One of the most heart-wrenching questions for many victims. It is tough, if not almost impossible, to recover funds from the “pig butchering” scam, as the criminal group has meticulously designed multiple firewalls throughout the entire process.
From my wallet to the scammer’s wallet, and it is through the purchasing of Ethereum.
Why receive money on Ethereum first?
Ethereum is the “front door.”
Scammers often ask victims to:
- Buy ETH, or
- Send funds through an Ethereum-compatible wallet
because: Ethereum looks legitimate
- Big name, widely known
- Used by real exchanges, real apps
- Victims feel safer sending ETH than something obscure
It’s easy for victims to access
- ETH is available on almost every exchange
- Fewer questions from banks or platforms
Important:
The first wallet you send to is rarely the scammer’s final wallet.
It’s a collection wallet.
Why move it to another wallet immediately?
This is called layering (a classic money-laundering technique).
The purpose:
- Break the visible link between you and them
- Confuse blockchain tracing
- Separate victims’ funds into manageable chunks
They do this by:
- Moving ETH from Wallet A → Wallet B → Wallet C
- Sometimes within minutes
- Often using automated scripts
Each move:
- Makes the investigation harder
- Buys them time
- Reduces the chance of freezing funds
Then the scammer replaced it with Tether.
Why convert ETH to USDT (Tether)?
Because USDT is perfect for criminals.
USDT advantages for scammers:
- Stable (no price volatility like ETH or BTC)
- Accepted everywhere (exchanges, OTC desks, black markets)
- Fast to move
- Easy to cash out in Asia, Africa, Eastern Europe
ETH can fluctuate.
USDT does not.
Once converted:
The money is now inventory, not investment.
Why split USDT into many accounts?
This is the most crucial part.
Reasons:
- Avoid triggering AML (anti–money laundering) alerts
- Stay under transaction limits
- Reduce the risk of total loss if one wallet is frozen
Instead of:
1 wallet with $100,000
They create:
50 wallets with $2,000 each
This is called smurfing.
Why multiple chains & accounts?
Often, USDT is moved:
- From Ethereum (ERC-20)
- To TRON (TRC-20)
Because:
- TRON has very low fees
- Popular in scam hubs
- Widely used in underground exchanges
From there, funds are:
- Cashed out via OTC brokers
- Exchanged for cash
- Or reused to run new scams
The brutal truth
This entire process is not improvised.
It is:
- Industrial
- Rehearsed
- Run like a supply chain
Victims see: “An investment transfer.”Scammers see: “Raw material entering a laundering pipeline.”
Conclusion-
Ethereum is the bait, wallet hopping is the wash, USDT is the exit currency, and multiple accounts are the smoke screen.
Summary:
It was only later that I realized that the reason I couldn’t recover the funds wasn’t that I wasn’t quick or smart enough, but because this system was never designed to let you get your money back from the very beginning.
When funds are lured from Ethereum, converted into USDT via a jump wallet for money laundering, and then split, transferred, and funneled into countless wallets, they no longer fall under the control of any single “person”.
No bank can stop the payment,
no customer service can handle the complaint,
and no supervisory authority can press the pause button immediately.
All you see are a string of addresses, transaction numbers, and timestamps.
That’s not a person; it’s a process.
These transfers don’t require emotions,
no need to lie,
nor do they need further conversation with you.
They are merely carrying out an optimized instruction: making the money irreversible, untraceable, and unrecoverable.
So you finally understand –
Why can the police only trace to a certain point and then stop? Why, even with cross-border notifications, the money has long vanished beyond the reach of judicial jurisdiction;
Why the whole thing seems like “nobody is really responsible”.
Because what you are up against has never been a fraudster,
but a system that doesn’t need a face, a name, or a conscience.
In such a system,
staying is not for negotiation,
not for proving oneself right,
and certainly not for waiting for the other party to have a change of heart.
If you stay, you will only be further processed by the system.
And leavingis not an escape,
but the only thing you can do and what the system cannot prevent you from doing –
Stop participating.
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