Deconstructing a Form of Hybrid Investment Fraud: Examining ‘Pig Butchering’ in the United States

• In Event: Cybercrime Working Group - Trends in cybercrime 2

Abstract

Cyber-enabled fraud has become more complex, making it harder for targets and law enforcement to recognize its occurrence. Hybrid investment fraud, colloquially known as “pig butchering” is a manifestation of this complexity, and describes a cyber-enabled fraud where criminals befriend and foster trust with victims, and then exploit this trust by using a series of confidence building and coercive measures aimed at encouraging the victim to continuously invest in securities or commodities (e.g. cryptocurrency and gold) until the victim becomes unable or unwilling to continue to make payments towards the investment or the offenders become unreachable. There is a gap in the literature on this cyber-enabled fraud, demographics of involved parties, and tactics, targets, and methods of operation of offenders. Our study aims to fill this void by analyzing more than 1,300 news articles, court documents, and government publications between January 1, 2018, and November 1, 2023, to identify over 60 cases of hybrid investment fraud targeting victims in the United States. The results of our study situate hybrid investment fraud within the broader fraud literature and identifies the type of hybrid investment fraud perpetrated, its impact, victim and offender demographics, and the methods of operation of perpetrators, including their tools and tactics. The findings of our study can inform criminal justice practices and future research of this cyber-enabled fraud.

Authors

• Emily R Ives, University of Virginia

• Marie-Helen Maras, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York, USA