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Pig Butchering in Cybersecurity: A Modern Social Engineering Threat

L. Burton, Dr. Sharon ; D. (Vickerson) Moore, Dr. Pamela (2024) — SocioEconomic Challenges

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DOI: 10.61093/sec.8(3).46-60.2024 (opens in a new tab)

Type:   Journal Article
Country:   United States
Tags:   AI-Enabled Fraud, Cross Cultural, Cryptocurrency Investment Fraud, Cybersecurity Prevention, International Enforcement, Law Enforcement, Measurement, Online Dating Platforms, Pig Butchering, Platform Policy, Prevention, Psychology, Risk Factors, Romance Scams, Social Engineering, Trust Manipulation, Victim Experience, Victim Psychological Harm
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Synopsis

            
This review paper used a qualitative, described-as-systematic literature review of scholarly articles and public web resources. Searches ran from November 2023 to July 2024 across EBSCO, IEEE Xplore, the Homeland Security Digital Library, ProQuest, ABI Inform Complete, and Google Scholar. Scammers can reinforce false investment legitimacy with fake documents, deny withdrawals, demand release fees, and then disappear. Financial intelligence advisories identify unusual cryptocurrency patterns and sudden large withdrawals as pig-butchering red flags, while international cooperation is necessary because many operations are overseas. The paper acknowledges that underreporting may distort estimates of scams' true scale and impact.

          

        
                  

            
Identified Gaps

            
The review identifies limited understanding of scammers’ methods and psychological manipulation, especially the criminogenic transformation of trafficked people into scam operators. It also frames current cybersecurity practice as insufficiently attentive to social-engineering dimensions. Cross-border enforcement remains constrained by borders and law-enforcement resources, while geographically and culturally diverse victim populations complicate broadly applicable prevention.

          

        
                  

            
Methods

            
This review paper used a qualitative, described-as-systematic literature review of scholarly articles and public web resources. Searches ran from November 2023 to July 2024 across EBSCO, IEEE Xplore, the Homeland Security Digital Library, ProQuest, ABI Inform Complete, and Google Scholar. Keywords covered cybersecurity, financial fraud, pig butchering, proactive defense, risk awareness, social engineering, trust manipulation, and fraud. The paper synthesizes academic research, industry reports, law-enforcement data, and case studies.

          

        
                  

            
Limitations

            
The paper acknowledges that underreporting may distort estimates of scams’ true scale and impact. Rapidly evolving scamming techniques challenge researchers and practitioners. Geographic and cultural diversity among victims also limits the generalizability of prevention and intervention strategies across regions. As a literature review, the paper reports no primary dataset or reproducible study-selection and synthesis details in the supplied text.

          

        
                  

            
Future Work

            
Develop predictive models for emerging scam trends; conduct longitudinal research on victims’ long-term psychological impacts; and examine AI and machine-learning integration to improve detection and automate responses. Continued research should track evolving offender tactics globally and inform prevention and victim-support systems.

          

              

    
    

        
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