Showing 11 results

A scoping review of online romance scams: Conceptual construction and comparative analysis

Wang, Fangzhou (2026) — International Review of Victimology

Type: Journal Article Country: Global Tags: victim experience, offender tactics, psychology, platform policy, money mules, prevention, scoping review, online romance scams, AFRS, InvRS, pig-butchering, typology, victim vulnerabilities, cross-border policy, PRISMA, cross-language synthesis, victimology, cross-cultural, transnational crime

This scoping review synthesizes findings from a body of 62 empirical investigations to construct a framework that differentiates two primary forms of online romance scams: advance fee romance scams and investment-based r...

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

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

Type: Journal Article Country: United Kingdom Tags: pig butchering scam, romance fraud, hybrid romance-investment scam, China, victims' perspectives, police perspectives, qualitative study, thematic analysis, pig butchering, victimisation

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...

Mental Health Impacts of Cybercrime

Burrell, Darrell (2025) — International Conference on Cyber Warfare and Security

Type: Journal Article Country: United States Tags: victim experience, psychology, platform policy, money mules, prevention, measurement

As online dating continues to evolve, deceptive practices have grown in breadth and sophistication, spanning from classic catfishing to more systemic forms such as pig-butchering and Intimacy Manipulated Fraud Industrial...

Shifting routines and the industrialisation of scams: the impact of Covid-19 on deception crimes in Hong Kong

Akartuna, Eray Arda; Yeung, Felix Sin Wai; Manning, Matthew; Bish, Alexandre (2025) — Trends in Organized Crime

Type: Journal Article Country: Hong Kong Tags: Deception, Fraud, Pig butchering, Romance scams, Covid-19, Hong Kong, Routine Activity Theory, Crime displacement, victim experience, risk factors, measurement, cross-cultural

This study analyzes how the Covid-19 crisis affected deception-related crime in Hong Kong by examining a period from February 2020 to June 2023. The researchers apply an Auto ARIMA time series approach to contrast crime...

Understanding the Characteristics of Pig Butchering Scams: Impact on Victims and Challenges for Law Enforcement in Indonesia

Aissyach, Aissyach Noor Chairinovadanti; Sigid, Sigid Suseno; Budi, Budi Arta Atmaja (2025) — KRTHA BHAYANGKARA

Type: Journal Article Country: Indonesia Tags: victim experience, offender tactics, law enforcement, platform policy, money mules, AI misuse, online dating platforms, cross-cultural

The study analyzes the pig-butchering scam, a cyber-enabled form of investment fraud that has expanded rapidly in Indonesia since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Also known as Sha Zhu Pan, this manipulative scheme bl...

An Explorative Study of Pig Butchering Scams

Acharya, Bhupendra; Holz, Thorsten (2024) — arXiv (Cornell University)

Type: Journal Article Country: Global Tags: pig-butchering, romance scams, investment fraud, social engineering, cryptocurrency scams, online scams, abuse reports, scam lifecycle, victim experience, law enforcement, platform policy, AI misuse, prevention, measurement, data collection

This piece examines An Explorative Study of Pig Butchering Scams within the broader context of online fraud and mediated communication. It outlines common patterns documented in the literature, describes how offenders cu...

Analysis of "Pig-Butchering Scam" Type of Network Fraud from the Legal Perspective

Fu, Zhenglang (2024) — Lecture Notes in Education Psychology and Public Media

Type: Journal Article Country: China Tags: victim experience, AI misuse

This paper examines pig-butchering scams (Sha Zhu Pan) from a legal perspective, focusing on their causes, operation, challenges for China’s legal system, and possible countermeasures. Pig-butchering scams are distinguis...

Bi-Directional Exploitation of Human Trafficking Victims: Both Targets and Perpetrators in Cybercrime

Sarkar, Gargi; Shukla, Sandeep K. (2024) — Journal of Human Trafficking

Type: Journal Article Country: Global Tags: cybercrime, human trafficking, cyber-enabled trafficking, romance scams, pig butchering, transnational organized crime, policy and law enforcement, SEZs and cross-border crime

Bi-Directional Exploitation of Human Trafficking Victims: Both Targets and Perpetrators in Cybercrime is presented as a scholarly entry in the Journal of Human Trafficking that situates trafficking within cybercrime ecos...

Connecting Chinese and American Scam Victims

Reiter, Jonathan; Team, Bitrace (2024) — SSRN Electronic Journal

Type: Journal Article Country: Global Tags: pig_butchering, romance_scam, cryptocurrency, on_chain_analysis, money_laundering, cross_border_scams, forensic_analysis, exchanges, pig-butchering, romance scam, on-chain analysis, money laundering, cross-border, forensic-research

Connecting Chinese and American Scam Victims examines how fraud experiences are shaped by cross-cultural and cross-border contexts, focusing on victimization in two national settings. The work surveys how digital platfor...

Victim-offender overlap: the identity transformations experienced by trafficked Chinese workers escaping from pig-butchering scam syndicate

Wang, Fangzhou (2024) — Trends in Organized Crime

Type: Journal Article Country: United States Tags: victim experience, offender tactics, platform policy, AI misuse, social engineering, prevention

This study explores the intersection of human trafficking and online romance fraud within the context of the pig-butchering scam (Sha Zhu Pan, 杀猪盘). While the scam is widely recognized for combining romance and invest...

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