What’s with the fake profiles on Facebook, Instagram, or your social networking platform of choice reaching out to you? It’s likely the first step in a “relationship investment scam” or “pig butchering.” The scammer starts with casual conversations, try to build trust, maybe even a little romance. After building some trust/relationship over an extended period of time, they introduce an investment tip. Usually a crypto. Money doesn’t go your new friend, its just a tip. You move the money and then its gone.
The SEC charged two outfits NanoBit and CoinW6 with fraud involved pig butchering.
The Scheme Participants contacted prospective investors through social media platforms, such as LinkedIn and Instagram, and then pursued romantic relationships with them over the messaging platform, WhatsApp. After developing online romantic relationships with prospective investors, the Scheme Participants introduced the investors to so-called “cryptocurrency,” claiming that they had earned hundreds of thousands of dollars through crypto asset products that CoinW6 offered and sold on its websites through an online crypto trading platform (“CoinW6 Platform”). The CoinW6 Platform promised two to three percent passive returns per day from crypto asset staking, mining, or yield farming products that the Defendant purportedly operated.
Of course, it was all fictious and the money disappeared.
The scams slap financial fraud onto a catfishing scam.
Sources:
- SEC Charges Multiple Individuals and Entities in Relationship Investment Scams
- CoinW6 Complaint
- Remarks at Hearing to Examine the Economics of the Multi-Billion Dollar Romance Confidence Scam Industry
- Relationship Investment Scams – Investor Alert
- Pig Butchering Scams – FDIC
- What’s a Pig Butchering Scam? Here’s How to Avoid Falling Victim to One.
- ‘Pig-Butchering’ Scams Cost Americans Billions. This Lawyer Is Taking Them On.