As a victim of a new, fast-growing type of crypto romance scheme called “pig butchering,” Divya (who asked to keep her last name private) has a lot of company. According to the FBI, more than 20,000 people in the U.S. fell victim to romance fraud and lost a total approaching $1 billion last year. But Divya sadly might hold the record as the biggest loser to this growing type of swindle.
Authorities say the average loss per victim of the scheme is around $180,000, but Divya, according to a lawsuit filed against one alleged pig butcher, saw more than $8 million in cryptocurrency disappear into the fraudulent void.
“I’m generally a pretty sensible person,” Divya says. “I’m very giving, I like to volunteer. I won’t just give money away blindly.”
The term “pig butchering” is from the Chinese “Shāzhūpán,” (殺豬盤) as the scheme apparently originated in China. The con man – and it’s almost always a man – builds a months or weeks-long romantic relationship with the victim through online dating platforms such as Tinder, Grindr, and Bumble. According to Divya’s lawsuit, “the offender showers the victim with messages of love and affection to emotionally ‘fatten them up’ – similar to fattening a pig …before enticing the victim to invest in a fake [crypto] company and, metaphorically, slaughtering the victim.” This slaughter typically involves getting the victim to put real money into fake crypto investments.
