Press Release
Finance Complaint List Warns of Pig-Butchering Romance Scams as Global Losses Cross the $75 Billion Mark

The Finance Complaint List, a global consumer-fraud reporting and monitoring organization, has issued an urgent warning to the public as so-called “pig-butchering” romance scams reach what investigators now estimate to be at least $75 billion in global losses since 2020.
These schemes, which combine romance fraud with fake cryptocurrency investing, are among the most destructive financial crimes of the digital age, leaving victims not only bankrupt but emotionally traumatized after months of carefully manufactured relationships.
Finance Complaint List is actively assisting victims in documenting and reporting fraudulent activity through its online platform, www.financecomplaintlist.com, which serves as a public database for scam alerts, verified complaints, and educational resources.
Pig-butchering scams work by slowly “fattening” a victim emotionally and financially before taking everything. Criminals initiate contact through dating apps, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, text messages, and even accidental “wrong number” messages. Over weeks or months, scammers pose as romantic partners or close friends, building trust through daily conversations, affectionate messages, and detailed personal stories.
Once emotional dependence is established, the scammer introduces what appears to be a private, insider crypto-investment opportunity. Victims are guided to convert real money into cryptocurrency using legitimate exchanges or ATMs, then transfer those funds to fraudulent trading platforms controlled entirely by the criminals. These fake platforms display artificial profits and rising balances to convince victims that their money is growing.
In reality, the funds are gone the moment they are transferred.
Billions Lost in a Single Year
According to the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), cryptocurrency investment fraud caused more than $5.8 billion in reported losses in 2024 alone. That figure is part of a dramatic upward trend: Americans lost $4 billion in 2023, up from $2.57 billion in 2022, and $3.9 billion of that 2023 total was tied directly to crypto investment fraud.
Law-enforcement officials say these numbers are likely understated, because many victims never report the crime or are too embarrassed to disclose the full extent of their losses.
The IRS has also issued warnings noting that individual losses frequently reach hundreds of thousands of dollars, with some victims losing as much as $2 million.
A Global Crime Network Built on Human Trafficking
Behind these scams are highly organized transnational crime syndicates, many operating out of Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos, and other parts of Southeast Asia. Investigators estimate that more than 220,000 people have been trafficked into forced-labor scam compounds, where they are compelled to run these romance-investment operations under threat of violence.
Workers are often beaten, imprisoned, or sold to other compounds if they fail to extract enough money from victims.
Recent arrests of two alleged ringleaders in Cambodia triggered a massive shake-up across the industry, resulting in thousands of trafficked workers being released from scam compounds. Authorities say the crackdown confirms what victims have long suspected: pig-butchering is not the work of isolated criminals but a global criminal enterprise.
How the Money Disappears
Once funds are sent, they are quickly laundered through complex webs of digital wallets, blockchains, and exchanges, making recovery extremely difficult.
One documented case showed a single victim’s $1 million being split into 15 transactions routed through 11 different exchanges. Research has found that 75 percent of wallets associated with pig-butchering scams show signs of on-chain money laundering, often using multiple intermediary wallets across jurisdictions.
In a high-profile federal case, Jingliang Su, a Chinese national, pleaded guilty to conspiracy for running scam centers in Cambodia that defrauded 174 U.S. victims out of approximately $37 million. The money was routed from U.S. banks to the Bahamas, converted into USDT stablecoins, and then transferred into digital wallets controlled in Cambodia.
Life-Saving Stories from the Victims
The emotional devastation is often as severe as the financial loss.
An elderly widow in San Jose, California, believed she had found love with a man named “Ed” on Facebook and WhatsApp. He sent her daily messages, called her “honey,” and promised a future together. He guided her into a crypto trading platform that showed her account growing from $15,000 to tens of thousands of dollars in seconds.
Trusting him, she withdrew $120,000 from her IRA, then $490,000, and eventually another $62,000. When she was told she had to add another $1 million to unlock her account, she realized something was wrong. By then, nearly $1 million was gone, and she now faces a massive tax bill from draining her retirement account.
A retired businessman in Brentwood, California, grieving the death of his wife of 35 years, was targeted by a woman calling herself “Tina.” Over months of affectionate messages, photos, and talk of future plans, she convinced him to invest in what appeared to be a legitimate crypto trading platform. He ultimately transferred $1 million from his IRA, watching his account seemingly grow to $2.4 million on screen.
