Should Banks Do More to Stop Pig Butchering Scams?

You have been warned by Your Survival Guy to avoid so-called “pig butchering” scams, where fraudsters gain victims’ trust and then con them into making cryptocurrency investments that result in the total loss of their money. Now some victims are demanding that banks save them from themselves. The Wall Street Journal’s Dylan Tokar reports on the story of Craig and Anamarie Hurt from Tulsa, OK, who are suing Arvest Bank for not doing enough to stop Craig from wiring all their money away to the fraudsters. Tokar writes:

For nearly 50 years, Anamarie Hurt trusted her husband, Craig, to manage their finances. And he did a good job of it, making investments that grew into a comfortable nest egg.

Then Craig walked into a bank in Tulsa, Okla., and began moving their retirement funds into cryptocurrency investments that turned out to be fake. A year later, after losing more than $5 million, the Hurts’ life savings were gone.

At first, Anamarie’s anger was directed at Craig. But it soon found another target: the bank that she said helped him send wires as high as $300,000 at a time to scammers.

Now that investment scams, sometimes called pig butchering, are booming global operations, some Americans are demanding their banks and financial advisers do more to prevent the scams from happening. Pressure is also spreading to telecoms and social-media platforms such as Facebook, where scammers find their marks.

In 2023, Anamarie sued Arvest Bank, the Arkansas-based regional lender that processed Craig’s wire payments. Similar lawsuits have sprung up around the country, seeking damages from the likes of JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo and alleging they didn’t do enough to investigate their customer’s suspicious behavior or to block payments to scammers.

Who is at fault? The defrauded, or the bank? Maybe both? One thing is for sure, you don’t want to end up in the position Craig and Anamarie are now in. The best thing you can do for yourself and your family is to avoid such schemes by exercising some caution.

Protect Yourself from Pig Butchering Scams

The United States Secret Service explain some ways to protect yourself from pig butchering scams, writing:

• Be wary of people you meet on dating websites or social media who offer you unsolicited financial, investment, or cryptocurrency advice.
• Be cautious of unsolicited investment opportunities offered via phone, message, email, social media, or in person.
• Always question the legitimacy of projects that sound too good to be true, are advertised as having high rates of returns with little or no risk to your original financial investment deposit, or are advertised as “the next big thing.”
• Shield yourself from scenarios in which you are encouraged to open an account on a cryptocurrency trading platform and transfer funds from your bank account to invest in cryptocurrency projects.
• Never share personal financial information with individuals you have not met in person. If the promoter of an alleged investment is asking you for sensitive information, such as your social security number or bank account details, is using high pressure tactics to attempt to force you to invest, or claims you need to pay a fee or provide identifying documents to unlock access to an investment opportunity or liquidate existing profits, immediately remove yourself from the situation by ceasing all communications.
• Avoid projects that involve you earning money in exchange for recruiting others to invest in a project, as this is likely a pyramid scheme.
• Consult the websites of federal and state regulatory authorities and online corporate records concerning any proposed investment, investment firm, or anyone representing themselves to be a broker or similar.
• Conduct searches via Internet search engines to attempt to identify any online reports flagging particular investment or cryptocurrency projects of interest as scams.
• Request to review financial statements, annual reports, or audit results for any proposed investment.
• Warning signs that you are a victim of a scam include notifications, messages, or websites indicating that you have made large amounts of money in a short time period.
• Red flags include perceived “friends” or romantic partners who you have met online but who can seemingly never meet in person and avoid showing themselves on video calls. Do not be embarrassed about being a victim. Immediately report this fraud to your local law enforcement agency.

Read more about Pig Butchering scams in the brochure below.

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