Romance Investment Scams: The Human Cost Behind “Pig Butchering”

Perhaps the most emotionally difficult chapter in Felix Bick’s How Not to Get Scammed by AI Trading Apps addresses “pig butchering” scams — a term Bick doesn’t shy away from in Chapter 69, given how important it is for readers to understand the seriousness of this scheme.

Bick describes the mechanics: these scams combine romance scam techniques with investment fraud. An operator builds a romantic or close personal relationship over weeks or months through dating apps or social media, before introducing a supposedly lucrative investment opportunity, frequently framed around crypto trading, and guiding the victim through depositing progressively larger sums.

What sets this chapter apart is Bick’s willingness to address the darker organizational reality behind these schemes: these operations are frequently run by large, organized criminal networks, and investigative reporting has documented cases involving trafficked workers coerced into running these scripts from scam compounds in several countries, adding a serious human trafficking dimension to what might otherwise be viewed purely as financial fraud.

This context is genuinely important — it reframes the scam not just as financial harm to the victim, but as part of a much larger, more troubling criminal ecosystem involving forced labor.

Bick offers specific warning signs for readers navigating dating apps or new online relationships: a new romantic contact who is unable or reluctant to video call, expresses interest in moving communication off the original platform quickly, and introduces investment opportunities relatively early in the relationship, particularly investment platforms the victim is asked to use exclusively at the contact’s specific direction.

For anyone navigating online dating, or anyone with a family member doing so, this chapter of How Not to Get Scammed by AI Trading Apps offers Felix Bick’s essential, clearly stated warning signs for one of the most emotionally and financially devastating scam categories covered in the entire book.