Topic: Increasing kidnapping and ransom. Privacy is important. - page 3. (Read 635 times)

I know it is possible for anyone to fall victim of kidnapping but I will be living a private life when it comes to valuable asset helps a lot and prevent from people who may think of collecting valuable items from you. Sometimes we invite dangerous people to ourselves by our lifestyle and the conversation we make with people we don't even know better. Living a private life is one of the ways of protecting privacy to best. Most victim of kidnapping were never conscious of their privacy,  it never matter to them because feel so excited whenever they give people the impression of having so much in their life. What people don't know they can't tamper or to destroy it. Living private is one of the ways of preventing privacy from strangers.

That is why people should never tell in real life that they have Bitcoin. Once, I thought about ordering a T-shirt with a Bitcoin logo but later decided not to because it is not a good idea to wear a T-shirt with a Bitcoin logo in public places. People will think I have Bitcoin, and who knows, someone may get interested and start following me. Even friends can try to steal your Bitcoin if they get a chance.

I have read such news multiple times so far, and I believe this will continue to happen. But people who care about their privacy are kind of safe. I guess you guys read about the $5 wrench attack. Protect yourself against $5 wrench attacks!!!

We are some times so used to living a decent life that we stop worrying about things that could go wrong.

If tomorrow a big economical crisis begins and you are caught in the middle of it with dozens or hundreds of people possibly becoming very hungry and poor all of a sudden, you become a target out of no where.  Why would you do this?

Even if you are very passionate about Bitcoin, it is extremely important to understand that any thing you say could end with very bad consequences.  Most of the people I know who praise about their Bitcoin holdings are people seeking attention on the Internet and looking in despair to be seen as 'cool guys'.  Nobody will care about your coolness when you are tied up and thrown hot oil at for ransom!

Keep sensitive information to yourself.

@_act_, you can add this one to the growing list of kidnapping and ransom, Pakistani crypto trader kidnapped, pays $340,000 for freedom.


Although this is happy ending, but probably this is just a small percentage that the criminals has been apprehended. So we should really be very careful specially in this time because Bitcoin and crypto is about to make another break through this 2025 and criminal now are targeting us, offline and in real-life.

Why don't CEOs, their children or their wives and family members get abducted as often then?
To abduct a CEO sounds more of a movie plot these days. Whereas abductions of crypto executives have become seemingly common.

Criminals seem to have gotten wind of the irreversible nature of crypto transactions. Because even if a cash ransom wouldn't be reversible in a centralized manner, cash can still be "tainted" with advanced procedures such as micro particles in manners that the naked eye can never know.

Whereas crypto can be "washed" by virtue of just being deposited to an exchange that doesn't follow OFAC. And we know this keeps happening on the daily when in many countries exchanges have workers cooperating with the police on the daily just to block addresses and investigate accounts. I've seen so many ads hiring for Binance's KYC positions these days. I suppose it most have been kind of an unspoken prerequisite for EU feds to not completely shut them down.

I don't think there's any real preventative measure here. Sometimes complete secrecy isn't an option. Like if you own a company your name is going to be on some paper trail. Maybe even if it's just a private company some government worker could leak your information from private fillings. The only effective op-sec I can think of would be to seperate yourself from society in the same manner the ultra-rich do.

Live in discreet remote locations. Travel via private means only. Go to private schools, have your kids study abroad under aliases etc.
But the think with entrepreneurship also is that one may spend many years in a stage where they aren't anywhere near rich and able to afford such amenities.

I just hope that other people who didn't take their privacy seriously will finally take it seriously after reading this story about a man being kidnapped and ask for ransom in crypto. I believe that those people didn't believe in previous story where the same thing happened where the criminal wanted to take the crypto that the person have. Having privacy taken seriously won't make their family or oneself get in dangerous situation if they didn't reveal that they have crypto that they stored in their wallet and how much it is.

We can try as much as we can to keep our crypto holding information private; it works, and it helps to protect you from intruders, even from the ones close to you, but for people who hold big positions in public crypto-related companies, they can never be too private with such information.
 
People will always suspect that they hold crypto; they can only increase the security they will have from their end and limit the kind of flashy properties they acquire to avoid attracting thieves that there is money in their safe. Sometimes this type of job, just like one of the stories, always comes from close relations or work colleagues, which you will not even suspect.

You're right this is why we need to keep our investment plans very secret to people except our loved ones because those that happens to be our friends we don't know their intentions, even most of those people who happens to be  our loved ones can also do something that you never thought or imagine that such person could do, So we should always learn how to keep our investment plans very secret to people. However, you know sometimes I think we are the cause of our problems.  I could remember one very day when I was going through posts on facebook then I saw a screenshot of someone showing his account balance to the world, then I was like.... Does this person actually know what he's doing by sharing his account balance to the world to see how much he has in his account? so at this point if it is someone who has bad intention towards him, what did you think the person will do? This is why we need to be caution on the kind of things we post or talk to avoid implication.

