To fight the rising risk of “pig butchering” scams in the bitcoin market, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has teamed up with other government agencies and the American Bankers Association. A new image from this group of people working together aims to teach people about these scams.
Scammers use social media to set up fake love relationships with people they want to scam in order to gain their trust. Once they have the victim’s trust, they get them to put money into fake cryptocurrency scams. In the past year, this type of scam has become more common, even more common than Ponzi schemes, as con artists try to get bigger payouts by attacking specific groups more precisely.
The CFTC’s Office of Customer Outreach and Education made an image that shows how these scams work, from the first contact to the theft of money. It tells you how to spot and avoid these scams and stresses how important it is to stay away from people who seem sketchy.
The head of the Office of Customer Outreach and Education, Melanie Devoe, stressed the importance of taking precautions by saying, “Stopping the scam before it starts is crucial.” We want to get in touch with people before they fall for these plans.
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and other government agencies, such as the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security, will help get the image out there.
The number of pig killing scams has led to a huge rise in cryptocurrency fraud. In 2023 alone, the FBI said that crypto-related scams cost people $5.6 billion. More than $215 million was lost to romance scams. The Federal Trade Commission has also seen a big rise in scams involving crypto ATMs. Since 2020, almost ten times as much money has been stolen from these machines.
The CFTC wants to improve customer security and lower the number of these harmful scams by working with different groups.