When he tried to withdraw it, the funds were gone. He now faces the prospect of selling the home he built with his late wife and paying hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxes on money that no longer exists.
In New Jersey, Joe Novak, a father caring for a child with celiac disease, was approached on Facebook by a woman who expressed sympathy and friendship. Their conversations turned romantic, then financial. Trusting both her and a website showing rising crypto balances, Novak transferred $280,000, nearly his entire life savings.
“I lost everything. I lost my kids’ future. I lost my future,” Novak told reporters.
Recovery Scams Target Victims Again
Finance Complaint List also warns of a growing wave of “recovery scams.” After victims realize they have been defrauded, criminals posing as lawyers, government agents, or crypto recovery firms contact them, promising to retrieve lost funds, for an upfront fee. These secondary scams often extract thousands more dollars from people who are already financially and emotionally devastated.
Law-Enforcement Breakthroughs Offer Some Hope
Since 2024, the FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of North Carolina have seized more than $15 million on behalf of pig-butchering victims.
Among those recoveries:
- $2.6 million returned to victims, including a 61-year-old man in Spring Hope and a 50-year-old man in Raleigh, both targeted through WhatsApp romance scams
- $4.99 million seized for multiple victims, including a 67-year-old man from Angier, who believed he was in a romantic relationship with the scammer
These seizures demonstrate that some funds can be recovered, especially when fraud is reported quickly.
A Crisis That Continues to Grow
With more than 3,200 crypto-investment fraud complaints filed each month in the United States alone, pig-butchering scams show no signs of slowing. Victims typically fall between ages 30 and 60, are tech-savvy, and are often actively seeking financial or romantic connections online.
“These scammers are professionals,” Finance Complaint List warns. “This is their full-time job, and they are extremely skilled at manipulating human emotion and financial behavior.”
How the Public Can Protect Itself
Finance Complaint List urges consumers to be alert to the warning signs:
- Be wary of online romantic partners who offer investment advice
- Be skeptical of high-return, low-risk financial promises
- Never invest money through platforms recommended by someone you have never met in person
- Avoid requests to move money from your bank into crypto for “private” investment opportunities
- Do not pay fees to “unlock” or “release” supposed profits
- Immediately report suspected fraud to law enforcement
Victims are encouraged to contact local police, the FBI, the FTC, and financial regulators as soon as possible.
As pig-butchering scams cross the $75 billion global damage threshold, Finance Complaint List says the crisis has become one of the largest and most emotionally destructive financial crime waves in modern history; one built not only on digital deception, but on exploiting loneliness, trust, and human connection.
The warning is clear: if a stranger you met online is promising love, wealth, and secret investment opportunities, the only thing growing may be the size of the scam.
Victims of the scams listed above are encouraged to file reports by contacting:
support@financecomplaintlist.com
For updates, follow Finance Complaint List on social media.
X (Twitter): https://x.com/financecomplain
YouTube: https://youtube.com/@financecomplaintlist
About Finance Complaint List
Finance Complaint List is a financial fraud awareness and investor protection platform headquartered in New York City. The organization enables individuals to file, track, and review complaints involving financial misconduct, investment fraud, and digital scams. By maintaining a transparent, publicly accessible database, Finance Complaint List helps consumers identify risks and avoid fraudulent schemes.
Disclaimer:Finance Complaint List is not a law enforcement agency. All reports are subject to verification and should also be filed with appropriate authorities such as the FBI, SEC, FTC, or IC3.gov.
About Author
Disclaimer: The views, suggestions, and opinions expressed here are the sole responsibility of the experts. No Digi Observer journalist was involved in the writing and production of this article.
Press Release
ChangeNOW Brings Martin Masser Into Its Crypto Super App
Kingstown, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, August 5th, 2026, Chainwire
The former TON executive joins as Director of Strategic Partnerships to form the connections behind ChangeNOW’s next phase.
Former TON executive Martin Masser joins ChangeNOW to build strategic partnerships, ecosystem relationships, and media momentum behind its next phase.
Masser comes with experience across traditional banking, Web2 and Web3, including senior growth and business development roles within the TON space. At ChangeNOW, he will lead strategic relationships with blockchain networks, wallets, fintech companies, payment providers and other infrastructure partners.
His appointment comes as ChangeNOW grows beyond standalone crypto services, transitioning to one connected product where users can buy, store, swap, trade, send, receive and grow digital assets. The industry has already built most of the individual components. What it hasn’t solved is the experience of using them together; clients are still expected to switch between platforms, understand different networks and connect the pieces on their own. ChangeNOW’s super app strategy is designed to move that complexity beneath the product.