In most cases, they don't rob you; they demand ransom from your people in return for sparing your life. So, whether it's 15 Million USD in the bank or 15 Million USD in Bitcoin, announcing any sort of financial holdings publicly or even to people in your gatherings is a big mistake, considering how the world has become a place where people only care about money these days.

I don't understand why people don't take simple safety precautions when they know they have so much money and they still keep it in exchanges, roaming around the city while having the exchange in the phone they have in their pocket all the time. Even if you are not robbed, you can still lose your money if you lose your phone and someone with knowledge about cryptocurrencies gets their hands on it.

Just keep your funds either in a non-custodial wallet, or keep your financial apps hidden or locked or something, or simply don't take the device you have the funds in when you go out.

Yeah, sharing an excessive amount of information can definitely make someone more susceptible.  However, being cautious about what you share is still doable for those involved in crypto and  think with their own heads.

you can refrain from posting full names, locations, or other private details.  Also think twice before mentioning specifics about your investments.  If you share something and have second thoughts deleting is not always an option. So you better think it through before.

I completely agree with you both. It's essential to keep our cryptocurrency holdings private, as disclosing this information can put us at risk. Sharing our holdings with others could lead to serious consequences, including kidnapping or even violence. Therefore it's crucial to maintain confidentiality and keep our holdings secret from those around us. This will enable us to manage assets securely and live without unnecessary worries.

Despite all these, you will still discover that some are exposing their self to the public on their crypto net worth and releasing of some personal information to the general public not knowing that they could be used to track us or know about our portfolios, when we have already exposed ourselves to them, then it may be difficult to erase sch a memory from them in other not to attack us, it happens in so many ways related to this, if we don't lose our initial privacy from the way of how our mouth is being loosed, they may not even have a target on  us for an attack at first place.

I created this topic in November of 2023 - Physical Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Attacks that Have Been Reported which has some of these attacks listed there. Take a look at it and notice something, you will see that these attacks are increasing in their occurrence. Nobody is safe y'all. Some victims have been unfortunate and lost their lives and there are victims that been lucky to get help just before the dreaded happen. Some of these victims got their crypto back. We need to be really anonymous online. It is one way to not be a target.

This is more reasons why people should take their privacy seriously. I keep saying this on many of these similar threads, I wonder why some people just want to show the world what they own.  Though the attention it brings it's cool, but it's not worth it. When it comes to keeping your identity hidden, that should be something we take seriously. In the crypto space, we are allowed to take risk but only risk what you can afford to loss and we know we cannot afford to loss our lives along the line. Most people don't actually care about privacy probably because they haven't fell victims of any bad situations. But then, they will learn. I just hope these stories keeps serving as an example to others..

The faster crypto enthusiasts understand that crypto assest is now the target for robbers, the bwtter they will understand that they should keep all their crypto involvement secret. Bitcoin is decentralized and if you are forced to transfer your bitcoin to a noncustodial wallet, it's gone unlike fiat.

Only you can keep your crypto assest safe by being your own bank and shut up your mouth because you are more vulnerable than centralized banks.

That is just the best way to stay safe from them, which is keeping your privacy, but some people tend to find that so difficult to do because of what they call lifestyle, which may lead them to be victims of such incidents.

We all know that an illiterate will not try to be a criminal, if not, he will be apprehended within a short period of time. That is why most criminals are very intelligent; if not, a normal person that knows nothing about crypto or any related entity will not even have that mindset to collect ransom in cryptocurrency because he knows that they will never trace him no matter what, so he will be able to escape. Although in some cases people around you tend to be the criminal, like your close friend or even family member, so we all have to be very careful who we tell our information to.

this reminds me of an article that was posted here in the forum where a Swedish couple got robbed in their home where the robbers demanded they give them their crypto asset. if I remember correctly, the couple became a target because the robbers saw online that they were involved in cryptocurrency, the robbers even used a system provided by the government where the public is allowed to ask for information like residential address or something. This story is one of the main reasons why I stopped using my t-shirt, which has a Bitcoin logo on it.

Totally agree. I always was very private about my crypto holdings. Many people doesnt even know I invest in crypto.

Saying "I have 15 million USD in the bank" is much safer than saying "I have 15 million USD in bitcoin".

Because nobody can rob your 15 milllion from the bank. But from your wallet, it is very easy to rob...

This is actuall quite scary. Users able to force to deposit huge fund and maybe transfer on cex to steal money without leaving any sign of evidence at the crime scene. This is the part where crypto being used in bad way or utility. Some people probably monitoring them if the victim got some sort of relation to crypto and pick their target and plan their modus.

Many often ignore the needs for privacy until they get victimised or someone closed to them does.

I saw the news about the 54 years old man who was kidnapped with gasoline on him in France on ZachXBT telegram page were he advised people to stop flaunting their wealth online because of issues like this. I wanted to share it here but you beat me to it, although yours even got more other stories added, indicating why privacy is necessary especially now in this bull run. We all should learn to stay anonymous or pseudo anonymous online, the Internet is a scary place to be honest.