A San Jose widow who believed she had found a new love online lost nearly $1 million in a cryptocurrency “pig butchering” scam, only finding out after asking ChatGPT if an investment offer made sense.
The scheme depleted her retirement accounts and put her at risk of losing her home, according to San Jose-based reports. ABC7 News.
The woman, Margaret Rourke, met a man who called himself “Ed” on Facebook in May last year. The relationship soon moved to WhatsApp, where the man, who claimed to be a wealthy businessman, sent her daily loving messages and encouraged her to confide in him.
As our online relationship grew, the daily check-ins never stopped.
“He was very kind to me and said hi every morning,” Rourke told ABC7 News. “He texts me ‘good morning’ every day. He says he loves me.”
The conversation quickly turned to cryptocurrency investment. Rourke had no trading experience, but “Ed” guided her through the process of transferring funds to an online account controlled by “him.”
Rourke said Ed showed her a screenshot of the app showing him making “huge profits in seconds.” This is a common tactic in pig slaughter schemes that use fabricated results to trick victims into believing they are making more money.
Pig butchering scams are long-running scams in which scammers spend weeks or months building relationships with victims, then lure them to fake investment platforms and drain their savings.
Meta announced in August that it had deleted more than 6.8 million WhatsApp accounts related to the pig slaughter scam.
As the scam progressed, Loke said he sent a series of transfers from his IRA that started at $15,000 and escalated to more than $490,000.
She ended up taking out a second mortgage for $300,000 and wired those funds as well. In total, she transferred nearly $1 million to accounts controlled by scammers.
A fraud exposed by an unlikely ally
When her cryptocurrency account was suddenly “frozen,” “Ed” demanded an additional $1 million to release the funds. Panicked, Loke explained the situation to ChatGPT.
“ChatGPT told me: No, this is a scam. You should go to the police station,” she said. ABC7.
The AI responded that the settings matched a known pattern of fraud, prompting her to confront the man she believed to be dating and then contact the police.
Investigators later confirmed that when she was transferring money to a bank in Malaysia, the money was withdrawn by a fraudster.
“Why am I so stupid? I let him deceive me!” said Roku. “I was really, really depressed.”
Loke’s case is the latest example of ChatGPT being used to catch fraudsters.
Last week, an IT expert in Delhi said he had “vibe-coded” a website that could identify the location and photos of potential fraudsters.
OpenAI did not respond immediately decryption request for comments.
Growing cybercrime trends
According to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), $9.3 billion was lost to online scams targeting older Americans in 2024.
Many of these scams originate from complexes in Europe and Southeast Asia, with large groups of fraudsters targeting international victims. In September, the U.S. Treasury sanctioned 19 organizations in Burma and Cambodia for defrauding Americans.
“The cyber fraud industry in Southeast Asia not only threatens the welfare and economic security of Americans, but also exposes thousands to modern-day slavery,” Treasury Secretary John K. Hurley, for terrorism and financial intelligence, said in a statement.
The Federal Trade Commission and Securities and Exchange Commission have warned that unsolicited cryptocurrency “coaching” that begins within an online relationship is a hallmark of relationship fraud. This is a long-game scam where scammers build emotional trust in their victims before luring them into fake investments.
Rourke’s case followed that pattern, with pressure mounting to deposit more money.
Federal regulators have warned that recovering money from overseas hog slaughter operations is extremely rare once the money leaves U.S. banking channels, leaving victims like Rourke with few avenues for compensation.
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