“Martin brings a rare mix of commercial relationships, product and media understanding,” said Pauline Shangett, Chief Strategy Officer at ChangeNOW. “He knows what the technology can do, what the business needs and how to make the market pay attention. That is exactly the perspective we need as we build the ChangeNOW super app.”
Masser’s role will focus not on accumulating partnership announcements, but on identifying relationships that can make ChangeNOW’s infrastructure more complete and remove unnecessary steps from the сlient experience.
“The best partnerships create access, adoption and attention. My focus is to build relationships that make the product stronger, simpler and more useful, and then help the market understand why they matter. If you are building wallets, networks, payments, stablecoins, fintech infrastructure, consumer crypto or Web3 products, I want to hear from you,” said Masser.
For consumers, ChangeNOW is combining the core activities of managing crypto within one environment. For businesses, it is developing an integrated set of tools for crypto payments, exchange, stablecoin settlement, digital asset management and Web3 integrations.
As ChangeNOW expands into a crypto super app, its next phase is connecting the right networks, wallets and partners. Masser’s role will be central to building those relationships and turning them into product value, adoption and market momentum.
About ChangeNOW
ChangeNOW.io is a crypto super app built for every crypto move, giving newcomers, professionals, and businesses the tools they need to access Web3 finance in a simple and secure way.
Since 2017, ChangeNOW has grown from a fast, secure, and limitless instant exchange into a trusted platform where storage, swaps, trading, staking, and asset management are covered in one simple experience for millions of clients worldwide.
About Martin Masser
Martin Masser is Director of Strategic Partnerships at ChangeNOW, where he is building partnerships around the company’s expansion into a crypto super app. His career covers traditional banking and capital markets in London and Web3, including his previous role as Head of Growth at TON Foundation. Martin works at the intersection of growth, infrastructure, and partnerships, connecting products and industry players to make crypto services work as one seamless user experience.
Contact
PR Team
CHN Group LLC
pr@changenow.io
About Author
Disclaimer: The views, suggestions, and opinions expressed here are the sole responsibility of the experts. No Digi Observer journalist was involved in the writing and production of this article.
Press Release
allwhere Expands UK Operations with Upgraded Depot
New York City, New York, August 5th, 2026, FinanceWire
allwhere, the leading IT asset lifecycle management platform, today announced the expansion of its UK operations with the opening of a larger, upgraded depot. The investment increases warehouse capacity, streamlines fulfillment operations, and strengthens allwhere’s ability to support organizations managing employee devices across the United Kingdom.
The upgraded facility represents a significant investment in allwhere’s existing UK infrastructure, enabling the company to deliver faster turnaround times, greater operational efficiency, and additional inventory capacity as demand for global device lifecycle management continues to grow.
“As more organizations build distributed teams, the operational side of IT has become increasingly important,” said Tony Solomon, VP of Global Operations at allwhere. “This investment strengthens the foundation of our UK operations, allowing us to fulfill orders more efficiently, scale alongside our customers, and continue delivering the high level of service they expect from allwhere.”
Built to Support Growing IT Operations
The expanded UK depot enhances every stage of the device lifecycle by improving warehouse operations and increasing fulfillment capacity.
Customers can expect benefits including:
- Faster fulfillment, expedited shipping, and improved turnaround times for deployments and retrievals
- Increased warehouse capacity to support growing inventory needs
- More efficient storage, inventory management, and redeployment workflows
- Standardized operational processes that improve consistency and scalability
- End-to-end lifecycle support managed through a single platform
Whether onboarding a new employee, retrieving equipment from an offboarded team member, storing spare inventory, or preparing devices for redeployment, the upgraded facility enables allwhere to execute these workflows more efficiently while maintaining complete visibility through its platform.
Software and Operations, Unified
Unlike traditional asset management solutions that rely on disconnected software, logistics providers, and warehouses, allwhere combines workflow automation with global operational infrastructure.
Organizations can manage procurement, deployment, inventory, retrievals, storage, repairs, redeployment, and IT asset disposition through a single platform, while allwhere handles the operational execution behind the scenes.
The expanded UK depot further strengthens this model by providing the operational capacity needed to support larger fleets, faster fulfillment, and increasingly complex IT programs.
