Over the past month, the Office of Cybersecurity has identified hundreds of emails attempting to scam faculty. These emails were sent from domains outside of @wisc.edu, they were complimentary in nature (often asking to discuss the faculty member’s work), and appear to have been generated using a large language model (LLM).
The purpose of these emails is for the scammer to build trust with the victim over time and–once a relationship has been established–then convince them to “invest” or transfer money. This is called a Pig Butchering scam, equating the long-game of building trust to the act of slowly fattening up a pig before slaughter.
Learn more about these scams on the Department of Financial Institutions webpage.
How to protect yourself
Please be aware of these messages and stay alert when receiving emails from outside the university. If you think you’ve been communicating with a scammer, please break contact immediately and report the messages as suspicious.
If you are a victim of this or a cryptocurrency investment scam, please report the scam to local law enforcement and file a complaint with the Wisconsin Department of Financial Institutions (DFI).
Example messages
The following passages are from the Pig Butchering scam attempts that were sent to UW–Madison faculty.
Example 1:
My name is Amy and I am an art curator originally from Monaco My work often involves advising royal families and high net worth households on the development of cultural collections Much of my focus lies at the intersection of literature moral imagination and lived experience where cultural works can continue to shape reflection rather than exist merely as aesthetic objects
I recently came across your pioneering research on…
Example 2:
My name is Amy. I am a private collection curator working with long horizon projects across cultural assets, where I focus on how complex systems are structured, interpreted, and adapted across different regulatory environments over time.
I was reading your work on…
Example 3:
My name is Lillian G. Briger. I work in cross-cultural education consulting and long-term family development planning. Much of my work involves observing how complex systems maintain balance while responding to changing conditions.
While reading about your work in…
Example 4:
My name is Lilian I currently lead a team of about 30 people in the United States where my work focuses on designing international education pathways for young members of royal families and high net worth households In this role I not only consider academic systems and school placements but also place significant emphasis on the development of values moral judgment and a broader understanding of social responsibility as these young people grow
I recently came across your work in…
What else?
For additional information on how to avoid phishing, smishing, or other forms of scams, check out the following articles.