Fraudster Extracts $500,000 Life Savings of Man Looking To Retire in Pig Butchering Scheme – ‘They Keep You So Engaged’: Report

An elderly man from Santa Rosa, California looking to retire has reportedly lost his life savings after falling victim to a pig-butchering scam.

According to a recent report from The Star, a 70-year-old man who wishes to remain anonymous lost his life savings of $500,000 after becoming the victim of a months-long pig-butchering scam.

Pig-butchering schemes are when bad actors “fatten up” a victim by pretending to have an intimate relationship with them as a means of earning their trust to steal their funds.

The report says the elderly man believed he was talking to a Finnish woman from Florida for many months after meeting on a dating site. The bad actor went as far as video chatting with him, gifting him expensive items, and planning an in-person “meet up” which became cancelled at the last minute.

To further assure him, the bad actor would video chat with him routinely and even convinced him that she was the owner of a pilates and yoga studio funded by her aunt’s cryptocurrency firm. Eventually, he was convinced to trade crypto.

At the start, he only invested a few thousand dollars into trading digital assets, but by the end of it, his stash of $500,000 was gone and he was taking out loans.

Guided by the scammer, he saw his profits skyrocket and learned the ins and outs of the trading system. By August, his trading account had about $1 million in it, but when he went to withdraw his funds, he was told he had to pay $100,000 worth of capital gains taxes.

The scammers went as far as convincing him to take out loans to cover the tax bill. However, once the victim did some digging, he found out that the crypto trading website was fake and that his funds were gone. Follow us on X, Facebook and Telegram
Don't Miss a Beat – Subscribe to get email alerts delivered directly to your inbox
Check Price Action
Surf The Daily Hodl Mix