Crypto Crime 2024 by Chainalysis: Pig Butchering and romantic scams

In the second mid-year update of the Crypto Crime 2024 by Chainalysis, among other things, the Pig Butchering of romantic scams was also analyzed. From what has emerged, it seems that romantic scams have recorded an 85-fold increase since 2020. 

Crypto Crime 2024: Pig Butchering and romantic scams in the Chainalysis report 

In the second mid-year update of the Crypto Crime 2024 by Chainalysis, one of the themes analyzed is Pig Butchering, a type of romantic scam.

In un mercato finanziario, i termini “bull” e “bear” sono comunemente usati per descrivere le tendenze del mercato. Un mercato “bull” è caratterizzato da un aumento dei prezzi, mentre un mercato “bear” è caratterizzato da una diminuzione dei prezzi.

The second part of our mid-year update on cybercrimes has arrived! We discuss the latest scam trends, examine chain activity related to child sexual abuse material (CSAM), and review Huione Guarantee, an online marketplace exposed for facilitating cybercrimes.

Regarding Pig Butchering, the scam involves the malicious actors making their victims “fatten up” to extract the maximum possible value. 

Usually, it involves building over time a romantic relationship with the victim through text messages or dating apps, until pushing them to send money to a fake investment opportunity. 

The report by Chainlaysis revealed that 43% of this year’s scam flows were channeled into wallets created in 2024, many of which are linked to Pig Butchering schemes. Not only that, romantic scams have seen an 85-fold increase since 2020. 

One of the largest scam wallets discovered this year is associated with KK Park from Myanmar, a known author of Pig Butchering scams. The wallet has already accumulated over 100 million dollars.

Crypto Crime and romantic scams: the technique of approval phishing

The category of romantic scams does not stop only at Pig Butchering. Another technique is in fact approval phishing which, at the beginning of the year, Eric Jardine of Chainalysis had described.

In practice, the Cybercrime Research Lead of Chainalysis, Jardine, had described how approval phishing had grown in 2023 and what kind of romantic scam it was. 

With this technique, the scammers manage to gain complete access to the victims’ wallet through the signing of a fraudulent blockchain transaction. 

The success of the approva phishing stems from the fact that many dApps enabled for smart contracts, like Ethereum, require users to sign approval transactions to move the funds in their possession. 

By accepting this type of requests from secure projects, users are also inclined to underestimate the reliability of those who are giving this authorization. In this way, phishing approval scammers often succeed in their scam mission. 

Ransomware attacks on the rise

The first update of the Crypto Crime 2024 report by Chainalysis highlighted other types of data, stating that ransomware attacks are on the rise.

In general, the analysis showed that while on one hand the flow of crypto funds to legitimate services has reached the highest levels since 2021, on the other hand illicit activity has decreased. Therefore, it was calculated that the aggregated illicit activity decreased by 19.6%, going from 20.9 billion dollars to 16.7 billion dollars. 

The only exception to this general trend is the crypto crime technique “ransomware”. In practice, researchers have recorded a total of 459.8 million dollars in ransoms paid. Already establishing that 2024 has been the worst year ever recorded.