Tricking people into investing in something by maintaining a dialog with them over time. The pig butchering term comes from fattening pigs before slaughtering, which takes several months. The pig butcher contacts unsuspecting people via text, email, social media or dating sites and, over time, tries to gain the confidence of the person they want to scam. Eventually, the targets are tricked into paying for something, typically via crypto, after which the scammer disappears. See
Ponzi scheme,
exit scam and
NFT rug pull.