When flirting turns into cheating
It starts with a match - and ends with a loss of millions: a 56-year-old management consultant from Munich has fallen victim to a perfidious online scam. His mistake? He believed he would find love on Tinder - and ended up losing 1.3 million euros to professional scammers from Asia.
What sounds like an isolated case has long since become an international business model. The perpetrators are based in so-called "scam factories" - for example in Myanmar, Cambodia or Laos - and use fake profiles, fake investment platforms and genuine emotions. The perpetrators themselves cynically call this method "pig butchering". Their aim is to build up the victim's emotions in order to then completely fleece them financially.
How the "pig butchering" scam works
In March, the Munich man met a supposedly attractive woman on Tinder. Charming, interested, clever - but: "This woman doesn't exist," says Joachim Jäntsch from the Munich police. The contact was fake from the start.
The process: First, trust and an emotional bond are established. Then come alleged investment tips - usually in cryptocurrencies. The victims are lured to fake trading platforms where they initially see apparent profits. The catch: it's all fake. The platforms belong to the perpetrators.
The man from Munich was persuaded - and transferred more and more money over a period of months. When he finally wanted to cash out his "winnings", all the money was gone. 1.3 million euros - simply wasted.
A billion-dollar industry with real victims
According to Bavaria's Minister of Justice Georg Eisenreich, international crime syndicates have obtained between 7.5 and 12.5 billion US dollars through this scam in one country in the Mekong region alone. Research shows: In Southeast Asia, tens of thousands of people are brought into these fraud factories - often under duress - where they work around the clock on fake profiles.
370 cases have been reported to the Bavarian Cybercrime Center alone since 2021 - on over 330 different platforms. The total loss in Bavaria in 2024: 29 million euros. And the trend is rising.
The police warn that professionally successful people are targeted particularly often - not only on Tinder, but also on platforms such as LinkedIn. Many victims fall into debt, take out loans or end up in personal bankruptcy. In addition to financial ruin, they are often left with a massive emotional shock.
Platforms must be held accountable
"Pig butchering" is not a new scam - but it is a prime example of how the digital space has long since become a crime scene. The term is disgusting, but apt: the perpetrators fatten up their victims with love, greed and trust - and then strike mercilessly.
What can help? Certainly not just education. As long as platforms such as Tinder, LinkedIn & Co. have little control over fake profiles, the risk remains high. The operators should no longer shirk their responsibility - because a "like" is not enough when millions are at stake.
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