A pig butchering scam is a type of confidence trick and investment fraud in which victims are gradually lured into making increasing contributions, in the form of cryptocurrency, to a seemingly sound investment before the party they are dealing with disappears.^[1] The name alludes to the practice of fattening a hog before slaughter.^[2]

This type of fraud originated in Southeast Asia. Perpetrators are typically themselves victims of a fraud factory,^[2] lured from abroad under false pretenses and then forced to commit the fraud by organised crime gangs. These gangs prevent them from leaving and threaten them with torture if they disobey orders. Many operations are run from areas of Myanmar which are outside central government control due to the ongoing civil war, with one important hub being the town of Myawaddy in Kayin State, near the border with Thailand. Many of the gangs running pig butchering scams, along with the people forced to commit the fraud, are ethnically Chinese.^[3]

Pig butchering is commonplace on dating apps, where, in October 2023, twelve percent of Americans using said apps had been victims, up from five percent in 2018.^[4] Victims are matched with fake dating profiles and then socially engineered into developing a relationship with the perpetrator, who convinces them to invest in cryptocurrency from websites controlled by the scammers. When sufficient money has been sent, the perpetrator breaks off contact and vanishes.^[5] One group profiled in The New York Times focused on (preferably married) Chinese women between the ages of 30 and 50.^[3]

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