US authorities seek to return $2.3m in crypto to victims of ‘pig butchering’ scam

In a major victory against cryptocurrency scams, federal prosecutors in Massachusetts have taken unprecedented steps to return $2.3 million worth of digital assets seized from fraudsters to victims duped by a devious “pig butchering” scheme.

The Massachusetts US Attorney’s Office (USAO) filed a motion on Wednesday (Mar.13) to return all the funds to victims.

The investigation began in spring 2023 after the USAO became aware of a ‘pig butchering’ cryptocurrency scam targeting the eastern state’s residents. 

The assets being sought for forfeiture include of 299,457.4 USD Coin (USDC), 1,455,305.997648 Tether (USDT), 102,278.515015 Tron (TRX), 3,032.1689461 Solana (SOL), 67.79400436 Binance Coin (BNB), 13,703.955431 Cardano (ADA) and 0.54151495 Ether (ETH), all of which were seized from two Binance accounts traced back to the scam. Binance is the world’s most popular cryptocurrency exchange and wallet service.

The ‘pig butchering’ crypto scam follows a methodology scammers have used for decades: build trust with the victim through lying, manipulation, and social engineering, persuade them to invest, then disappear with the money.

Frequently originating on dating sites or through ‘wrong number’ texts, scammers befriend the victim and either walk them through downloading an app to use for investing which is actually a fake app controlled by them, or they will get the victim to send money to their crypto wallet so they can do the heavy lifting.

Often the scammers will engineer the situation so it looks like the victim is making good returns. This encourages them to keep investing with higher and higher amounts of money – the proverbial fattening of the pig.

Make sure you know how to avoid the most common crypto scams with our handy guide.

Featured image credit: Generated with Ideogram

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