The scam is called “Pig Butchering” and has been described as being a “horrible hybrid” of romance and investment scams by the consumer group Which?
Brits have been issued with a warning over a new scam which is making the rounds and has cost one victim a monumental £107,000.
The scam is called “Pig Butchering” and has been highlighted by the consumer group Which? who described it as being a “horrible hybrid” of romance and investment scams.
According to research done by the consumer group, fraudsters “fatten up” their victim with loving words before implementing the investment part of the plan.
The ploy starts off as a dating scam, and the scammer usually reaches out to the victim on dating apps before “love bombing” them over the course of a few weeks.
This can make the person targeted for the scam feel like the scammer has strong feelings for them and that they take a great interest in their life.
After this, the scammer will try and persuade their victim into moving their relationship off the dating platform and onto a private messaging service such as Whatsapp.
This then removes the protections of the dating site.
Which? then explains that once the victim has been “sufficiently groomed” – the scammer will then claims that they have success in investing.
This is typically in property or cor cryptocurrency and they then offer to invest some of the victim’s money for them.
If the victim shows interest or consents, the scammers sometimes show them a crypto trading platform, which of course is controlled by them, and encourages them to sign up and invest their cash.
Sometimes they will try and pursued you to put in larger pots of cash as they “can do better” when trading.
Once this has been done, the scammer usually makes a run for it with the money and will then ghost the victim.
Which? highlighted that one victim, who was a former Somerset police officer, lost £107,000 to the Pig Butchering scam thinking she was investing in a retirement apartment in Cyprus.
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