Topic: Physical Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Attacks that Have Been Reported Worldwide (Read 352 times)

lovesmayfamilis and adaseb, I am returning to this comment  because although I understand your perspective, in reality, it is applicable in developed countries. In my country Nigeria, the situation is significantly different. Over here, one can be silent and not share any details or involve in any crypto discussion online and still be at risk of attack.

Apart from thieves, scammers, and hackers, we face a concerning issue with the agency tasked to uphold the law, protect lives and maintain order. Regrettably, in my country, the police themselves pose a substantial threat to individuals who possess cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin.

Recently, there have been incidents where 3,000 USDT was transferred to police officers' wallets by a young Nigerian. In another instance some rogue officers demanded extortion payments in Bitcoin from another young Nigerian.

You may ask, how this happens. Well, in my country, the privacy of individuals, particularly the youth, is frequently invaded by the police. They search through their phones for specific keywords like "Bitcoin," "cryptocurrency," or "Binance." At gunpoint, individuals are forced to transfer their cryptocurrencies or risk losing their lives. There are other unreported cases. The Police(rouge officers) are the ones perpetrating these crimes against cryptocurrency holders in our nation.

Yeah I don’t tell anyone I own crypto for this reason. Stocks sure, you can’t really steal is someone is a millionaire in stocks. It’s all digital and we don’t hold the actual certificates. Crypto is different.

In USA I guess it’s safer because many own crypto here but in many poor countries it’s risky. Especially since crypto always has this bias where if you own crypto, you must be rich. This hasn’t been true for 10 years pretty much but everyone thinks this.

Best way to avoid these attacks is to never mention crypto to anyone. If someone sees you are rich, just say you got lucky with some Tesla or Nvidia stocks.

I added a new cryptocurrency attack to the list.

As Bitcoin becomes popular cases like @OP stated will happen more frequently, it is not about Bitcoin or cryptocurrency but rather perpetrators see that there is something valuable they can steal from people, reason why they rob them.


No one can scan any private property of a person unless there is a warrant from the court.  Even personal frisking is illegal if there is no issued warrant to do so.  Anyone can object for any checking, even a car passing a checkpoint can refuse to open its car window and can just put on the light for the security to scan.


I don't know why do we need to carry our cryptocurrency on our mobile phones, it is very risky but I respect that it is an individual preference, but for me, unless the person is trading using their mobile phone or is using cryptocurrency as a mode of payment for purchases, I do not think there is a reason for anyone to "carry" their cryptocurrency on phones.

Yep, it should illegal but it isn't because the ones supposed to protect us are the real criminals. If you read about the #EndSARS protests that hit the country in 2020 where young Nigerians hit the streets to protest against Police brutality, this was one of the reasons they protested.

This is a good one but not all of us can go without our crypto apps on our mobile phones. We need it there for convenience.

From all the above cases, we must conclude that any unnecessary information about us on the Internet can add to our troubles. Posts on social networks shouting about a beautiful life will be taken under close attention, either by scammers or supervisory authorities. They always say that our language can become our enemy. Stories where you should remain silent about your activities will not be useful. I did not study all the cases of attacks on cryptocurrency owners, but if you imagine that if people behaved more modestly, they would probably avoid such problems.

Yeah, is such a long thread, I was just able to pick out some few cases because of how long the thread is, I really need to appreciate the OP for taking out time to compile all these cases, is really a job well done.
Without been told, you will think cases like this don't exist, but here we are with such a long list of them.

Attacks of this kind will only get more common as time goes by, since there is the false assumption on the minds of many people that believe that anyone that is part of this market is loaded, and if given the opportunity they are not going to think twice and steal from you, also we must consider the place where we live, since there are countries out there in which the police is corrupt, ineffective and in many cases they are criminals themselves, so the best strategy for someone living in a country like that is to bring no attention to themselves and carry nothing on them which could out them as a bitcoin holder.

You have done so well to gather this solid information for members of the forum. I never knew that there were a lot of cryptocurrency attack cases like this. It took me some time to go through them. I was only able to go through two of them but i am interested to go through as many as i can so that i can learn a lot from their various experiences.

If it's possible to bump on every page so that you can update this thread regularly and am sure to visit this thread form to time.

Seriously? What about the situation of a passenger who has $1000 of Nigerian money in their wallet? Still, the police will treat them similarly and rob them or let them go.

If citizens are robbed by the one who are supposed to safeguard them means the country is seriously messed up and needs some serious change.

