British police have arrested and charged two men in connection with a crypto scam that resulted in a 75-year-old Aberdeenshire pensioner losing a six-figure sum.
The male victim reported the fraud in July 2024, leading to an investigation by Police Scotland.
Officers from the force’s North East division commuted to England yesterday to make the arrests, working in conjunction with West Midlands and South Yorkshire Police.
They arrested a 54-year-old man in Coventry and a 36-year-old in Mexborough, with both individuals being charged on the same day.
In a statement on the arrests, Detective Sergeant David Williamson—of North East division’s Cyber-Enabled Crime Team—warned members of the public “to be mindful of activity which appears fraudulent and to report this to police.”
Police Scotland’s statement provides no further detail, but the large sum involved suggests that the fraud was a pig butchering scam, in which fraudsters develop an online relationship with their victim(s) in order to coax them into sending money.
Williamson has investigated similar cases in recent years, with one 2021 fraud leading to a Yorkshire man, Benjamin Riley, receiving a 12-month community payback order in March 2024.
Speaking in March, Williamson described how Riley had opened a social media account through which he promoted a fictitious proprietary trading bot, and through which he was able to gain a £10,000 investment from a 30-year-old Aberdeen man.
Williamson said, “the investor noticed that the investment channel had been deleted and he was not able to access his money or get a hold of Riley.”
Scams on the rise
More generally, pig butchering scams have become the fastest growing variety of cryptocurrency fraud, with Chainalysis’ 2025 Crypto Crime Report finding that revenue from such exploits increased by 40% in 2024.
While it remains the second-biggest kind of crypto fraud behind high-yield investment scams (also known as Ponzi schemes), it already accounts for a third of all fraudulent revenue.
And according to James Toledano, the chief operating officer at Unity Wallet, it’s not just a threat within the cryptocurrency market and industry.
“Fraudsters use social media, dating-platforms or other digital touchpoints to cultivate long-term relationships with their prey,” he told Decrypt. “The financial and emotional toll on victims is profound, with many losing substantial portions of their life savings, being saddled with debt, living with extreme feelings of guilt and shame which in some cases can lead to suicide.”
Given the enormous potential cost involved, Toledano advised retail investors to show a heightened degree of vigilance, and to adopt the old adage of “if it’s too good to be true,” then it’s probably not true.
He also called on exchanges and platforms to step up more, explaining, “the industry also needs to implement robust protective measures where they present victims with cautionary information before allowing them to proceed with a transaction—all banking apps in the UK do this already and this should be required in DeFi also.”
Toledano stressed the importance of thoroughly researching and verifying the legitimacy of any investment platforms or channels a new contact urges you to use, while also speaking with trusted family and friends before proceeding with any doubtful investments or transfers.
While conceding that, “It is challenging to eliminate exposure to ‘pig butchering’ scams entirely,” Toledano said that retail crypto investors can mitigate their risk by “exercising caution with unexpected messages or friend requests, especially those that quickly transition into discussions about investments or personal finances.”
