LAKEWOOD, Colo. — Contact Denver7 has been reporting on cryptocurrency scams for several months, and now a popular one has made its way to Lakewood.
It’s called the “pig butcher scam.” The victim is convinced to hand over their money to an unauthorized crypto investor. The scammer then puts the funds into an account that appears to grow in value. Then, the scammer disappears along with a large amount of cryptocurrency.
A 46-year-old Cleveland, Ohio, man, who wanted to remain anonymous, says he lost $750,000 after falling victim to the scam.
“The term pig butchering basically comes from a farmer fattening up the pig before they slaughter it. And in this case, it’s the suspect who was fattening up their victim,” said Lakewood Police public information officer John Romero.
In the last month, the department has had a couple people fall victim to the scam. Romero says it’s usually through social media and dating sites like LinkedIn and Tinder.
Lakewood police put out an alert on their Facebook page reminding people to stay vigilant.
“I always thought I’d never fall for something like that,” said Steve Belcher, who lost $1.6 million in a pig butcher scam.
The victim from Cleveland reached out to Contact Denver7 when he saw our story from December on Belcher.
The Cleveland victim says he talked to his scammer on Tinder for a few months, long enough for them to gain his trust. That’s when the crypto conversations began.
“She told me about the site to sign up for, and…