This is a long list, and I am sure there are many more cases that were not reported or broadcast by the media. Even if you had reported your own case, it would not have been reported to any media outlets, and you would be afraid to do so after being threatened with death by security personnel, those who are supposed to protect lives and properties are now the robbers themselves. Living in a country where you know your money is not safe when stored in a mobile wallet, it is preferable to store it on a desktop that you do not need to carry around. You can always delete a mobile wallet if necessary and redownload it back when you have your password stored safe and can’t be forgotten easily.

really? i didn't expect this, i'm really sorry about what happened to you. didn't think that owning bitcoin was the same as a crime in your country, you even had to be handcuffed, beaten, and threatened with a gun, even though you didn't do anything.

what they did was like a real robbery, but with police authority, and it was very disgusting and i doubted that the wallet provided by them was a government wallet, but it was a private wallet and they would use the money for fun. how shameless they are.

Trust me, you should have created more reserve comments. Not that I pray for more attacks, but they are prone to happen, especially around Bitcoin that worths a lot of money. It is quite disturbing that some of these attacks happen in person. For a quick judgment, I could say that they must have carelessly mentioned some how that they have BTC hence their attack, however, it’s not the case for all. For instance, those who had to do with Bitcoin ATM, and I don’t see how one will go to the ATM without everyone knowing that he/she is into crypto. So let’s think, does this mean using Bitcoin ATM is not safe as people could perceive you as rich, hence plan an ambush?

I love that this post is a deliberate effort to enlighten and guide anyone Crypto holder or investor.
It's quite sad about the different cases I have even heard about as regards the attacks targeted at crypto holders or investors on social media or on other news channels. Here again I had to read same tales and the only thing that comes to my mind as a thought is that, what if everyone crypto holder stops to talk about it to anyone mostly when excited or tipsy or  for even campaign sake and just leave it to remain a secret that no one knows about.

Still, it wouldn't do well to publicize or portray cryptocurrencies as a blessing to humanity and even if the cases of such attacks reduce, there's hackers and scammers to contend with.

Everyone crypto or Bitcoin holder should do well to learn from the experience of those who have been attacked before and do well to adhere to security tips and protocols inorder to keep ones wallet safe from hackers and scammers and even physical attackers.

You have done a food job in bringing all these together, thanks for your time and efforts towards making it a good task and a weldone job.

If we are to go by this ones you've mentioned OP, they are only the ones being recognized for one reason or the other, maybe they are part of the greatest financial attack that involves a huge amount of money, i believe that there are many unreported ones that we don't even know about and that have happened and cost alot, but we are only privileged to see those majorly reported through the media.

That's a hell of work you have done here and your reserved post made me think that you are not stopping and going to publish more scams and hacking attacks I can't imagine the efforts and time you must have been put into this thread but it is awesome and really a big contribution to the forum.

Reading half of them will make a newbie smart enough that he/she can avoid 90% of the scams and attacks because most of these scams will teach you not to make the same mistakes that the victims had done, and talking about Hal Finey, I was not aware of the attack done to him until a few weeks ago maybe a month has been passed.

But the thing is everything that happened to him was way worse because he was on the ground while being swatted and his wife was worrying that he couldn't swallow even the lubricants in his mounts and he might be choking, I can't believe why hackers or scammers would do such thing but one thing I have learned so far is they are mean and cruel and they don't care either this is your whole life savings or not they just after the money.

Again a great contribution and keep it up dear, it will be work as a basic topic to suggest newbies to avoid scams and hacks.

I question the adding of the BATMs being stolen / attacked.
If you just listed all the regular ATM thefts / attacks theymos would have to get a lot more hardware to run the forum as it would melt down under the load of listing them.

I would wager that a lot of the thefts of them were 'because that is where the cash is' nothing to do with crypto specifically.
And probably a bunch of those had no idea it was a BATM, just the people put cash in.

-Dave

I read there are many Nigerians directly trade P2P and it seems like a norm because the banks not accept funds related to Bitcoin. If there are many cases of crime related to direct P2P, why do you guys still use direct P2P and even recommend it?

Under adrenaline will make you to follow any instructions from the police, even you're aware and refuse their request, they might feel you're someone who's suspicious and trying to find more about your identity.

Your phone was scanned at a police checkpoint? That should be illegal, since you are just a normal person passing by and not an arrested suspect!

You gotta move your crypto to a desktop wallet so that they can't search it again, because nobody's going to make you open your laptop or desktop and show them all of the EXE or applications that belong to cryptocurrency (hopefully).

I just read the summary and I felt bad for those people who experience this. It's unfortunate that some individuals abuse their authority in such a way and victims cant do anything about it. But I know this raise aware ess thru this forum atleast.

It is a long thread and I believed you did spent a lot of time to collect those cases.

Bitcointalk is very different than social media and many early Bitcoin adopters, Bitcointalk forum members left it, some stay I know. This forum is not like social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram where influencers, KOLs use to show their wealth. Hence, I believe your thread will not reach too many influencers or KOLs but I agree this thread is helpful.

Because there will be some Bitcointalk members want to become influencers, KOLs in their communities. They must think more after reading those attacks (kidnap, kill) cases.

