An Anatomy of ‘Pig Butchering Scams’: Chinese Victims’ and Police Officers’ Perspectives

Han, Bing; Button, Mark (2025) — Deviant Behavior

This article analyzes the hybrid romance–investment scam known as “pig butchering” (Sha Zhu Pan, 杀猪盘) from the perspectives of Chinese victims and police officers. Unlike traditional romance scams, pig butchering fuse...

Factors Influencing Involvement in Cyber-Frauds in West Africa and the Implications for Policy

Button, Mark; Lazarus, Suleman; Hock, Branislav; Bugbilla Sabia, James; Pandey, Durgesh; Gilmour, Paul (2025) — European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research

Policing cross-border fraud ‘Above and below the surface’: mapping actions and developing a more effective global response

Button, Mark; Hock, Branislav; Suh, Joon Bae; Koh, Chol Soo (2025) — Crime, Law and Social Change

Cross-border fraud represents a global challenge, spanning forms such as online retail fraud, pyramid schemes, romance fraud, and pig butchering. While there is clear evidence that these abuses are expanding across borde...

Relationship fraud: Romance, friendship and family frauds

Button, Mark; Carter, Elisabeth (2024) — Journal of Economic Criminology

Relationship fraud refers to intentional deception in which trust within intimate or interpersonal ties—romance, friendship, and family relationships—is exploited to obtain money, property, or other benefits. The topic c...

Online frauds: Learning from victims why they fall for these scams

Button, Mark; Nicholls, Carol McNaughton; Kerr, Jane; Owen, Rachael (2014) — Australian & New Zealand Journal of Criminology

Across many countries, online fraud has emerged as a major problem, affecting millions of people through a wide diversity of schemes that are carried out online in whole or in part. The article seeks to describe how exte...