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Pig butchering
Pig butchering is a long-running crypto investment scam. A stranger met online, often through a dating app or social media, builds a friendship or romance over weeks, then steers the victim to a fake investment platform that shows invented profits until the money is taken.
What it means for you. The fake platform can show growing profits, then demand "taxes" or "fees" before any withdrawal, and the money never arrives. Anyone you have not met in person who brings up crypto investing is the core warning sign. Crypto sent to these platforms is usually gone, and follow-up offers to recover it are often a second scam.
Sources: FinCEN: Alert on the virtual currency investment scam known as pig butchering, FTC: What to know about cryptocurrency and scams, FinCEN Alert FIN-2023-Alert005: Prevalent virtual currency investment scam (pig butchering) · checked 4 October 2026
Recovery scam
A recovery scam targets people who have already lost crypto. Someone posing as a lawyer, investigator, "recovery expert" or government agency offers to get the money back, then asks for an upfront fee, personal details or banking information, and disappears.
What it means for you. No one can reverse a confirmed blockchain transaction, and US law enforcement does not charge victims a fee to investigate. A recovery offer that arrives unsolicited, or that asks for payment first, is the pattern the FBI describes. Report losses directly at ic3.gov instead of through anyone who contacts you.
Sources: FBI IC3: Fictitious law firms targeting cryptocurrency scam victims (PSA240624), ethereum.org: Scam help and reporting · checked 4 October 2026