The leaks · 40 / 86 · 2 min
Pig butchering and recovery scams
Pig butchering is a long kindness that ends in a fake investment. The recovery scam is the second thief, who arrives after you have already lost.
The recovery scam arrives after the first loss. The second stranger is not the way back.
A worked case
Someone is kind for a month, then shows a profit on a site the victim has never heard of. The profit display lets a small withdrawal. The large deposit does not come back. A new message offers to recover it for a fee.
The long con
Weeks of chat. A personal story. Then a platform only they use, with numbers that only go up. Withdrawals start to fail. They ask for a tax or a fee to release your own money. That fee is the theft.
The second thief
After you post that you were robbed, someone offers to get it back for an upfront payment, or by remote access to your computer. Nobody legitimate needs your seed to recover funds.
Report it to the police and the platform if you can. Do not pay a rescuer you met in the replies.
A long kindness, then a second stranger
Pig butchering is the name agencies use for a romance or friendship that runs for weeks and ends in a fake investment site. The site shows a profit. A small withdrawal works. The large deposit does not come back. The FBI and the Internet Crime Complaint Center have published warnings because the losses are large and the victims are embarrassed, which is part of the design. Shame keeps the next deposit quieter.
The second thief arrives after the first. Someone offers to recover the funds for a fee, or through a new wallet you must fund first. There is no fund. Recovery is the name of the next invoice. The original chat may even hand you over. You are not being helped. You are being priced.
A real investment firm does not meet you as a wrong-number text and then move you to a private app. If the profit only exists on a site you had never heard of before the chat, the profit is the picture they drew for you.
Read it yourself
These links are the record. They are not a recommendation, and they are not instructions. A news story or a court paper can still be wrong about a detail. The check does not change because a famous name is in the story.
Apply the check
Open a question. The line is about this topic. It is not a verdict that anything is safe.
The site that showed the fake profit, then the recovery scammer.
The scammer, who sets the pace.
The deposit, once it is sent. There is no fund to recover.
Check yourself
Should you pay a fee to unlock a withdrawal on a site a stranger introduced?
No. That fee is the theft.
After this you can recognise a release fee and a recovery offer as the same crime in a second costume.