How to report a pig butchering scam
If you've been hit by a fake crypto trading platform introduced by someone you met online, this is the exact filing path: organise your evidence, file with the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), then escalate to your local cybercrime unit and the receiving exchange. No fee, no signup, no recovery agent required.
Before you file: organise your evidence
IC3 takes ~30 minutes if you have everything ready and several hours if you don't. Work through this checklist first — it's the same evidence pack you'll send to every other agency.
Wallet & transaction evidence
- Every destination wallet address you sent crypto to (copy exact strings — case matters for some chains).
- Every transaction hash (TXID) from your sending wallet or exchange withdrawal history.
- The blockchain for each transfer (BTC, ETH, USDT-TRC20, USDT-ERC20, SOL, etc.).
- Total amount sent in crypto and the USD value at the time of each send.
- Screenshots of any exchange that sent the funds (Coinbase, Binance, Kraken withdrawal logs).
Communication evidence
- Full chat history — WhatsApp, Telegram, WeChat, dating app, SMS — exported or screenshotted with timestamps.
- Profile screenshots of the scammer (display name, handle, profile photo, bio, join date).
- Phone numbers used (including country code) and any email addresses.
- Names of any 'mentors', 'uncles', 'tax officers', or 'platform support' personas the scammer introduced.
- Voice notes, video call screenshots, or recorded calls if available.
Platform evidence
- Exact URL(s) of the fake trading or investment platform — copy from your browser, not from memory.
- Screenshots of the dashboard showing your fabricated balance and trade history.
- Screenshots of every withdrawal fee demand ('tax', 'liquidity', 'AML deposit', 'profit unlock').
- Any app stored on your phone — note the exact app name and developer.
- Date the platform was first introduced and the date of your first deposit.
Your personal records
- A timeline document: when contact began, when trading was introduced, every deposit date and amount.
- Bank or card statements if any deposits were funded from a regulated account.
- Government ID copies you may have uploaded to the fake platform — assume they are compromised.
- Any 'recovery agents', lawyers, or investigators who contacted you after the loss (these are second-stage scams — log them, do not pay).
Filing with IC3 — step by step
- 1
Go to ic3.gov and start a new complaint
The FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) is the primary US federal route for crypto investment fraud, including pig butchering. There is no fee. File at ic3.gov even if you are outside the US — IC3 accepts international victims and shares intelligence with foreign partners.
- 2
Pick the right incident type
Choose 'Confidence/Romance Fraud' or 'Investment Fraud (Cryptocurrency Investment)' — pig butchering can fit either. If the relationship was the entry point, select Confidence/Romance and mention the investment angle in the narrative.
- 3
Write the narrative in chronological order
Start with first contact (date, platform). Walk through the trust-building stage, the introduction of the trading platform, your deposits (with USD amounts and dates), each withdrawal fee demanded, and the final loss. Plain language wins — investigators skim hundreds of these per week.
- 4
Paste every wallet address and transaction hash
IC3 has dedicated fields for crypto. Paste each destination wallet, each TXID, the blockchain, and the USD value. Accuracy here lets the FBI subpoena receiving exchanges if the funds landed in custody.
- 5
List the fake platform and any related accounts
Include the platform URL, any app store listings, and any social handles the scammer used (Tinder/Bumble/WhatsApp/Telegram/LinkedIn). If the scammer named a 'company', include it verbatim.
- 6
Save your IC3 complaint number
After submission you'll receive a complaint reference (format: I followed by digits). Save this — every other agency (FBI field office, state AG, your bank's fraud team) will ask for it.
After IC3: local agency by country
United States
After IC3, file a separate report with your local police department (insurance and bank claims often require a local case number). Also file with your state Attorney General's consumer protection division, and the FTC at reportfraud.ftc.gov. If you sent funds via wire, file with FinCEN's complaint portal.
United Kingdom
Report to Action Fraud at actionfraud.police.uk or call 0300 123 2040. Crypto fraud is also actively investigated by the City of London Police. If you sent funds via a regulated UK exchange, file an SAR notification with the FCA.
European Union
File with your national cybercrime unit (e.g. BKA in Germany, Police nationale in France, Polizia Postale in Italy). Europol's EC3 aggregates national reports — there is no direct EU-wide victim portal, so the national report is the entry point.
