Topic: A Science Fiction story idea: Using Bitcoin for ransom (Read 2593 times)

Their arguing and greed, the and the interpersonal dynamics that emerge from the issue of who is going to hold and control that piece of paper with the Private Key is what the story is really about. Bitcoin is just the background. The real story is always and relationships and people.

Not a professional writer or anything, but this doesn't sound like a great story, as is. I won't try to be purposefully harsh with these comments and questions:

1) What is the story? Is it centered around the family, the kidnappers, or the travels and trials of bitcoin? It seems like the currency is the protagonist, the kidnapping is the introduction to the protagonist, and then it becomes a sort-of problem without resolve for the kidnappers?

2) Similarly, what is the point of the second half? Is it suppose to become a tense, cat-and-mouse page turner? Do the kidnappers feel any tension or suspect being hunted? If so, then why would they? If not, then its only interesting from the view of the FBI agent. Maybe the kidnappers make mistakes? Also, why should we care if their money gains/loses value or crashes virtual markets?

3) Why is this Sci Fi? Seems like its a present day setting and realism, just utilizing a new technology some may not understand.

4) Whose your audience? Those into bitcoin, crime thrillers or general audience?


Cue Benny Hill music?


I think they shouldn't expect a quick, clean kidnapping when using a currency the targeted family has no clue about. Hell, if the family took half as long as any other bitcoin user in reading and trying to understand it (finding this forum and all other advice stressing people not to jump into it), they should expect at least a week before any real payment.


Hurrah?! Education trumps all else? What do you mean by this? Are we rooting for the kidnappers, taking delight in punishing and abusing those who don't know about bitcoin?


So they don't know about the agent, but they planned for it, just in case? What's the point either way? Why should we care about this 10K BTC problem? Especially since they don't need it (because they bought and sold some bitcoin already)?


So they are part of a banking conspiracy? Why is it important they crash markets, gain or make bitcoin? This sounds like the paranoia, delusions and wetdreams of many on this forum.


Isn't their only option to using many, many mixing services, right after they get their ransom? Isn't that their only hope of being able to use any of it? I mean, the blockchain is public, so if the ransom sits there at the sent address or any other address, then time doesn't matter, no?

It's all about the way your brain works. If you think there's a chance they will release the person you wish they would, then paying is a good option and it becomes an even better one if they asked the money in BTC for the reasons I stated above. If you think they will, no matter what, "dispose of the body" then don't pay at all and keep your life as usual.

It sounds to me like you're being a little too "nice". Why release the kidnapped victim at all? Why not just dispose of the body rather than risk the victim giving away any details that might lead back to you? Why try to sell for fiat at all? We hear that 1,000 new merchants are being added each month. You could be buying all kinds of crap. How about buying drugs off of Silk Road and selling them to a drug lord. You're already in Mexico, after all. And why bother going from one kind of crime - kidnapping/ransom - to market manipulation? Why not just do another kidnapping?

These are the kinds of questions that keep me up at night. What are the possible solutions? Does the possibility of this justify putting cameras EVERYWHERE the way that terrorism "justified" the Patriot Act? Does this justify more wire-tapping, mandatory keyloggers in our computers, and more NSA information gathering? Is the solution to implant tracking chips in random locations in our bodies? Maybe we need some sort of super-computing profiler to determine what types of people might actually attempt a crime such as this and then round them up before they even try. Bitcoin is a 21st century technology and will require 21st century methods to deal with some of the new problems it creates.

Believe it or not, there are people in the government that want to help you, whether you want their help or not. They really do want to try to prevent these types of crimes. They have shown, however, Patriot Act , TSA , DHS , how they deal with things. It would not surprise me if we are not happy with the things they implement to deal with Bitcoin crime. They'll simply say, "Hey, you wanted Bitcoin, so we're giving you Big Brother 2.0".

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There's a very positive point about the fact that the "ransom" would be paid online, without it being traced to a source etc... the likelihood of the kidnappers to release the kidnapped-person is way higher, since no one knows where they are or had to meet with them (to make the exchange of goods-person) etc. So it increases the chances by a huge margin.

Here's another thought:
One more thing; in the future there should be a "blood money bitcoin" list or something, since we can all see the bitcoins anywhere and track it to the end of time, and bitcoins that get to such lists will lose a lot of it's value... Some would still trade it, but for less money I presume. Just like with stolen diamonds.

Americans have to pay taxes for gambling winnings. I'm from Finland where gambling winnings within EEA are tax free.

Cool. Well, im certain they don't do that in Macau and in some European countries though. How about taxes, do you pay tax in the US over gambling winnings ?

At least in Vegas they use RFID chips. Besides tracking your play (the tables have readers) they prevent the use of fake chips and also chip theft.

And of course they have cameras covering every table.

If you keep buying chips from the cage and never play, by the time you try to cash out a big sum they are aware of what you're doing and will never give you a receipt for gambling winnings.

I don't think so. At least I've never noticed.  The only way they CAN do this is if the would put some kind of tracking chip into the chip, like an RFID chip. I've never seen them scan a chip, they just go in the tray or disapeer in shutes.

Then you should also know that the casinos keep track if you actually play with the chips or not.

Sure they do. I've played poker professionally and nobody ever stopped me, anywhere.

I loved stacking them up at home

Really - they let you take chips home in Europe?  In the US I don't think the casinos allow their chips out of the building.  But it's been awhile - maybe that's changed?

Ok, it's not that hard. All to convert a large ammount of illegal fund is the following :

1 a mixing service

Bitcoin mixing is pretty simple. An ammount of BTC is chopped up into random ammounts and transferred through a series of adresses together with other funds. This effectively obscures the origines of the starting ammount.

2 fake ID  and other documents which can be bought on TOR, with BTC

With these documents a shadowy figure can open bank accounts and ...

2 anonymous creditcards.

There are high limit CC's that are quite expensive to use but completely anonymous, if they arn't used for too long.

3 Cash out. Take the cash to a casino. Buy Chips. Take the chips home. Return to the casino until you have a LOT of chips, and turn cash those out. Ask the cashier to make a receipt and aks them to deposit on your bank account.

4 Presto. White money.


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At least, number 3 works in some European countries, I don't know how that works in the US. The hardest part would be setting up bank accounts and CC with stolen identities, but for those without a conscience and a little patience everything can be bought on the Dark Web.

DISCLAIMER : I have researched this quite a bit out of curiousity, but wouldn't dream of actually doing it. The lives of the people who's identities are abused by scams like these are made a living hell for a few years as they struggle to prove their innocence.

It's not fiction

http://edition.cnn.com/2012/09/06/politics/romney-tax-threat

No reason to kidnap a human, since that's a hanging offense in most places.

I know!  You could hold some well-known politician's tax returns for ransom in bitcoin, just before an election!

Oh... wait...

Here's a previous thread about kidnapping. https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.1093185

There is no need, use a mixer service to mix the BTC, then give out 5% to random people, then wait some time to spend the rest. So even if
there are investigators tracking the movement of BTC (probably a unfruitful endeavor after the btc are mixed), they will be led on a wild goose chase and will give up.

Good idea for a story, but this part doesn't seem plausible. Kidnappers tend to be greedy and even talking about giving money away doesn't make much sense.

Why would they risk doing the kidnapping if they already had a nice lump of BTC?

Why would they not just send the BTC's trough some mixing services and split it up into small wallets?


They could also do some buying and selling of other cryptos to hide their tracks even more. Imagine using BTC to buy BBQ coins and then exchanging the BBQ coins for some Chinacoin before changing the chinacoin etc and in the end buy BTC again and selling for USD.