They built trust, then asked you to invest. Here's the scam.
- A friendly or romantic stranger spends weeks building trust, then introduces a "can't-lose" crypto or forex investment.
- The trading platform is fake. The profits you see on screen are numbers the scammer controls, not real money.
- You can deposit, and even make small early withdrawals. But when you try to take out real gains, fees and taxes appear and the money never comes.
- It's called "pig butchering": fatten the target with affection and fake profits, then take everything. If you're in one now, stop depositing and read the steps below.
This is a scam. The relationship was built to set up the investment, and the investment is fake. Every "profit," every fee to withdraw, every plea for one more deposit is part of the same long con.1 The visible balance is bait, not money.
Does this sound familiar?
Below are reconstructed examples of how these conversations begin, recreated to show the pattern. Names, photos, and numbers are invented. (Illustrations, not real screenshots. Anyone depicted is fictional.)
The opening varies (wrong number, dating app, social DM, professional network), but it always moves toward the same place: a private chat, a warm bond, and eventually an investment "opportunity."
How it works
Pig butchering is a long con, run patiently over weeks or months. That patience is what makes it so effective and so hard to spot from the inside. (The app screens below are illustrations of how these fake platforms typically appear.)
Red flags to catch it early
None of these alone is proof. Several together means stop.
A wrong-number text, dating match, or DM that warms into friendship, then turns to crypto or forex. The CFTC names wrong-number texts and dating apps as common openers.2
Excuses pile up: travel, work on an oil rig, a broken camera. You're weeks or months in and have never truly seen them live.
A relative in finance, a special signal, a platform that only ever goes up. Real investing has no sure things.
"My uncle's signals haven't lost once. 30% a month, easy."
An app or website you'd never heard of, often sideloaded or via a link they sent, not a mainstream regulated exchange.
Don't tell your bank, your family, or a financial advisor. Isolation keeps anyone from talking you out of it.3
The decisive sign. Being asked to deposit more before you can take anything out means the balance isn't real.
If you recognize even a couple of these, pause before sending another cent. A few honest checks:
- Try a full withdrawal now, not a small one. If you can't take everything out without paying a fee first, that's your answer.
- Reverse-image-search their photos. Stolen or AI-generated images are common. A match elsewhere is a red flag.
- Tell one person you trust offline what's happening, in plain terms. Saying it out loud often breaks the spell.
- Check the platform against your country's regulator (in the US, the SEC and CFTC publish investor alerts). If it's unregistered, walk away.
Many of these scams are run from large compounds in Southeast Asia, and a significant share of the "scammers" are themselves victims of human trafficking, coerced into the work under threat. That doesn't lessen the harm done to you, but it explains the industrial scale and scripted feel. The networks behind pig butchering are organized criminal operations, not lone con artists.1
Already invested or sent money?
Need the steps by payment method? See what to do if you've been scammed.
Stop depositing, document, report
This was engineered by professionals to fool careful people. It is not a failure of intelligence.
Where to report it
For the full country guide - agencies, phone numbers, and what happens after you report - see how to report a scam by country.
How big is this problem?
Pig butchering is now the dominant form of cryptocurrency investment fraud, and crypto investment fraud is the single largest category of reported losses in US internet crime.
The CFTC describes the shape plainly: a new "friend," often met through a wrong-number text or dating app, who appears successful from trading digital assets and, after weeks of contact, encourages you to invest. At first it looks like you're making money, so you invest more. Once you have nothing left, the money and the friend disappear.2 The FBI's crime reporting puts crypto investment fraud at the top of its loss categories, with pig butchering its most prominent form. Reported losses have climbed steeply year over year, from about $3.96 billion in 2023 to $5.8 billion in 2024 and over $7.2 billion in 2025.1
The mechanics are engineered to defeat caution. The fake platform shows steady gains. A small early withdrawal "proves" it pays out. By the time withdrawal is blocked behind a "tax," you've often invested far more than you ever planned, and the sunk cost makes walking away feel like the real loss. That visible balance is the trap.
The defense isn't cleverness, it's a rule: do not invest based on someone you only know online, and never pay a fee to withdraw your own "profits." If a relationship that started with a stranger's message turns toward an investment, that is the scam beginning, no matter how genuine the person feels.
Frequently asked questions
- Is pig butchering always romantic?
- No. While romantic relationships are common, pig butchering also starts with wrong-number texts, LinkedIn connections, WhatsApp messages from supposed business contacts, and online friendship groups. The trust-building period is the consistent element.
- What if I've already invested significant money?
- Stop depositing immediately. Do not pay any 'taxes,' 'fees,' or 'verification amounts' to unlock withdrawals - this is continued theft. Report to the FBI IC3 at ic3.gov, the FTC at reportfraud.ftc.gov, and the CFTC at cftc.gov/complaint. Preserve all records.
- Can I withdraw any remaining funds from the platform?
- Almost certainly not. When you try, you'll be told you owe a tax payment, verification fee, or minimum deposit to unlock funds. These requirements are fabricated - paying them only costs more money. The displayed balance is not real.
- Who operates pig butchering scams?
- Large-scale operations are primarily run from Southeast Asia, often from compounds in Myanmar, Cambodia, and Laos using trafficked labor. Reporting helps US and international law enforcement build cases against these operations.
- FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), annual Internet Crime Reports and Cryptocurrency Investment Fraud guidance. Crypto investment fraud as the top loss category, rising from ~$3.96B (2023) to $5.8B (2024) to over $7.2B (2025); pig butchering as its main form; the withdrawal-fee trap; Southeast Asian trafficking-fueled compounds.
- U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, "Romance Frauds" and the multi-agency "Dating or Defrauding?" awareness campaign. Wrong-number / dating-app openers, the grooming-then-invest pattern, and the ~$10B annual estimate.
- FBI Operation Level Up and allied investor-protection guidance. Warning signs including moving to encrypted apps, requests to limit contact with family/advisors, and undisclosed withdrawal fees and taxes.
We document recurring online scam patterns using primary sources: government agencies, law enforcement, and security researchers. The people shown in our illustrations are fictional. Ads on this page do not influence our reporting. Read about how we research or who we are.