How an AI-fueled romance scam drained a BTC retirement fund

Key takeaways

-A recently divorced Bitcoin investor lost his entire retirement fund, one full Bitcoin, to an AI-powered romance scam orchestrated by a sophisticated criminal using deepfakes.
-Pig butchering scams are relationship-based frauds that rely on emotional manipulation and AI-generated deepfakes to build trust before extracting maximum financial value from victims.
-The scammer used AI to create synthetic portraits and conduct real-time deepfake video calls, making the fabricated relationship virtually indistinguishable from reality.
-Once cryptocurrency is transferred via a blockchain, recovery is nearly impossible. Unlike bank transfers, there are no chargebacks, reversals or consumer protections available to victims.