A Bitcoin investor misplaced his retirement financial savings after falling sufferer to a so-called “pig butchering” rip-off, regardless of repeated warnings from his advisory agency, in keeping with a firsthand account shared by a Bitcoin wealth adviser.
Key Takeaways:
- A Bitcoin investor misplaced his retirement financial savings after ignoring warnings and sending funds to a romance scammer.
- Pig butchering scams use emotional manipulation and pretend identities, together with AI-generated photos, to lure victims.
- The scams are surging, costing victims $5.5 billion in 2024 and drawing elevated legislation enforcement motion.
Terence Michael, an creator and adviser affiliated with The Bitcoin Adviser, mentioned an unnamed shopper transferred his Bitcoin holdings to a scammer after being approached on-line by a girl posing as a dealer.
The lady promised to double his Bitcoin and progressively constructed what gave the impression to be a romantic relationship, a trademark tactic of pig butchering scams.
Bitcoin Adviser Says Consumer Ignored Warnings, Misplaced Funds to Rip-off
In a submit shared on X, Michael mentioned he made “quite a few cellphone calls” and despatched a “string of textual content messages” in an effort to cease the switch.
The warnings went unheeded. Whereas Michael was out to dinner, he acquired a message from the shopper confirming that the funds had been gone.
“My shopper was falling for a pig butchering rip-off,” Michael wrote. “And as of final night time … I acquired a devastating textual content message from him saying he had misplaced all of it.”
Not like conventional cyberattacks that depend on malware or direct pockets compromises, pig butchering scams rely upon emotional manipulation.
I’ve a Bitcoin shopper
who simply misplaced all his Bitcoin.
He isn't rich.
He lastly made it to 1 BTC.
I celebrated with him over the cellphone.
However inside days of him lastly leaving Coinbase to setup a distributed multi-key safety and inheritance protocol, he was approached by… pic.twitter.com/H1FK6Mbbyi— Terence Michael (@ProofOfMoney) December 14, 2025
Victims are satisfied to willingly ship their property, usually after being groomed via days or perhaps weeks of dialog that mix funding recommendation with private and romantic claims.
Michael mentioned the shopper, who had lately divorced, went past sending Bitcoin. He additionally bought a airplane ticket for the scammer, anticipating to fulfill her in individual.
After the switch was accomplished, the attacker reportedly admitted that the pictures used all through the connection had been pretend and generated utilizing synthetic intelligence instruments.
The case highlights the rising scale of pig butchering scams throughout the crypto business. In 2024 alone, these schemes drained an estimated $5.5 billion from victims throughout roughly 200,000 reported instances, in keeping with business knowledge.
In June, the US Division of Justice introduced the seizure of greater than $225 million in cryptocurrency tied to pig butchering operations, underscoring the rising enforcement response to certainly one of crypto’s most damaging fraud traits.
AI-Pushed Crypto Scams Hit $4.6B as Deepfakes Gas New Fraud Wave
As reported, the fast adoption of synthetic intelligence is driving a brand new technology of crypto scams, pushing world losses to $4.6 billion in 2024, in keeping with a 2025 Anti-Rip-off Analysis Report launched on June 10.
The research, co-authored by Bitget, SlowMist, and Elliptic, discovered that scammers are more and more utilizing AI-generated deepfakes, pretend video calls, and Trojan-infected job affords to deceive victims, with no less than 87 AI-powered rip-off rings dismantled within the first quarter of 2025 alone.
The report warns that deepfake impersonations, social engineering, and Ponzi schemes disguised as DeFi or NFT initiatives now dominate the menace panorama.
Legal teams are additionally utilizing cross-chain bridges and obfuscation instruments to launder stolen funds, complicating restoration efforts.
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