing romantic or intimate talk, before they start bragging about the amount they earn from investing. Targeting single well-educated people via phony accounts with enticing pictures, scammers present themselves as successful traders/investors who can teach their new “friend” how to make incredible profits.
"I would say these can be particularly dangerous, because they are all about trust over the course of time. It’s a highly sophisticated form of social engineering, with a higher success rate. I've seen a lot of attempts from people to masquerade as someone they are not, but I did not call them pig butchering, because from my vantage point they are easy to spot,” crypto scam watcher, RugZombie told BSC News.
Scammer groups create phony websites/apps or sub-license the MetaTrader 4/5 brokerage software to create a fake crypto brokerage firm, and have even created fake liquidity mining pools.
Initially, victims are coaxed into depositing small amounts from which they make and can even withdraw profits, deceiving them into trusting the platform. Once the victim makes larger deposits, they are shut out of the platform or the entire website disappears. The phony platform levies an unending series of fees, taxes and charges meant to extract more money into the scammer’s wallet, before the scammer ends all contact with the victim.
“This type of scam would have to uniquely be able to leverage trust. I think there are lots of projects that use the same framework, though, they continue to promise things, they might always be in a ‘coming soon’ or ‘just had a good meeting with a famous person, you guys should scoop it up while it’s cheap,’ things like that,” said RugZombie.
Here’s a list of major pig butchering scams reported by the media in recent months:
- Jane Yan lost over $1.6 million after a scammer convinced her to invest in a fake crypto platform.
- A Bay Area software developer lost over $1.3 million to a person who contacted her on a professional networking site.
- Another Bay Area man lost over $1 million to a scammer
- A 37-year-old Malaysian nurse working in Singapore lost $240,000.
- Singapore professional Han Ni described how she lost $77,000.
The FBI has been investigating the scams to track down the culprits but it has proven difficult so far due to the nature of the bogus crypto platforms. Most victims are professionals between 30-40 with two-thirds of them women.
If you have a good due diligence and sound investment practices, you typically won’t buy into that," RugZombie told BSC News.
Signs of Pig Butchering
- You receive a realistic sounding message, usually from a good-looking person, that seems as if it were intended for somebody else
- They will ask to switch platforms to Telegram or WhatsApp – saying it’s safer.
- Use of emotional manipulation to gain your trust
- Someone you met online continually brings up cryptocurrency trading and encourages you to get involved
- They direct you to an app or site that promises unusually high returns — such as 20% or 40% on your investment
- Evoking greed by reminding potential victims how they’ll enhance their life
- They threaten to cease speaking in case you ask too many questions, or if you insist on photographs or video calls
- Details they share about their own life make them seem similar to you.
Avoiding Crypto Scams
- Stay away from anyone who claims to have exclusive investment opportunities and urges you to act fast
- Check where the company or brokerage is registered and under which license it is authorized to operate
- Don’t share personal or financial information with strangers
- Do not authorize any app or website to gain access to your funds.
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This is a paid press release, BSC.News does not endorse and is not responsible for or liable for any content, accuracy, quality, advertising, products, or other materials on this page. The project team has purchased this advertisement article for $2500. Readers should do their own research before taking any actions related to the company. BSC.News is not responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods, or services mentioned in the press release.
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Related News
Prisma Finance Reportedly Hit by $9M Hack: What to Know
Prisma Finance paused its protocol operations for investigation and advised vault owners to disable delegate approval.
Reports have emerged indicating that DeFi platform Prisma Finance, fell victim to a hacking attack amounting to approximately $9 million. Cyvers, a web3 security platform, raised the alert after it detected suspicious transactions linked to the breach.
🚨UPDATE🚨Our system has detected multiple suspicious transactions with @PrismaFi and still ongoing!
— 🚨 Cyvers Alerts 🚨 (@CyversAlerts) March 28, 2024
Total loss so far is around $9M. Attacker has funded by @FixedFloat!
Our system has detected the malicious contract 2 min earlier than hack transactions!👇
Our system would… https://t.co/9myoV8DL22 pic.twitter.com/SxT5yYZy7U
Initial estimates suggest a loss of $9 million, with the attacker reportedly utilizing funds from the crypto exchange FixedFloat.
Backing up Cyvers' findings, blockchain security firm PeckShield has confirmed the attack, providing details on the assets targeted by the hacker. Among the stolen assets are Prisma mkUSD and wrapped stETH.
In response to the breach, Prisma Finance issued a statement on X acknowledging the potential exploit. The project reportedly halted its protocol operations to conduct a thorough investigation into the incident.
Additionally, Prisma Finance advised vault owners to disable delegate approval as a precautionary measure.
We are aware of a possible exploit on Prisma.
— Prisma Finance (@PrismaFi) March 28, 2024
Core engineering contributors will pause the protocol and investigate.
We'll share an update and a post-mortem.
From DeFi Future to Security Concerns
Prisma Finance was initially hailed as the future of decentralized finance (DeFi), offering solutions in the form of a new LSTFi protocol. It enabled users to mint a fully collateralized non-custodial and decentralized stablecoin, mkUSD, using Ethereum liquid staking tokens (LSTs) as collateral.
However, the recent exploit paints a stark contrast to the platform's previous reputation, raising concerns regarding cybersecurity in the DeFi space.
Rising Trends in Crypto Hacks
The hack on Prisma Finance adds to a concerning trend in the cryptocurrency space. According to a Feb. 29 report by blockchain security firm Immunefi, over $200 million worth of cryptocurrency was lost to hacks and rug pulls last February, across 32 individual incidents.
This represents a 15.4% increase compared to the same period in 2023. Ethereum remains the most targeted blockchain, with 12 attacks accounting for over 85% of the total value lost in February.
This is a paid press release, BSC.News does not endorse and is not responsible for or liable for any content, accuracy, quality, advertising, products, or other materials on this page. The project team has purchased this advertisement article for $1500. Readers should do their own research before taking any actions related to the company. BSC.News is not responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods, or services mentioned in the press release.
This is a paid press release, BSC.News does not endorse and is not responsible for or liable for any content, accuracy, quality, advertising, products, or other materials on this page. The project team has purchased this advertisement article for $2500. Readers should do their own research before taking any actions related to the company. BSC.News is not responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods, or services mentioned in the press release.
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