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Category: Fraud Prevention

5 Signs of Pig-Butchering Scams

It starts with an unsolicited message, followed by an attempt to gain your trust. But before you get taken, learn the telltale signs of this fraud.

By Doug Segrest | January 27, 2025

It can start with an unexpected text or an unsolicited direct message from someone you follow on social media, but in truth the ones reaching out are driven only by greed. They’ll promise you a financial windfall, build your trust then take you for a ride.

It’s called a pig-butchering scam for a reason. Criminals try to gain the trust of innocent people, fatten them up with promises of huge investment returns and then take them for a financial slaughter.

It pays to be very careful and fully investigate financial opportunities before you invest. Jeff Taylor, head of Commercial Fraud Forensics at Regions Bank

Unfortunately, in the age of cryptocurrency and faster payments, the pig-butchering scam is one that’s not going away anytime soon.

“The adage of, ‘if it seems to good to be true, it probably is,’ definitely applies to this fraud attack scheme., said Jeff Taylor, head of Commercial Fraud Forensics at Regions Bank. “It pays to be very careful and fully investigate financial opportunities before you invest.”

The FDIC recently put out a pig-butchering scam alert that provides great information on how these criminals work.

 

5 Signs of a Pig-Butchering Scam

  1. Perpetrators will contact you out of nowhere via text messages, dating apps, social media platforms, and later switch to internet phone chat applications.
  2. Perpetrators will try to develop meaningful relationships with you, gain your trust, and offer you high-yield investment opportunities in virtual assets, including cryptocurrency.
  3. Perpetrators will tell you to open accounts on online investment websites and instruct you to deposit money via wire transfer to shell companies, or direct transfers on legitimate virtual asset service providers or cryptocurrency exchanges.
  4. Perpetrators will pressure you to invest more money, or your relationship with them will end.
  5. You can be duped, and the fraud will end: When you attempt to withdraw money, websites may demand that you pay additional fees to do so; or you may be locked out of the account and never hear back from the perpetrator. Perpetrators disappear with all of your funds.

At Regions Bank, our Doing More Today team provides regular articles to help make the public aware of ongoing schemes. The goal isn’t to scare you but to help keep you prepared for real-world threats.

 

Additional Resources from Regions.com

  • Regions Fraud Prevention
  • Protect Yourself and Your Accounts from Fraud
  • Protect Your Business Against Fraud

 

Related Articles from Doing More Today

  • 4 Common Tax Fraud Scams
  • The IRS’ 4 Steps to Take After a Data Breach
  • 4 Warning Signs of a Potential Charity Scam

 

The information presented is general in nature and should not be considered, legal, accounting or tax advice. Regions reminds its customers that they should be vigilant about fraud and security and that they are responsible for taking action to protect their computer systems. Fraud prevention requires a continuous review of your policies and practices, as the threat evolves daily. There is no guarantee that all fraudulent transactions will be prevented or that related financial losses will not occur. Visit regions.com/STOPFRAUD or speak with your Banker for further information on how you can help prevent fraud.
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