Continuing to Invest in Global Infrastructure
The UK depot expansion is part of allwhere’s continued investment in its global logistics network. allwhere currently operates full-service depots in the UK, Canada, EU, Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay. Later this year, the company plans to further scale its infrastructure into the APAC region, with upcoming depot services in Australia, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, and more.
As organizations continue to scale distributed workforces, allwhere remains focused on expanding the operational infrastructure that powers modern IT teams—combining intelligent software with local logistics expertise to simplify device lifecycle management around the world.
About allwhere
allwhere is a laptop retrieval and IT procurement company that automates the IT asset lifecycle for companies ranging from startups to enterprises. From procurement and deployment to storage, maintenance, and retrieval, allwhere provides the infrastructure businesses need to support a global, distributed workforce.
Contact
Head of Marketing
Brent Singleton
allwhere
info@allwhere.co
About Author
Disclaimer: The views, suggestions, and opinions expressed here are the sole responsibility of the experts. No Digi Observer journalist was involved in the writing and production of this article.
Press Release
Borderless.xyz Teams Up with Mastercard to Advance Trusted Cross-Border Stablecoin Payment Flows
New York, New York, August 5th, 2026, FinanceWire
Borderless.xyz will explore how Mastercard Crypto Credential can help bring greater trust and confidence to cross-border stablecoin payments.
Borderless.xyz and Mastercard are collaborating on a new pilot to explore how Mastercard Crypto Credential’s standards-based framework can support trusted interactions across cross-border stablecoin payment flows.
Stablecoins are increasingly being used to move value across borders, creating new opportunities for faster and more efficient payments. As adoption grows, participants need trusted ways to understand who they are interacting with and whether counterparties have met appropriate standards and requirements.
Through the pilot, Borderless.xyz and Mastercard will explore how Mastercard Crypto Credential can address that challenge by providing assurance signals that participants can incorporate into their own approval, compliance and risk processes.
Mastercard Crypto Credential helps support trusted and verifiable interactions across digital asset ecosystems. Through common standards and trusted assurance signals, it is designed to help bring more confidence, transparency and certainty to transactions across blockchain networks.
The collaboration pairs Mastercard’s work in building trust and standards for digital asset ecosystems with Borderless.xyz’s network of stablecoin payment providers. Together, the companies are exploring how trusted governance signals can help reduce friction and bring greater confidence to cross-border stablecoin payments as adoption grows.
“One of the biggest friction points for stablecoin payment operators isn’t the payments. It’s that compliance doesn’t scale the same way the network does. Every new provider means starting the verification process over. Correspondent banking solved this decades ago: originating compliance trusted downstream, no re-execution at every counterparty. Mastercard is applying that model to digital asset payments. Borderless.xyz is the network it runs through.” – Kevin Lehtiniitty, CEO and Co-Founder, Borderless.xyz
“Innovation is most powerful when it builds over time. Our relationship with Borderless.xyz began through Start Path and has continued to grow as the digital asset ecosystem has matured,” said Raj Dhamodharan, executive vice president, Blockchain & Digital Assets at Mastercard. “Today, we’re excited to take the next step together, exploring how Mastercard Crypto Credential can help bring greater trust and confidence to stablecoin payment flows across a growing network of participants.”
The pilot brings together several of Borderless.xyz‘s network participants consisting of Infinia, Walapay, and Koywe, many of whom are also alumni of Mastercard Start Path, the company’s startup engagement program. These partners will leverage Mastercard Crypto Credential as some of the first stablecoin payment operators to run on the single-audit compliance model at network scale.
About Borderless.xyz
Borderless.xyz is a global stablecoin orchestration and liquidity network. Its single API connects wallet infrastructure to 15+ licensed stablecoin providers across 100+ countries. It lets businesses enter new markets without new integrations, get failover so payments don’t drop, and make providers compete for your volume on price. Borderless.xyz is SOC 2 Type II certified and headquartered in New York. To learn more, users can visit the website: borderless.xyz.
About Mastercard
Mastercard powers economies and empowers people in 200+ countries and territories worldwide. Together with our customers, we’re building a resilient economy where everyone can prosper. We support a wide range of digital payments choices, making transactions secure, simple, smart and accessible. Our technology and innovation, partnerships and networks combine to deliver a unique set of products and services that help people, businesses and governments realize their greatest potential
Contact
Sarah Cohen
SJC PR
sarah@sjc-pr.com
About Author
Disclaimer: The views, suggestions, and opinions expressed here are the sole responsibility of the experts. No Digi Observer journalist was involved in the writing and production of this article.
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