Pig butchering (Shā Zhū Pán, 杀猪盘) is a long-con investment scam where the victim is "fattened" with fake profits before being "slaughtered". It's now the single largest crypto-fraud category on the planet — bigger than ransomware and exchange hacks combined.
The 7-stage playbook
- The cold message. A wrong-number text, LinkedIn DM, or Tinder match. Polished, polite, never asks for money.
- The grooming. Weeks of small talk. Family stories. Photos. Voice notes. Sometimes a video call (now AI-deepfaked).
- The mentor pivot. "My uncle works at Goldman / a quant fund / has a node arbitrage bot." Screenshots of profits appear.
- The platform. You're sent to a slick app or website — often cloned from a real broker. KYC, wallets, dashboards, real-looking charts.
- The first win. You deposit $500–$2,000. Profits appear in hours. You're allowed to withdraw a small amount. Trust locks in.
- The whale push. "Limited window," "tax-free zone," "use leverage." Deposits balloon to $50k–$500k. Often borrowed.
- The slaughter. The withdrawal button asks for "tax", "AML clearance", "credit upgrade" — endless top-ups. The account is finally locked. The scammer vanishes.
Red flags that catch 95% of victims
- A romantic or business contact who insists on moving to WhatsApp / Telegram fast.
- Investment advice from someone you've never met in person.
- A platform that isn't listed on the regulator's website for your country.
- "Guaranteed" daily returns above 1%.
- Pressure to use a specific stablecoin (USDT-TRC20 is the laundering favorite).
- Any fee required *to withdraw* your own money.
What to do right now
If you suspect you're in a pig-butchering scam: stop sending money immediately, screenshot everything before the chat disappears, and report to your national fraud agency. Then add the platform to GACS so the next person searching it gets warned.
GACS's free Risk & Recon engine checks the platform, wallet, and phone number against our 250k+ scam database in under 4 seconds — no signup.