An American woman was scammed out of a million dollars in a pig-butchering scheme, and only realized it thanks to ChatGPT.

[BlockBeats] There’s a woman named Margaret Loke from San Jose, California, who was scammed out of nearly $1 million by a cryptocurrency “pig-butchering” scheme. The craziest part? She only realized she’d been scammed after asking ChatGPT for advice.

It all started in May of this year. Margaret met a man named “Ed” on Facebook, who portrayed himself as a wealthy businessman. They hit it off and chatted frequently. Once they became close, “Ed” began encouraging her to “invest in cryptocurrency.”

Margaret believed him. She first withdrew over $490,000 from her retirement account, then took out a second mortgage on her house to get another $300,000. She poured all the money in.

Then came the dramatic twist: the so-called “crypto account” suddenly froze. “Ed” told her that if she wanted to unlock it, she’d need to pay another $1 million.

That’s when Margaret panicked. She described the whole situation to ChatGPT. The AI told her straight out: this is a classic scam, call the police immediately.

After investigating, the police found that the money had been transferred to a Malaysian bank account and had already been withdrawn by the scammers. A meticulously designed scam had nearly wiped out an entire family’s life savings.

Lesson learned? Don’t blindly trust “wealthy people” you meet online, and never send money to unfamiliar platforms. If you’re unsure, ask AI for advice—it might just save your life.