In 2025, FinCEN put out a reminder to financial institutions to remain on alert for suspicious activity that could be related to several different types of relationship investment scams. One of the scams mentioned were “pig butchering scams”, for which FinCEN had also previously put out an Alert in 2023. A pig butchering scam is a relationship investment scam in which scammers leverage fictitious identities, the guise of potential relationships, and elaborate storylines to trick victims into believing they stand to profit from trusted partnerships before defrauding them in virtual currency investment and over-the-counter foreign exchange schemes. These scams are largely perpetrated by criminal enterprises overseas who use victims of labor trafficking to conduct outreach to millions of unsuspecting individuals around the world. With the advancements of artificial intelligence (AI) over the last couple of years, detecting these types of scams can be even more difficult for financial institutions.
Kevin explains more in the video.
Published
2025/12/29
