Pig-Butchering Scams: A Legal Guide to Understanding, Detecting, and Recovering Crypto Assets

Over the past few years, pig‑butchering scams have exploded into a global "scamdemic."

Researchers estimate tens of billions of dollars in losses across thousands of victims. Law enforcement has discovered compounds in Southeast Asia where crime syndicates force trafficked workers to run their schemes at scale. Many have lost their entire life savings to these highly organized criminal operations that sit at the intersection of fraud, money‑laundering, and human trafficking.

Welcome to The Pig Butchering Recovery Guide, the internet's pig butchering encyclopedia. These pages are a working guide written and maintained by experienced crypto recovery attorneys. They are intended to educate the public on the nature of crypto scams and provide victims with a toolkit for asset recovery.

What makes this guide unique

• This guide is based on in-depth research and years of experience litigating crypto scam cases. As crypto recovery lawyers, we see the full lifecycle of pig‑butchering scams first-hand on a daily basis.
• This guide combines reporting on pig butchering scams with real-world strategies for victims. You will find downloadable checklists, timelines, and action plans for contacting an attorney and beginning the recovery process.
• We share what pig butchering scams look like in practice, with examples and redacted case materials so victims and others can easily identify this type of fraud.

What you will learn

By the end, you will have a sense of both the scale of the problem and the legal avenues that may make recovery possible. More specifically, this guide will show you:

• What victims go through step by step — from first contact with scammers to final losses.
• How money moves through exchanges, wallets, and into the hands of criminals.
• When a specialized crypto recovery lawyer can realistically help, and when hard limits exist.
• Exactly what to do next if you’ve been targeted, including evidence to preserve and places to report.

Keep in mind

If you are reading this because you are or suspect you may be the victim of a pig butchering scam, know now that you are not alone, and you are not foolish. Pig‑butchering scams are engineered to defeat smart, cautious people.

The shame you may feel is a weapon scammers use to delay your response when collecting and preserving evidence is most critical. Consulting a real crypto fraud attorney is free and a safe place to turn, financially and emotionally. If any of the information in this guide resonates with your own experience, don't hesitate to reach out.