Romance investment scams (pig butchering)

Someone builds a warm relationship over weeks or months, then introduces a trading platform that shows fake profits. When you try to withdraw, new fees appear and the money is gone.

What it looks like

Dating app · Daniel, 3 km away

I've loved talking every day these weeks. My uncle showed me a trading platform that's changed my life — I could show you, just start small?

How it usually ends

Months of conversation, all scripted. The profile photos were AI-generated and the platform showed fake gains until you tried to withdraw.

Red flags

Profile images are AI-generated
Moves to investment after rapport
Platform domain linked to known scam cluster

A real case

The SEC says NanoBit’s promoters posed as finance professionals in WhatsApp groups to build trust, then steered investors into a fake crypto platform (final judgment 2026).

What to do

Be suspicious of anyone you haven’t met who raises investing.
Check investment firms on your financial regulator’s register.
Fees to “unlock” withdrawals are a sign the platform is fake.

Could you spot it in the moment?

In Painted Sky you’re born at random somewhere on Earth and live a whole life — and this scam is one of the fakes that can find you. Make the call yourself, then replay the same life with a lens that shows what was fake.

Play Painted Sky — free →