On Wednesday, June 18, the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced it had seized $225 million in cryptocurrency connected to pig butchering scams. The seizure involves funds stolen from 400 victims worldwide, and as CNBC reports, it’s the largest-ever seizure of its kind.
A pig butchering scam is a common type of online scam in which cybercriminals gain a victim’s trust and then convince them to invest in a fake crypto investment opportunity. It’s a cruel, crude, crypto con, but one that can be extraordinarily effective.
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Such swindles can involve elements of other scams we’ve written about at Mashable before, such as tech support scams or romance scams. In a typical pig butchering example, a cybercriminal spends time gaining the trust of a victim, in the same way that a farmer might fatten up a pig before slaughter. Once trust is established, the con artists trick their victims into investing in fraudulent cryptocurrency schemes or similar “investment” opportunities. And if the criminals gain access to your financial information, they can wipe out your bank account entirely.
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