Cryptocurrency Thieves Are Ready To Take Your Life In Exchange For Bitcoins

Hackers are anything but harmless. They can hack into your vehicle and drive you off the road. Reason: because they can. They can hack into your computer, put your camera on and watch you in your intimate moments, etc., The list goes on and on and on.

But when it came to cryptocurrencies, we all thought that all we had to do was to protect our digital devices and make sure we don’t become victims of theft. Well, after reading this: your “Worry List” would have increased.

The theft of digital currencies are no longer happening with just computers but also, with physical weapons!

Individuals around the world are being kidnapped and held at gunpoint!

Here are a few examples:

In the city of New York, a guy was kidnapped by his own friend! For some Ether. Ether is like Bitcoin equally handsome brother. This man ended up transferring a whopping sum of money amount to almost two million dollars for his release.

A Russian man was held against his will in his apartment in the South East Asian country of Thailand—in Phuket to be more precise. He had to transfer $100,000 in Bitcoin to the assailants or rather, who they work for.

Because let’s be honest, if I want something that belongs to someone else, I won’t steal it myself.

Why put oneself at risk like that?

Except, of course, you work for the Kensington Firm. (Check out, “The Catch”).

And a Bitcoin exchange was “held up”—for lack of a better term. It was finally “released” after a million dollars was paid.

What is the cause of this sudden physical violence?

Well, cryptocurrency such as bitcoin has seen its value almost double and many crime syndicates can do enough damage with digital currencies such as financing human trafficking, terrorism, etc.

Can the stolen currencies be traced? 

Honestly, no. Once a transfer has been made, it is darn near impossible. Take a bank transfer for example. If you transfer money from your account into mine, it will be shown. Neither one of us can run away from that. The evidence is ever-present. But with a bitcoin transfer, I can choose to not associate myself with it. Meaning, you may be able to find stolen bitcoin but you can’t take it back.

This is partly due to the fact that there is no governing body watching transactions to make sure that all are legal in terms of them being done willingly by users.

Jonathan Levin, the founder of Chainalysis had these words to give on the matter:

“This is now becoming more pervasive and touching more law enforcement divisions that deal with organized crime and violent crime on a local level.”

It is one of Chainalysis’ job to track criminal transactions on the blockchain. The blockchain is the computerized, public ledger of sorts where all bitcoin transactions are done. It is also recorded.

His company has really been a helping hand to law enforcement as they work in tandem to find the criminal elements behind illegal transactions and holding them accountable for their nefarious actions.