Lincoln Police warning of ‘Pig Butchering’ scam that could cost families thousands of dollars

LINCOLN, Neb. (KLKN) — The Lincoln Police Department is warning about a scam targeting families.

It’s being referred to as “Pig Butchering.”

“The gist of it is to fatten the prospect or the potential victim by promising, and even delivering in some cases, a big return,” said Sgt. Steve Weise, who works with LPD’s Technical Investigations Unit. “We’re talking 20-25% within a week or two weeks. That gives it a little bit of legitimacy to show it’s legitimate, and you can keep investing money.”

Pig butchering is when scammers build trust and a relationship with someone, either online or over the phone.

They also try to take advantage of a person’s fears by using tactics like impersonating a family member, saying a family member is in danger or even claiming an account is hacked.

One of the biggest concerns is the different ways scammers are now putting everyone at risk.

“I would say the older generation was probably accurate five years ago, but that’s just not the case anymore,” said Sgt. Weise. “It runs the gamut from every age. It may not be the pig butchering scam. It seems there is a scam for every age group that’s out there.”

In addition to the pig butchering scam, most of the fraud cases in Lincoln are crypto-related.

To help LPD’s Technical Investigations Unit, a fifth investigator was added to the team to focus specifically on cryptocurrency scams.

But even then, scammers are constantly evolving.

“As soon as we have a firm grasp of one scam, they change to another,” Weise said. “They’re constantly going through the different scams that are out there to try to get money, so it’s just a constant cat and mouse game for law enforcement.”