Overview
The victim expects to profit from investment in cryptocurrency, or by using a specific cryptocurrency trading app or platform.
How It Works
Scammers may lure victims into using fraudulent trading platforms/apps or may promote specific new cryptocurrencies with promises of high returns.
Some crypto investment scams are complex and unfold after a very long time.
These long-running scams often rely on fake apps and scammer-controlled web infrastructure that makes it appear to the victim as if they have made a profit on a crypto investment, when they have in fact only sent money to the scammer.
These scams also have a potential for very high dollar losses.
These scams require significant buy-in capital, so are sometimes targeted at older victims with more net worth. Scammers will encourage victims to liquidate retirement savings for the scam.
A Note About Confusion Around The Term "Pig Butchering"
Both high-dollar investment and romance scams can take a very long time to play out. This is because the scammer needs to build up a lot of trust with the victim in order to get them to send money.
This long timescale makes these part of a class of scams known in Chinese as 杀猪盘, sha zhu pan or shazhupan, literally "pig butchering."
Using the word "pig" to refer to victims is an unkind and unfair characterization, so some analysts seeking alternative phrases have settled on "romance scam" or "investment scam". However, we need to be precise when using these terms as they are not interchangeable. Not all investment scams are based on romance, and not all shazhupan schemes involve romance.
Related Articles
Initial Stages of Romance Scams SANS, 2026-01-27. This resource has many screenshots between a scammer and a person pretending to be a victim.
Crypto Scam Tracker, California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation - shows hundreds of narratives from real victims. Includes crypto addresses, screenshots, and URLs.
Texas Court Freezes Millions of Dollars After Georgia Doctor Is Targeted in Crypto Scam - covers many of the psychological tricks used in these long term, fake investment app scams
Listed as a "Top Five Scams Targeting Consumers" by PYMNTS, January 2026 report
"Though less common, [investment scams] cause the largest losses, with median household losses exceeding $3,000 and heavy use of cryptocurrency payments."
$17B lost in 2025 to crypto scams, per Chainalysis. Record $17 Billion Estimated Stolen in Crypto Scams and Fraud in 2025 as Impersonation Tactics and AI Enablement Surge, January 13, 2026
Related Scams
1.2 Commodities Investment Scam: Both 1.2 and 1.3.1 scams use a fraudulent platform, and have similar targeting strategies and psychological indicators. Both can be carried out as "pig butchering" scams. Some victims may feel differently about investing in gold versus cryptocurrency.
4.4 Cryptocurrency Giveaway Scam: Another type of crypto scam
8.1 Romance/Sweetheart Scam: Some cryptocurrency investment scams resemble romance scams because both may start with the angle of romance or friendship. It can be confusing to keep these separate though, and the media coverage does not help as it constantly confuses the two. If a victim loses money investing in crypto on the advice of a fake romantic partner, what kind of scam is it? In differentiating these, the question to ask is about the nature of the deception at the time of the loss.
If the victim lost money because they were deceived into thinking a bad crypto investment was actually a good investment, then it's a cryptocurrency investment scam - regardless of how they came to believe it was a good investment (e.g. trusting a fake romantic partner).
If the victim lost money because they were trying to show a fake romantic partner that they loved them, then it's a romance scam, regardless of whether they gave the scammer money in gift cards, gold, crypto, or some other method of payment.
Related Crime Schemes
A particular instance of this scam may embed one or more of these related schemes.
Fraudulent Platform: Any scheme that relies on custom built software that assists the crime. Includes fraudulent trading platforms, fraudulent clickworking platforms, and the like.
Leveling: Any scam or fraud that requires the victim to pay currency (including cryptocurrency) into a system and then 'level up' to higher paying rewards by paying more money into the system.
Ponzi: A ponzi scheme is a type of investment fraud in which the scammer (or "Ponzi") pays "dividends" to initial investors using the funds of subsequent investors.
Pump-and-Dump: A pump and dump scheme is a type of investment fraud in which promoters falsely hype up a new or obscure stock so that new investors will rush to buy it, thus inflating the price (the "pump"), at which point the scammer sells their portion of the stock at these high prices (the "dump"), leaving the other investors with a worthless stock.
Pyramid scheme: A pyramid scheme describes a scam or fraud in which participants only make money by recruiting new participants into the program.
Victim Targeting Context
The scammer may use one or more of the following techniques to reach the victim.
Advertising: The scammer uses advertising to passively reach the victim.
Spray and Pray / Scattered: The scammer approaches many victims at once such as through bulk email or SMS.
Targeted Conversational Approach: The scammer approaches the victim through targeted, topical online conversation.
Social Engineering: Psychological Manipulations
The scammer may use one or more of these psychological techniques to accomplish the scam.
Accident: The scammer contacts the victim under the guise of an accident (such as a wrong number), so as to lower suspicion.
Boost of Trust: The scammer employs an initial boost of trust technique to increase trust with the victim. An example is letting the victim withdraw some of their earnings in order to show that the scheme is legitimate.
Celebrity: The scammer claims a celebrity endorsement in order to increase trust or interest from the victim.
Codes or Jargon: The scammer will often use codes or technical jargon about finance or cryptocurrency to confuse the victim or to add legitimacy to the scam.
Complexity: The scammer has a complicated story to explain the scam, or leverages scientific/economic complexity in order to confuse the victim.
Easy Money: The scammer promises easy money or makes appeals designed to leverage victim's greed.
Gradual Commitment: The scammer asks the victim to make a small commitment at first, but these escalate over time.
Not a scam: The scammer goes to great lengths to convince the victim the scheme is not a scam.
Peer Involvement: The scammer uses the victim's peers to encourage the victim to engage in the scam, claiming that "others are doing it" or suggesting that the victim will miss out. Often the peers are also scammers.
Romance: The scammer promises love or friendship to victim.
Secret Knowledge: The scammer may imply that the investment scheme relies on secret or hidden knowledge.
Sunk Cost Fallacy: The scammer concocts a scenario where the victim will lose everything they've earned so far if they don't keep going with the scam, claims "you've already invested and you'll lose it all".
Trust Building & Legitimacy: The scammer builds legitimacy or trust over time.
Social Engineering: Impersonation Techniques
The scammer may impersonate one or more of the following groups as part of the scam.
Banking / Finance: The scammer impersonates a banking official or financial institution.
Business or NonProfit: The scammer impersonates a business or nonprofit.
Catfishing: The scammer creates a fictitious online profile or persona.
Celebrity: The scammer impersonates a celebrity.