Pig Butchering
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In Brief
Pig butchering is a long-con investment scam where fraudsters build trust over weeks — often through romance or friendly chat — then lure victims into fake crypto trading platforms and disappear with their deposits.
What Is Pig Butchering?
Pig butchering is a long-form investment scam named after the practice of "fattening the pig before slaughter." The scammer spends weeks or months building a relationship — often starting with a "wrong number" text, dating app match, or friendly social media contact — before ever mentioning money. Once trust is established, they introduce a crypto "investment opportunity" on a professional-looking but entirely fake trading platform.
Victims see fabricated profits, are encouraged to deposit more, and may even be allowed small withdrawals to build confidence. When the victim tries to cash out for real, the platform demands "taxes" or "fees" — and eventually the scammers vanish with everything.
Warning Signs
An online contact you've never met steers conversation toward crypto investing.
A platform you've never heard of shows consistent, unrealistic returns.
You're told to move funds off a wallet or exchange you control to "activate" trading.
Withdrawals require paying fees or taxes upfront.
How to Protect Yourself
Never invest through a platform recommended by someone you've only met online.
Check whether you control the keys. If your "balance" only exists on their website, it isn't yours.
Verify independently — search the platform name plus "scam" before depositing anything.
Don't chase losses. Recovery services that promise to get funds back are usually the same scammers.
Pig Butchering and Trust Wallet
Self-custody is the antidote to fake platforms: in Trust Wallet your assets live on-chain under your keys, not as numbers on a scammer's dashboard. If anyone asks you to transfer crypto out of self-custody to "start trading," treat it as the scam it almost certainly is.