How An Ai-fueled Romance Scam Drained A Bitcoin Retirement Fund

A divorced investor’s tragic loss reveals how emotional manipulation, combined with AI technology, has weaponized crypto scams into a billion-dollar crime.

A recently divorced Bitcoin investor lost his entire retirement fund, one full Bitcoin, to an AI-powered romance scam orchestrated by a sophisticated criminal using deepfakes.

Pig butchering scams are relationship-based frauds that rely on emotional manipulation and AI-generated deepfakes to build trust before extracting maximum financial value from victims.

The scammer used AI to create synthetic portraits and conduct real-time deepfake video calls, making the fabricated relationship virtually indistinguishable from reality.

Once cryptocurrency is transferred via a blockchain, recovery is nearly impossible. Unlike bank transfers, there are no chargebacks, reversals or consumer protections available to victims.

When a recently divorced Bitcoin (BTC) investor finally reached the milestone of owning one full Bitcoin, he believed his financial future was secure. Within days, however, an elaborate scheme orchestrated by a sophisticated scammer using AI stripped away his entire retirement savings and left him devastated.

His story, shared by Bitcoin security adviser Terence Michael, offers a critical lesson in how emotional manipulation, combined with modern AI technologies, has weaponized traditional scams to target cryptocurrency holders.

Before examining the specifics of this case, it is essential to understand what security experts call “pig butchering” scams. Unlike traditional cryptocurrency hacks that target wallets directly, these schemes are relationship-based frauds that rely entirely on psychological manipulation. The term, borrowed from the agricultural practice of fattening an animal before slaughter, describes how scammers gradually build trust and emotional connection with their victims before extracting maximum value.

The fundamental difference is critical. Victims willingly send their funds, believing they are making sound investments or supporting someone they love. This consent-based manipulation makes these schemes extraordinarily difficult for fraud detection systems to identify, as the transactions themselves appear legitimate on the surface.

According to a report by Cyvers, a blockchain security platform, the average grooming period for victims lasts between one and two weeks in roughly one-third of cases, while approximately 10% of victims endure grooming periods spanning one

Source: CoinTelegraph