TL;DR - Pig butchering scams don't open with a pitch, they open with a wrong-number text or a random DM that a stranger refuses to let end. Over weeks or months they build a friendship or romance, steer the conversation to a crypto or trading app, show you real-looking gains, and then block your withdrawal behind "fees" the moment you try to take money out. In 2026, the "let's video call to prove you're real" trick doesn't work anymore either, because the grooming and the face on the other end can both be generated. What to do: treat any warm online contact that leads to an investment as a reason to slow down, verify through a channel the other person didn't give you, and if money has already moved, call your bank first, then report to Scamwatch and ReportCyber.
By The Numbers
| What | Number | Source |
|---|---|---|
| How long scammers spend building trust before money comes up | Weeks to months | staysafeonline.org |
| People estimated to be trafficked into running scam compounds | ~200,000 | Huntress |
| Rise in deepfake-for-hire listings on criminal forums in six months | +600% | Merkle Science |
| What happens the moment you try to withdraw | You're asked for more money | US Secret Service |
| Where to report it if you're in Australia | Your bank, then Scamwatch and ReportCyber | scamwatch.gov.au / cyber.gov.au |
"Sorry, wrong number"
I've had four of these this year. A text lands from a number I don't know. "Hey Michael, are we still on for golf Saturday?" I'm not Michael, and I say so. Most wrong numbers stop there, an apology and nothing more.
These don't stop there. "Oh I'm so sorry! You seem friendly though, how's your day going?" It's warm, it's disarming, and it's engineered to make saying nothing back feel rude. I know what it is because I've spent fifteen years reading the shape of scams for a living, so I don't reply. But I've had enough conversations with people in my life who did reply, who kept chatting for a week or two because the person on the other end was genuinely nice to talk to, to know exactly how this works from the inside.
It's called pig butchering, a grim name borrowed from farming: fatten the pig before you slaughter it. The fattening is the friendship. Nobody asks you for money in week one. The whole scam is built around patience most of us don't expect a stranger to have, and that patience is exactly what makes it work.
The shape of the con, in order
Pig butchering follows a pattern reliable enough that once you've seen it laid out, you'll recognise it anywhere.
- The opener is an accident. A wrong-number text, a random DM, a like on your profile from someone who doesn't fit your usual crowd. It reads as innocent because it's meant to.
- The conversation moves off-platform fast. Within a few messages you're being nudged to WhatsApp, WeChat, or Telegram, "easier to chat here." That gets you off a platform with reporting tools and onto one the scammer controls.
- They never meet you, and they dodge live video. Busy job overseas, bad time zones, unreliable internet. There's always a reason it isn't today.
- They talk about money like it's incidental. Crypto, forex, a property deal, always framed as something they do, not something they're pitching you. The lifestyle sounds good. Nobody's selling anything, yet.
- They introduce a platform "just to show you." A trading app or website you've never heard of, professional-looking, with a live-updating balance. Early "withdrawals" work, sometimes for real, so you trust it with more.
- The window is closing. A hot opportunity, a limited slot, a reason this has to happen this week. Urgency is doing the job that scrutiny would otherwise do.
- The tell that seals it: you try to take money out, and you're asked for more first. Taxes, a compliance fee, a minimum balance you didn't know about. Real investment platforms have never once asked you to pay to receive your own money.
Every one of those is documented behaviour, not a guess. The US Secret Service flags the "never meets in person, avoids video" pattern specifically, and the National Cybersecurity Alliance walks through the same accidental-contact-to-investment arc.
Why "we did a video call" doesn't prove anything anymore
For a long time the advice was simple: if they'll never get on video, that's your answer. I'd have told you the same thing eighteen months ago.
That advice is out of date now, and it's worth being honest about why. Deepfake video and voice cloning have gotten cheap and good enough that a "person" on a call can be a real-time generated face wearing someone else's voice. Merkle Science tracked listings for deepfake-for-hire services on criminal forums jump by roughly 600% in a single six-month stretch, and that was before the tooling got as accessible as it is now. On top of that, the syndicates running these operations have started using agentic AI to hold thousands of these grooming conversations at once, each one personalised, remembered, and consistent, in a way one human scammer working a phone could never keep up with.
