What began as a promise of love and easy gains ended in silence, leaving a Bitcoin investor without his retirement savings and facing the emotional fallout of a carefully planned fraud that ignored every warning sign along the way.
A Bitcoin wealth adviser has shared a firsthand account of a client who lost his entire retirement fund after falling victim to a “pig butchering” scam.
Terence Michael, an author and adviser working with The Bitcoin Adviser, said the unnamed investor transferred his Bitcoin to a scammer posing as a trader who promised to double the holdings.
Despite repeated attempts to intervene, Michael said the client went ahead with the transfer.
He wrote on X,
“My client was falling for a pig butchering scam. And as of last night while out to dinner, I received a devastating text message from him saying he had lost it all.”
Michael said he had made “numerous phone calls” and sent a “string of text messages” warning the client not to proceed, but the emotional pull of the scam proved stronger than professional advice.
The scam followed a familiar pattern seen in pig butchering schemes.
The attacker presented herself as a woman who was both romantically interested and skilled in trading Bitcoin, gradually building trust before encouraging the transfer of funds.
Michael said the investor, who had recently divorced, believed he was forming a genuine relationship.
He even bought a plane ticket for the woman, expecting to meet her in person.
Once the Bitcoin was sent, the illusion collapsed.
The scammer reportedly admitted that the photos used throughout the relationship were fake and had been generated using artificial intelligence tools.
Unlike wallet hacks or malware attacks, pig butchering scams rely on victims willingly sending their assets.
The grooming process blends emotional attachment with promises of high returns, making it harder for victims to recognise the danger until it is too late.
Pig butchering is a form of phishing that focuses on long-term manipulation rather than quick theft.
Victims are contacted online, often through social media or messaging apps, and drawn into conversations that can last days, weeks or even months.
According to blockchain security platform Cyvers, around 35% of victims are groomed for one to two weeks, while 10% are targeted over periods lasting up to three months.
By the time money is requested, trust has already been carefully built.
In 2024 alone, c scams cost crypto holders an estimated $5.5 billion across roughly 200,000 reported cases, making it one of the most damaging fraud trends in the digital asset space.
The scale of these scams has prompted growing concern among law enforcement and security experts.
Chainalysis warned in November that pig butchering operations are increasingly viewed as a national security issue.
During a podcast episode in November 2025, Andrew Fierman, head of national security intelligence at Chainalysis, said,
“Once this happens to you, you will be put on a list […] and you are even more likely to get hit up again.”
Authorities have begun stepping up enforcement.
In October 2025, the US Department of Justice seized $15 billion in bitcoin from Chen “Vincent” Zhi, who ran a decade-long “pig butchering” scam using forced-labor farms in Cambodia to defraud victims and buy luxury assets.
The rise of artificial intelligence is making these scams harder to detect.
A 2025 Anti-Scam Research Report released on 10 June found that AI-driven crypto fraud pushed global losses to $4.6 billion in 2024.
The study, co-authored by Bitget, SlowMist and Elliptic, pointed to the growing use of deepfake images, fake video calls and convincing online personas.
Criminal groups are also using cross-chain bridges and obfuscation tools to move stolen funds, reducing the chances of recovery.
While at least 87 AI-powered scam rings were dismantled in the first quarter of 2025, security firms warn that the tactics are evolving faster than public awareness.
For victims like Michael’s client, the damage is not just financial.
Years of savings, trust and emotional stability can vanish in a single transaction — often despite every warning along the way.
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