( NewsNation) — It’s a graphic, gruesome term for what has become a worldwide scam responsible for stealing an estimated $75 billion from people worldwide: Pig butchering, so named for the practice of fattening up pigs before they’re slaughtered.

NPR investigated a crypto scam company known as SpireBit, which stole hundreds of thousands of dollars from Russian-speaking seniors. Now, some of the victims are getting their money back after a lawsuit by Massachusetts authorities.

Using a series of fraudulent trading apps, which were available for download on both the Google Play Store and Apple's App Store, hackers have duped thousands of people

Cybersecurity researchers have reported finding multiple mobile applications used in so-called ‘pig butchering’ schemes, lurking on the official Google and Apple repositories. ‘Pig butchering’ is a type of financial fraud in which the victims - called ‘pigs’ - are first “stuffed”,