High-yield investment scams as well as pig butchering scams received the most crypto among scam sub-classes, at 50.2% and 33.2% respectively, a study shows.

Long-term scams, called pig butchering, where victims are slowly tricked into making bigger crypto payments, jumped 40% year-over-year. These scams, mostly run from big fraud hubs in Southeast Asia, have spread to other areas recently.

According to data compiled by blockchain forensic firm Chainalysis, pig butchering scammers have evolved over the past year to diversify their business model beyond the “long con” of scams to “quicker turnaround employment or work-from-home scams that typically yield smaller victim deposits.”

Overall, in 2024, on-chain data shows growth in five scam types: pig butchering, address poisoning, crypto …