You’re just checking your phone and get a text seemingly meant for someone else. Or maybe you’re reached out to by a person on a social media site, or a platform like Telegram or Whatsapp. Maybe it’s someplace else, like a dating site.

In any case, a stranger reaches out to you. You exchange details of your lives and get to chatting. You might feel like you’ve met your soulmate, or a person that you deeply resonate with.

Eventually, they bring up cryptocurrency. Not much, and maybe if you push back they’ll wait a bit and start asking again. They show you how successful they are, and how they want you to succeed as well.

They convince you to withdraw money and put it into crypto. They’ll gladly provide instructions - including how to get around nosey people who want to know what you’re doing. And then they will have you go to a cryptocurrency trading site.

You put your money in, and it seems to be doing well. You’re thrilled! They’re thrilled!

But when it’s time to take it out? You can’t. Even if you provide identification to prove that you’re you.

Shortly after, the person you got to know stops responding. The site disappears. And you are out a large amount of money.

You have fallen to the Hybrid Investment Scam - better known as the Pig Butchering Scam. These scammers exploit the very human emotions of friendship and love to separate you from your money. The idea is that they “fatten up” the victim - gain your trust - and then “butcher” (take you for all you’ve got).

How to protect yourself
There’s nothing wrong with falling in love with someone - or forming a friendship over shared interests. But you should be wary as well.

The most common entry point for this scam is where someone texts you a message seemingly meant for another person. Because most people are raised to be polite and tell someone they’ve got the wrong number, the scammer uses this as a reason to strike up a friendship/relationship. The best thing to do is ignore and block the sender.

However, this scam may take other forms and it could be harder to spot. For example, a scammer might strike up a conversation about cats with an obvious cat lover, or use a dating platform to attract their prey.

If the person you’re chatting with starts talking about cryptocurrency investments and how they’re making so much money, it’s likely that you have stumbled into this scam.

These scammers also helpfully provide instructions on how to get around the entities meant to protect you - for example, bank personnel and warnings on crypto ATMs, and family members who aren’t entangled in the friendship or relationship and can warn you away. They want you to listen to them, not people who are trying to keep you safe. Any time where you’re instructed to lie to people should be considered a huge red flag.

Do not mention to them that you know that it’s a scam. They might try a secondary “oh, I’m not doing this voluntarily, send money to get me out of these terrible conditions” version of this scam, wanting you to feel sorry for them and send the scammers money this way. While it is true that many people have been lured by false premises to end up in these scam operations, sending them money will just put it in the pocket of their masters.

Note that some scammers use similar tactics of befriending/romancing their victims before having them wire money.