Pig-butchering romance or friendship investment scam
A new online friend or love interest spends a long time gaining your trust, then steers you into a fake crypto or trading platform. These relationship investment scams are often called 'pig butchering' by the people who run them.
How it works
Contact can start on a dating app, social media, an ad, or even a 'wrong number' text. After a connection is made, the conversation usually moves to an encrypted app such as WhatsApp or WeChat. The person may pose as a romantic partner, a close friend, or a skilled investor and share fake screenshots of profits or expensive purchases. They then introduce a trading site that looks like a real firm, with a slightly altered name. Your on-screen balance rises, so you invest more. When you try to withdraw, you are told to prepay taxes or fees. Then the person often disappears. The CFTC and New York's attorney general warned about this pattern in February 2026, and the CFTC said relationship investment scams cost Americans an estimated $10 billion each year.
Red flags
- A new online friend cannot meet in person and quickly moves you to WhatsApp, WeChat, or a similar app.
- They claim to be a successful crypto or currency trader and offer to help you invest.
- They tell you not to talk about the relationship or the investment, or they push you to act fast.
- You can see profits on a site they chose, but you must pay extra fees to withdraw.
What to do
- Do not send more money, and do not hand cash or crypto to a courier or a bitcoin ATM.
- Stop contact, tell your bank or crypto provider, and save the messages.
- Report the person to the platform, to ic3.gov, to reportfraud.ftc.gov, and to your state attorney general.
- If the trading involved commodities or crypto, you can also report it to the CFTC. New Yorkers can call 1-800-771-7755.
Where to report it
- reportfraud.ftc.gov — the FTC's report form.
- ic3.gov — the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center.