An American woman fell victim to a cryptocurrency-based "pig butchering" romance scam, losing nearly $1 million.

According to Foresight News and Decrypt, a woman in the United States fell victim to a cryptocurrency "pig butchering" romance scam, losing nearly $1 million. Last May, Margaret Loke met a man on Facebook who called himself Ed. The man claimed to be a wealthy businessman, sending her flirtatious messages daily to entice her to open up. Margaret Loke admitted to having no trading experience, and Ed instructed her to transfer funds to an online account he controlled. Loke transferred over $490,000 from her retirement account and another $300,000 through a second mortgage. When the supposedly cryptocurrency account suddenly "froze," and Ed demanded an additional $1 million to unfreeze it, Loke described the situation to ChatGPT. ChatGPT responded that the setup matched known scam patterns and advised her to report it to the police. The investigation revealed that the funds were transferred to a Malaysian bank account and then withdrawn by the scammers.