Simply put

• A widow from San Jose lost close to $1 million after falling victim to a scammer who pretended to be her boyfriend and convinced her to invest in a fraudulent cryptocurrency scheme.
• When she sought advice about the investment from ChatGPT, the AI alerted her, indicating the investment was linked to a known scam.
• Regulators are flagging relationship-based cryptocurrency scams as one of the growing types of financial fraud.

A widow in San Jose believed she had found love online, but instead, she was caught in a “pig butchering” scam that cost her nearly $1 million. She only realized something was off after consulting ChatGPT about an investment proposal.

Sources indicated that this deception drained her retirement savings and put her home at risk.

The woman, identified as Margaret Rourke, connected with a man who went by “Ed” on Facebook in May of last year. Their communication soon shifted to WhatsApp, where he, claiming to be a wealthy businessman, sent Rourke daily affectionate messages, convincing her to share personal details with him.

As their online relationship developed, Ed consistently checked in on her.

“He was always kind to me and greeted me every morning,” Rourke shared. “He’d text ‘good morning’ daily and profess his love for me.”

The discussions soon turned toward cryptocurrency investment. Lacking any experience, Rourke was guided by Ed through the process of sending money to an account he controlled.

He even showed her a screenshot from an app that displayed impressive profits, a common tactic used in such scams to mislead victims into thinking they are earning money.

Pig butchering scams typically involve scammers cultivating relationships over time before directing victims to fake investment platforms to siphon off their savings.

In August, Meta announced it had removed over 6.8 million WhatsApp accounts linked to these scams.

As Rourke became more involved, she made a series of transfers from her IRA, starting at $15,000 and escalating to over $490,000.

Ultimately, she took out a second mortgage of $300,000 to wire additional funds. She ended up transferring nearly $1 million to accounts managed by the scammers.

A fraud exposed by an unlikely ally

When her cryptocurrency account was unexpectedly “frozen,” Ed demanded another $1 million to unlock it. Feeling alarmed, Rourke turned to ChatGPT for help.

“ChatGPT told me: No, this is a scam. You should go to the police station,” she recounted.

The AI noted that her situation corresponded to a known fraudulent pattern, encouraging her to confront Ed and subsequently reach out to law enforcement.

Investigators confirmed that during her money transfers to a bank in Malaysia, a fraudster was quickly withdrawing the funds.

Rourke later expressed her frustration, saying, “Why was I so foolish? I let him trick me!” She described feeling deeply depressed.

Rourke’s experience highlights a growing trend of using AI like ChatGPT to expose scammers.

A recent example involves an IT expert in Delhi developing a website designed to trace the locations and images of potential fraudsters.

OpenAI did not respond to requests for comment.

Growing cybercrime trends

The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) reported that online scams targeting older adults resulted in losses of $9.3 billion in 2024.

Many of these scams originate from networks in Europe and Southeast Asia, with organized groups targeting international victims. In September, the U.S. Treasury imposed sanctions on 19 organizations in Burma and Cambodia for committing fraud against Americans.

“The cyber fraud industry in Southeast Asia not only threatens American economic security but also exposes many people to modern slavery,” stated Treasury Secretary John K. Hurley.

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission and Securities and Exchange Commission have issued warnings about unilateral cryptocurrency “coaching” beginning online, characterizing this as typical of relationship fraud. This scam involves emotional manipulation before pushing victims into fake investments.

Rourke’s case exemplifies this pattern as she was pressured to deposit more cash over time.

Federal regulators caution that recovering funds lost in overseas pig butchering operations is extremely rare, leaving victims like Rourke with limited options for recouping their losses.