Romance/Investment Scam (Pig Butchering)
✓ Last verified 14 Sep 2026
The short version
This scam builds a long-term romantic or friendly relationship online purely to eventually introduce a fraudulent investment opportunity, exploiting weeks or months of built trust before the actual financial ask ever appears.
Unlike a scam that asks for money quickly, this pattern invests significant time - sometimes months - building a genuine-feeling online relationship (romantic or platonic) before introducing an investment "opportunity," often a fake trading platform, that the trusted new contact claims has made them substantial money. The extended trust-building phase is precisely what makes the eventual ask so effective - by the time money is requested, normal skepticism has been worn down by weeks of what felt like a real relationship. An online-only relationship that eventually pivots to a specific investment recommendation is the pattern to recognize, regardless of how genuine the relationship has felt.
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