2024 Revenue from Pig Butchering Scams Increased 40% Year-over-Year
According to a Chainanlysis report, revenue from pig butchering crypto frauds, also known as relationship investment scams, grew nearly 40% year-over-year (YoY). Additionally, the number of deposits to these scams increased by nearly 210% YoY.
Pig butchering scams exploit dating apps, social media platforms, messaging apps, and even random “wrong number” text messages to target possible victims. Once a fraudster establishes and builds a relationship with their target, they pitch fraudulent investment opportunities in cryptocurrencies, precious metals, or foreign currencies. Victims are then directed to deceptive trading platforms–operated by the same organized criminal gangs–where they convert their funds into cryptocurrency and then send the crypto to the fraudulent trading platforms. These platforms falsely display substantial investment gains, and victims ultimately find themselves unable to withdraw their funds. To make matters worse, the trading platforms often tell the victims that they are required to pay certain fees to access their (fake) investment gains. These “fees” are just another ploy used by the fraudsters to trick victims into sending additional crypto to their fraudulent platforms.
The Chainalysis report, titled Crypto Scam Revenue 2024: Pig Butchering Grows Nearly 40% YoY as Fraud Industry Leverages AI and Increases in Sophistication, found that cryptocurrency scams received at least...
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