eprintid: 10197431
rev_number: 8
eprint_status: archive
userid: 699
dir: disk0/10/19/74/31
datestamp: 2024-09-24 11:23:54
lastmod: 2025-02-04 16:56:39
status_changed: 2024-09-24 11:23:54
type: proceedings_section
metadata_visibility: show
sword_depositor: 699
creators_name: Ordekian, Marilyne
creators_name: Papasavva, Antonis
creators_name: Mariconti, Enrico
creators_name: Vasek, Marie
title: A Sinister Fattening: Dissecting the Tales of Pig Butchering and other Cryptocurrency Scams
ispublished: inpress
divisions: UCL
divisions: B04
divisions: F48
keywords: cryptocurrency fraud, cybercrime measurement
note: This version is the author-accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions.
abstract: Cryptocurrency scams have risen in popularity with
the mainstreaming of cryptocurrencies. People can fall victim
to them because of their lack of knowledge, particularly when
they gain a sense of trust in the ecosystem via a scammer.
In this paper, we analyze 143 cryptocurrency scams across 11
different types mined from 133 scam narratives collated by
the government of California. Most of these are pig-butchering
scams (101) where attackers interact with their victims, gain
their trust, and introduce them to a (scam) cryptocurrency
investment opportunity. These scams vary in lure which indicates
the wide variety of scams in our sample. Scammers often portray
themselves as the gender opposite their target; our results show
greater financial gains using this approach. Furthermore, most
scams end up communicating via messaging apps, regardless
of how the scammer initially reached out to the victim. These
cross platform movements indicate a leap of faith and trust in
the scammer needed to scam the victim. While many of these
scams involved a fake cryptocurrency trading platform (124), we
find 33 scams involving well known cryptocurrency exchanges,
highlighting the need for legitimate cryptocurrency platforms to
protect their (overwhelmingly new) users from these scams
date: 2024-09-23
date_type: published
official_url: https://apwg.org/event/ecrime2024/
full_text_type: other
language: eng
verified: verified_manual
elements_id: 2319666
lyricists_name: Vasek, Marie
lyricists_id: MVASE75
actors_name: Vasek, Marie
actors_id: MVASE75
actors_role: owner
full_text_status: restricted
pres_type: paper
series: Symposium on Electronic Crime Research
volume: 2024
place_of_pub: Boston, Massachusetts, USA
event_title: 2024 Symposium on Electronic Crime Research (eCrime 2024)
event_location: US
event_dates: 24 Sep 2024 - 26 Sep 2024
book_title: Proceedings of the 2024 Symposium on Electronic Crime Research (eCrime 2024)
citation:        Ordekian, Marilyne;    Papasavva, Antonis;    Mariconti, Enrico;    Vasek, Marie;      (2024)    A Sinister Fattening: Dissecting the Tales of Pig Butchering and other Cryptocurrency Scams.                     In:  Proceedings of the 2024 Symposium on Electronic Crime Research (eCrime 2024).    : Boston, Massachusetts, USA.    (In press).   
 
document_url: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10197431/1/Pig_butchering_and_other_scams-5.pdf