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Investment and crypto fraud
Scams that promise returns: fake trading platforms, pig butchering, pump groups, and crypto theft. The costliest category in every national dataset.
Scam types
- Pig butchering
Pig butchering is a long con where a stranger builds trust over weeks, often after a wrong-number text or a dating app match, then steers the victim into a fake crypto trading
- Fake trading platform or app
A fake trading platform is a website or app built to look like a real crypto exchange or broker. Victims deposit money and watch an invented balance grow, but the platform is
- Investment club stock pump
An investment club stock pump is a scam run through WhatsApp, Telegram, or social media groups that pose as expert stock clubs. Organisers secretly hold a cheap stock, urge members
- Ponzi and high-yield investment programs
A Ponzi scheme pays earlier investors with money taken from newer ones, while claiming the returns come from trading, crypto mining, or another strategy. High-yield investment
- Rug pull or fake token
A rug pull is a crypto scam where the people behind a new token or project hype it, attract buyers, then suddenly take the money and abandon it. They may drain the trading pool
- Crypto wallet drainer
A crypto wallet drainer is a scam site or app that tricks you into connecting your wallet and approving a transaction or signature. That approval quietly gives the scammer
- Fake airdrop or giveaway
A fake airdrop is a crypto scam that promises free tokens, NFTs, or rewards, then sends you to a site that steals your wallet access. Some ask you to connect and approve a
- Celebrity deepfake investment ad
A celebrity deepfake investment ad is a scam ad or fake news story that uses a famous person's image, and increasingly an AI-generated video or voice, to promote an investment. The
- Gold or precious-metal courier scam
A gold courier scam convinces victims, often older adults, that their savings are at risk and must be protected by converting them to cash, gold, or silver. Scammers posing as tech
Real cases
2026-02 · US · Sentenced · $73.6M stolen
Daren Li sentenced over $73 million crypto scam laundering, 20262025-11 · US · Charged · $401.7M seized
US Scam Center Strike Force targets Southeast Asian scam centres, 20252025-10 · US · Charged · $15B seized
Prince Group chairman Chen Zhi charged over Cambodian scam compounds, 20252024-08 · US · Sentenced · $47.1M stolen
Heartland Tri-State Bank CEO sentenced after pig butchering loss, 20242022-11 · Location not reported · Alleged · $80M estimate
Inferno Drainer crypto wallet drainer-as-a-service, 2022 to 2023Unconfirmed by a primary source