Bitcoin traders are the new targets for bandits or corrupt police globally

in #crypto5 years ago

The beautiful features of bitcoin can also be seen as a two-edged sword sometimes, for example when we admire the self-empowering qualities of bitcoin and blockchain that make you your own sovereign banker. By removing the banks, bitcoin entrusts each holder with his or her keys to their wallet. You keep the keys to your wallet and nobody can confiscate what’s in there. Nor can they block a transaction or reverse one. So it’s up to each individual to protect their assets.

The bank is out of the picture.

As empowering as this is, it is also a less controlled and less regulated environment and if a bank robber wants to come and literally hold you up with a gun, he can do just that. And they do. Bitcoin traders have become a target of real life robbers who attack them in the flesh and hold them hostage unless they transfer large holdings of bitcoin to the assailant’s wallet. And if it’s your money or your life, then you are going to part with your bitcoin and there is nothing anyone can do to prevent it.

For example recently in the Netherlands a group of robbers disguised as policemen, or at least wearing a police jacket and bullet-proof vests, invaded the home of a trader and held him hostage at gunpoint. It was reported in a Dutch newspaper, De Telegraaf, how a 38 year old man was attacked by balaclava-wearing robbers. The victim never initially revealed his bitcoin holdings but the newspaper apparently did some extra digging and found out that the guy had a sizable sum of bitcoin that was stolen.


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Another report came out of that idyllic and popular tourist resort of Phuket, Thailand, where a Russian businessman was also held hostage and forced to transfer $100 000 to his attackers. This may be the loophole in blockchain technology – it works as well for the thieves as it does for the traders. There was no way their transaction or wallet could be blocked from receiving that bitcoin and transferring it wherever they liked, into numerous other wallets. With great speed they could have that bitcoin rerouted and laundered in no time.

Yet a further report tells of an Indian man in Gujarat, India who was literally kidnapped and extorted for 200 bitcoins. And not only that but he says it was the police that kidnapped him, beat him up and demanded his bitcoin from his wallet. The Criminal Investigation Department are investigating 10 police officers, including the Superintendent of police over the matter. The Indian businessman says he was beaten up in a room at the police offices by several policemen, until he paid a ransom of around $77 000. He was then later kidnapped again and forced to pay a ransom of 200 BTC (around $2 million at the time) into the bitcoin wallet of a former business partner. It seems his old partner became his enemy and could pay off the cops to come hijack him. Now that is scary. At least there are watchers who watch the other watchers, even the police are policed…to a degree.

Or as the Latin saying goes: “Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?” or “who will guard the guards themselves?”

Apparently, the Indian victim was called into the offices of the special branch of the police for questioning, and then attacked and hijacked there by them. And this is going on even more prolifically in Russia and Ukraine, where another victim was kidnapped and forced to pay $1 million. In Russia, a blogger who had boasted online about his crypto wealth was hijacked and robbed after being beaten of around $425 000 in fiat. There are still more stories from Moscow in particular, of investors and “hodlers” being attacked and robbed.

It seems thieves are exploiting the design of the open ledger technology to rob what are now soft targets without security measures that banks used to provide. We dislike the banks and want to do away with them for their corruption but we simultaneously become vulnerable to new form of brazen attack. It means we really have to adapt, as a cryptocurrency community, to a new style of living where we are more empowered as sovereign kings and queens of our own treasury, but then we really need a strong platoon of knights to defend our interests on the digital platforms, otherwise other bandit groups are just going to invade our castles with impunity.


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Another reason why it is not only interface needed but also security to improve the expansion of adoption for cryptocurrencies in general. Not only hardware wallets but the ability to establish and manange multi signature wallets will be key for success.

Posted using Partiko iOS

Hello,
ok, many criminals think about these new methods of robbery, but.....
They are stupid..
Every transaction with a coin can be followed and the tracking systems are getting better and better...
I don't think that's a threat for our future, most of these robbers will be caught and landing in prison.
We will have another problem in the future, coins which were used for criminal actions like money laundering, drugs etc. can be confiscated, so we need technology in future for recognize these "bad" coins...
Every single coin have it's own signature...
Have a great day
Tom

Posted using Partiko Android

Hey Tom,

Yes, these transactions can be traced to some extent (if they didn't go through a mixing process where they can be "laundered" and replaced with clean coins) but keep in mind that most crypto-related crimes still haven't been resolved yet, especially hacks.

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