Overview
The victim expects to be in a romantic or friendship relationship with someone, however the relationship is built on deception and primarily exists to extract money from the victim.
How It Works
Over the course of weeks or months, the scammer and victim develop what the victim believes to be a true romantic relationship or friendship.
Eventually, the scammer will ask for money for a variety of reasons, which may include wanting to visit the victim but being unable to afford a flight to come visit, some emergency in a personal business, needing to clear a debt, or wanting to help out a dear relative.
The money is often requested in un-traceable ways, like a money order, gift card, or a prepaid card.
Sometimes the victim is also asked to make bank transfers or conduct other money movement that takes the form of money laundering or money muling.
Related Articles
Friendship fraud: warnings of rise in ‘insidious’ scam targeting older people, Guardian 2026-03-23
Romance Scams, FBI
A Note About Confusion Around The Term "Pig Butchering"
Are romance scams and investment scams the same thing? No.
Are romance scams and investment scams the same as "pig butchering"? Not necessarily.
What investment and many romance scams have in common is that they 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.
Scams where the victim is groomed over a long timescale are often 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 Scams
1.3.1 Cryptocurrency Investment Scam: Some cryptocurrency investment scams resemble romance scams because they 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 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 who convinced them it was a good investment).
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, 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.
Money Laundering: Any scheme in which the victim is asked to move money from one account to another for the scammer as part of the scam. Can include money 'muling.'
Parcel Muling: Any scheme in which where the victim is asked to move parcels for the scammer as part of the scam.
Victim Targeting Context
The scammer may use one or more of the following techniques to initially reach the victim.
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.
Accidental contact: The scammer contacts the victim under the guise of an accident (such as a wrong number), so as to lower suspicion.
Flattery: The scammer uses praise or flattery to increase the likelihood that the victim will go along with the scam.
Guilt/Pity/Sympathy: The scammer tries to make victim feel guilt or pity toward scammer or others.
Nice Guy: The scammer takes advantage of the victim's generosity or attempt to be "a nice guy".
Reciprocity: The scammer does a favor for the victim in order to make the victim feel like they owe the scammer a favor in return.
Romance: The scammer promises love or friendship to victim.
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.
Catfishing: The scammer creates a fictitious online profile or persona.
Celebrity: The scammer impersonates a celebrity.