American cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has raised concerns about the rise in the number of romantic investment scams called ‘pig butchering’ or ‘Sha zu pan’.
This type of scam occurs when a scammer sources victims through dating apps and social media and builds “trust with their victim, sometimes over a long period of time of weeks or months.”
Coinbase’s Global Investigations, Trust and Security and Threat Intelligence teams expressed concern about the increasing popularity of this scam in a security PSA released Thursday.
Coinbase explained, “Recently, there has been a noticeable increase in scams pretending to be foreign exchanges or crypto trading platforms being spread by scammers using dating apps to lure victims.
“While investment scams and romance scams are not unique to the cryptocurrency ecosystem, the irreversible nature of cryptocurrency transactions can make these scams devastating.”
The publicly traded company, however, noted that it works closely with law enforcement actors around the world to protect its customers from various forms of targeted cyber attacks.
Mode of operation
For this nature of the scam, Coinbase explained that fraudsters usually claim to have received huge financial benefits from a cryptocurrency investment and convince their victims to also invest in such schemes.
In other cases, the scam may come in the form of offering to teach victims how to trade successfully.
The distributed company explained: “Victims are directed to visit a fraudulent website that often looks like a legitimate trading platform and trained to deposit funds into an account controlled by the fraudster.
“Some victims even receive a small amount of funds that are claimed to be ‘returns’ on their investment to entice them to invest even larger amounts.
“When the victim tries to withdraw funds from the site, they are then told they owe a tax payment or service charge before their funds are released in an attempt to further extort money.”
Coinbase noted that its teams identify and add fraud-related addresses to its product blacklists to protect its customers.
The exchange urged its users to be alert to this type of fraud.
American cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has raised concerns about the rise in the number of romantic investment scams called ‘pig butchering’ or ‘Sha zu pan’.
This type of scam occurs when a scammer sources victims through dating apps and social media and builds “trust with their victim, sometimes over a long period of time of weeks or months.”
Coinbase’s Global Investigations, Trust and Security and Threat Intelligence teams expressed concern about the increasing popularity of this scam in a security PSA released Thursday.
Coinbase explained, “Recently, there has been a noticeable increase in scams pretending to be foreign exchanges or crypto trading platforms being spread by scammers using dating apps to lure victims.
“While investment scams and romance scams are not unique to the cryptocurrency ecosystem, the irreversible nature of cryptocurrency transactions can make these scams devastating.”
The publicly traded company, however, noted that it works closely with law enforcement actors around the world to protect its customers from various forms of targeted cyber attacks.
Mode of operation
For this nature of the scam, Coinbase explained that fraudsters usually claim to have received huge financial benefits from a cryptocurrency investment and convince their victims to also invest in such schemes.
In other cases, the scam may come in the form of offering to teach victims how to trade successfully.
The distributed company explained: “Victims are directed to visit a fraudulent website that often looks like a legitimate trading platform and trained to deposit funds into an account controlled by the fraudster.
“Some victims even receive a small amount of funds that are claimed to be ‘returns’ on their investment to entice them to invest even larger amounts.
“When the victim tries to withdraw funds from the site, they are then told they owe a tax payment or service charge before their funds are released in an attempt to further extort money.”
Coinbase noted that its teams identify and add fraud-related addresses to its product blacklists to protect its customers.
The exchange urged its users to be alert to this type of fraud.