A Bitcoin investor lost his retirement savings to a “pig butchering” scam after ignoring repeated warnings from his advisory firm, according to an account shared by a Bitcoin wealth adviser.
Terence Michael, an adviser and author who works with The Bitcoin Adviser, said in a post on X that an unnamed client transferred his Bitcoin (BTC) to a scammer after being targeted by a woman who posed as a trader and promised to double his holdings.
Michael said the scammer also claimed to be in love with the investor, a common tactic in pig butchering schemes, which rely on emotional manipulation rather than direct hacks.
Despite “numerous phone calls” and a “string of text messages,” Michael was unable to persuade his client not to send the Bitcoin to the scammer.
“My client was falling for a pig butchering scam,” Michael said Sunday. “And as of last night while out to dinner, I received a devastating text message from him saying he had lost it all.”
Unlike traditional hacks, pig butchering scams rely on emotionally manipulating the victims into willingly sending their investments to the attackers, often through the false promise of a romantic relationship.
Alongside losing his hard-earned Bitcoin retirement stash, the recently-divorced investor had also bought the scammer a plane ticket, expecting to meet a woman. After the funds were sent, the attacker admitted that the photos used in the relationship were fake and had been generated using artificial intelligence tools, Michael said.
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Pig butchering scams soar to national threat, after stealing $5.5 billion in crypto in 2024
Pig butchering scams have become a major problem for cryptocurrency holders, costing the industry a collective $5.5 billion in 2024, across 200,000 individual cases.
As a subset of phishing scams, the average grooming period for victims is between one and two weeks in 35% of cases, while 10% of scams involve grooming periods of up to three months, according to blockchain security platform Cyvers.
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Earlier in November, Chainalysis warned that pig butchering scams are becoming a national security concern.
“Once this happens to you, you will be put on a list [...] and you are even more likely to get hit up again,” said Andrew Fierman, head of national security intelligence at Chainalysis, during a podcast episode in November 2025.
In June, the US Department of Justice announced the seizure of over $225 million in crypto linked to pig butchering scams.
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