So a friendly voice note, a short video call, even a live chat that feels natural and responsive, none of it is proof anymore that you're talking to a real, single person with your interests at heart. Huntress also points out something worth sitting with: a lot of the people typing these messages are trafficking victims themselves, held in scam compounds across Southeast Asia and forced to run the exact playbook above under threat of violence. It's a horrible detail, and it's also useful, because it's a reminder that being angry at "the scammer" often means being angry at the wrong person in the chain. The syndicate running the operation is the target. The person on the other end of your chat may not be.
What actually protects you
None of this requires becoming suspicious of every stranger who messages you. It requires one habit, applied consistently: if a warm online connection ever leads to money, especially an investment, slow down and verify through a channel the other person didn't hand you.
In practice, that looks like this. If someone you've never met in person starts talking about a trading platform, look the platform up yourself, independently, using a search you typed rather than a link they sent. Check it against your country's financial regulator, not a review site the scammer could have seeded. If they push you toward a messaging app, ask yourself why a platform reporting real gains would need you off the platform that can flag it. And if you ever get to a withdrawal screen that asks you to pay first, stop there completely. That single moment, being asked for more money to release your own money, is not a fee. It's the con showing its hand.
If you've already sent money, or you're mid-conversation with someone and starting to wonder, the order of operations is the same every time. Call your bank first, today, not tomorrow, and tell them exactly what happened so they can flag or freeze what's moving. Then report it to Scamwatch, which is the ACCC's national scam-reporting service, and to ReportCyber through the Australian Cyber Security Centre, which routes cybercrime reports to the right police agency. Neither of those makes the money instantly reappear, but they feed the intelligence that gets platforms taken down and, sometimes, funds frozen before they leave the country. Don't go looking at US reporting bodies like the FBI's IC3, they're the wrong jurisdiction and won't action an Australian report.
Notice the pattern, not just the person
I don't reply to those texts anymore, but I understand exactly why someone would. Loneliness is real, and a stranger who's patient, curious about your day, and easy to talk to is genuinely appealing. That's not a character flaw. The people I've talked to who nearly got pulled in weren't gullible, they were just kind to a stranger who turned out to be running a script. The only real difference between someone who loses money to this and someone who doesn't is whether the pattern gets noticed before the money question does.
A stranger who won't let a wrong number end, who moves the chat somewhere private, who's always got a reason not to meet or go live, and who eventually mentions an investment, isn't unlucky small talk. It's a process with a name, and now you know the name. If you've got a parent, an older relative, or a recently-single friend who's active in dating apps or group chats, send them this one. It's the group most often targeted, and the pattern is the whole defence.
Stay safe out there,
Mathew Clark Founder, SecureInSeconds Currently: still not Michael
FAQ
What is a pig butchering scam? A long-running scam where a stranger builds a friendship or romance with you over weeks or months, usually starting with an "accidental" text or DM, before steering you into a fake crypto or trading platform and eventually blocking your withdrawal behind fake fees.
Why is it called pig butchering? The name comes from the practice of fattening a pig before slaughter. The trust-building phase is the fattening; the investment scam is the slaughter. It's a grim name for a genuinely calculated process.
Can I trust someone more if we've done a video call? Not on its own anymore. Deepfake video and voice cloning are cheap and convincing enough in 2026 that a live call is no longer reliable proof of identity. Verify the person and any platform they mention through channels they didn't give you.
What should I do if I've already sent money? Call your bank immediately and explain what happened. Then report it to Scamwatch and to ReportCyber through the Australian Cyber Security Centre. Don't use US services like the FBI's IC3, they won't action a report from Australia.
What's the single biggest warning sign? Being asked for more money in order to withdraw money you already believe is yours. Real platforms never charge you to release your own funds. That request is the scam, not a formality.