Canada
Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre (CAFC) at antifraudcentre.ca, plus your local police. If a Canadian exchange custodied the funds, FINTRAC may freeze the destination account on a police request.
Australia
Report to ReportCyber at cyber.gov.au and Scamwatch at scamwatch.gov.au. If you used a regulated Australian exchange, AUSTRAC enforcement can issue freeze notices on the destination.
Singapore, Hong Kong & rest of APAC
Singapore: ScamShield (scamshield.org.sg) and Singapore Police Force anti-scam hotline 1800-722-6688. Hong Kong: Anti-Deception Coordination Centre, 18222. Most APAC pig butchering operations are run from Cambodia, Laos, or Myanmar — Interpol shares national reports through its Global Financial Crime Taskforce.
Notifying the receiving exchange
- If the receiving wallet is a known exchange deposit address (visible on a block explorer as belonging to Binance, OKX, Coinbase, etc.), file an abuse report with that exchange immediately — the faster the request, the higher the chance funds are still in the hot wallet.
- Include your IC3 complaint number in the exchange abuse report. Compliance teams escalate cases that already have a law-enforcement reference faster than self-reports.
- Do not contact the destination wallet on-chain (e.g. by sending a 'message transaction'). It tips off the scammer to move funds and does not constitute legal recovery.
- Never pay a 'crypto investigator' or 'fund recovery firm' that contacts you after your loss. Every reputable recovery effort runs through law enforcement, regulated exchanges, or court-appointed receivers — none of them cold-call victims.
Frequently asked questions
Should I file with IC3 even if I live outside the US?
Yes. IC3 explicitly accepts international victims and routinely shares intelligence with foreign cybercrime units. File with IC3 AND your own national cybercrime portal — they investigate from different angles.
How long does an IC3 complaint take to file?
About 30–45 minutes if your evidence is organised in advance (use the checklist above). The form auto-saves; you can pause and return. There is no fee.
Will the FBI actually investigate my case?
Individual restitution is rare but the aggregated data drives indictments against the syndicates running these scams (most large pig butchering operations originate from forced-labour compounds in Cambodia, Laos, and Myanmar). Every complaint feeds pattern-matching that protects future victims.
Can I sue the scammer?
Civil suits against pig butchering operators are almost never collectible — the defendants are overseas and the funds have moved through mixers. The realistic civil path is suing a US-regulated exchange or bank if they failed mandatory AML controls during your transfers. Talk to a lawyer with crypto-fraud experience, not a 'recovery agent'.
What if I'm too embarrassed to file?
Pig butchering victims include surgeons, lawyers, fund managers, and government officials. The scam is engineered to bypass intelligence by attacking the emotional brain first. Filing helps the next person — the scammer is currently running the exact same play against someone else.
Should I also warn other potential victims?
Yes. Add the destination wallets and the fake platform URL to GACS at /report so they appear in our blacklist. Share the platform name on social media — pig butchering operators rely on victim silence. /share-warning has a template you can copy.
Related guides
Cite this page / Press kit
Journalists, researchers and educators are welcome to cite this page. Use the permalink below or copy a ready-made citation.
https://gacs.app/how-to-report-pig-butchering-scam- APA
GACS. (2026). How to Report a Pig Butchering Scam. GACS — Global Anti-Crypto-Scam. Retrieved June 6, 2026, from https://gacs.app/how-to-report-pig-butchering-scam
- MLA
"How to Report a Pig Butchering Scam." GACS — Global Anti-Crypto-Scam, GACS, 2026, https://gacs.app/how-to-report-pig-butchering-scam. Accessed June 6, 2026.
- Chicago
GACS. "How to Report a Pig Butchering Scam." GACS — Global Anti-Crypto-Scam. Accessed June 6, 2026. https://gacs.app/how-to-report-pig-butchering-scam.
- BibTeX
@misc{gacs_how_to_report_pig_butchering_scam, author = {GACS}, title = {How to Report a Pig Butchering Scam}, howpublished = {GACS — Global Anti-Crypto-Scam}, year = {2026}, note = {Accessed: June 6, 2026}, url = {https://gacs.app/how-to-report-pig-butchering-scam} }
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