Sister Mei was scammed out of a million dollars by a pig-butchering scheme; do you really understand the pitfalls of romance scams in the cryptocurrency world?
Today I came across a big story: a sister from California was scammed out of nearly a million dollars by a cryptocurrency pig-butchering scheme. In the end, she relied on ChatGPT to realize she had fallen into a trap. We seasoned investors in the cryptocurrency world shook our heads in disbelief after reading it.
This sister Margaret met a self-proclaimed rich man named Ed on Facebook in May. He first wooed her with romantic talk, employing emotional PUA tactics, and then got her to invest in cryptocurrency. The sister was bold; she directly withdrew $490,000 from her retirement account and even took out a second mortgage on her house to invest another $300,000. As a result, her account was frozen, and the scammer asked her to invest another $1,000,000 to unfreeze it. This operation was simply the very definition of “butchering pigs.”
We all know in the cryptocurrency world that there’s no such thing as “paying money to unfreeze your account.” This is a classic pig-butchering tactic: first, they lure you in with sweet promises, then they use sunk costs to pressure you to invest more. What’s even more outrageous is that the stolen funds ended up in a Malaysian account. Those in the know understand that once such cross-border pig-butchering funds are transferred out, it’s basically like throwing meat buns to dogs—gone with no return.
In fact, this incident serves as a reminder for us: whether it’s Westerners or us Chinese, if you encounter a “rich handsome guy/beautiful woman” in the cryptocurrency world trying to get you to invest in private schemes, it’s best to turn and run. Even if ChatGPT can recognize scams, once the money is sent out, not even a deity can save you. We trade cryptocurrencies for profits, not to gamble with our lives. Don’t let emotions cloud your judgment, or you’ll end up being the “fat pig” in the eyes of the scammer.
$FHE
$POWER
