‘Pig-butchering’ scams net more than RM355bil, study finds

Over four years, from January 2020 to February 2024, the criminal networks moved more than US$75bil (RM355.31bil) to crypto exchanges, said Griffin, who has written about fraud in financial markets. — Photo by Kanchanara on Unsplash

Pig-butchering scammers have likely stolen more than US$75bil (RM355.31bil) from victims around the world, far more than previously estimated, according to a new study.

John Griffin, a finance professor at the University of Texas at Austin, and graduate student Kevin Mei gathered crypto addresses from more than 4,000 victims of the fraud, which has exploded in popularity since the pandemic. With blockchain tracing tools, they tracked the flow of funds from victims to scammers, who are largely based in South-East Asia.