Pig Butchering Scam/Crypto Investment Scam — A pig butchering scam, also called a relationship investment scam or crypto investment scam, is a prolonged confidence scheme in which criminals cultivate friendship, romance, admiration, or professional trust before introducing a fraudulent investment opportunity. The criminal presents apparent wealth and investment expertise, directs the targeted person to a controlled trading platform, displays fabricated profits, permits a small early withdrawal to strengthen confidence, and then encourages increasingly large deposits funded through savings, loans, retirement accounts, property sales, or borrowed money. When the person attempts to withdraw the displayed balance, the platform demands invented taxes, security deposits, liquidity payments, commissions, or verification fees, although the supposed profits exist only inside an interface controlled by the criminal organization. The term “pig butchering” comes from offender language and does not describe the victim, whose trust is deliberately developed through sustained psychological grooming, manipulated evidence, professional technology, false customer service, and a coordinated criminal infrastructure. — Relationship Investment Fraud

Added September 29, 2026