Reserved.

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May 3, 2023	|	Crypto manager	|	Benalmádena, Spain	|	A crypto currency manager was kidnapped and held him hostage by 3 men who demanded one million euros to free him.

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May 26, 2023	|	Smoke Shop	|	Houston, TX	|	A group of seven people used a stolen truck to crash into Smokie's Smoke Shop. They tried to steal a bitcoin ATM in an attempted smash-and-grab but were unsuccessful.

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June 2023	|	Crypto Entrepreneur	|	Tel Aviv, Israel	|	Robbers broke into the home of an Israeli crypto entrepreneur, assaulted him, and, at gunpoint, forced him into transferring all his cryptocurrency holdings to their wallets. The platforms froze the robbers' actions after recognizing the unusual transactions and conversions as illicit activity.

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July 16, 2023	|	A couple	|	Queens, NY	|	A pair of phony FBI agents in a Porsche tased and tied up a couple at their Queens home and stole their 2019 Mercedes-Benz GT50, $20,000 cash, $20,000 cryptocurrency, a Rolex watch, a Hermes bag, a Chanel bag, a wallet and a cellphone.

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September 3, 2023	|	Italian man	|	Phuket, Thailand	|	Three men entered an Italian man’s villa at a resort through a side door and grabbed him while he was still asleep in the bedroom at about 11pm. The thieves, dragged him out of the bedroom then bound, gagged, blindfolded, and tortured him. His assailants then received a phone call from a person orchestrating the attack, through which the three men asked for information, including the location of a drive containing a ledger of cryptocurrency, which the Italian men denied he had. The three men eventually fled the villa, leaving the Italian man bound and gagged after beating robbing him of more than B12 million in personal belongings.

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October 30, 2023	|	Crypto Exchange	|	Tbilisi, Georgia	|	Six men rob a crypto exchange office. They succeeded in taking $900K worth of USD in crypto.

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November 6, 2023	|	Middle-aged couple	|	Rönninge, Sweden	|	A middle-aged Swedish couple was tied up in their home and robbed by 4 masked men. They were physically abused and threatened with their own kitchen knives. The purpose of the assault was to steal the couple’s Bitcoin

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November 10, 2023	|	Binance Client	|	Montenegro	|	Executives of a VIP client of crypto exchange Binance were tricked and kidnapped in Montenegro during an alleged “business trip” in which they had to compulsorily comply with the thugs’ demands by emptying their crypto wallets. The stolen funds amounted to $12.5 million. Binance was able to track the on-chain movement of the loot and managed to block up to 94% of the sum. $11.8 million was freed in USDT and safely returned to a Tron wallet.

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January 16, 2024	|	Unidentified Victim	|	Aba, Abia State, Nigeria	|	3000 USDT Transferred to Police officers Wallet. The police officers attached to Rivers State Police Command left Port Harcourt, a state in Nigeria to Aba, Abia State, another state in Nigeria, arrested the man, took him to Rivers State, Bayelsa State and entered Ughelli, Delta State. After paying 3000USDT, they moved him back to Portharcourt and dumped him.

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February, 2021	|	Swiss & German	|	Gujranwala, Pakistan	|	The victims were Swiss and German citizens. The suspects robbed Rs14.7 million worth of cryptocurrency from them.

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March 10, 2021	|	Digital Bank owner	|	Recife, Brazil	|	The victim was kidnapped by a gang , tied up, and had two teeth knocked out. He was released after he instructed his partner to transfer 4.78 BTC to the attackers.

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March 16, 2021	|	29 y/o Berlin man	|	Munich, Germany	|	The victim from Berlin wanted to trade bitcoins in a parking lot in Munich-Feldmoching. When he wanted to prove the wallet to the supposed buyers on the cell phone with a high five-digit amount by showing it, the smartphone was snatched from him. The four perpetrators then fled with two cars. The bitcoin was worth almost 100,000 euros.

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March 18, 2021	|	26 year old man	|	Mendoza, Argentina	|	A 26 year old man was heading to the place to sell some people bitcoin and at one point criminals surprised him and stole a iPhone, 120 thousand pesos and 2500 dollars.

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April 8, 2021	|	30 year old miner	|	Zaporizhya, Ukraine	|	Three robbers tried to rob a bitcoin miner. They sprayed a gas canister and tried to take possession of mining equipment - Bitcoin Antminer S9. Its cost is about 40 thousand hryvnias. However, the owner repulsed and fired several shots from his traumatic pistol - Fort-12RM- up and one shot at the feet of the attackers. After that, the attackers ran away.

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April 13, 2021	|	Undisclosed	|	Calgary, Alberta, Canada	|	Two men armed with handguns forced their way into an apartment. The men tied up the apartment’s resident and stole computers, jewelry and bank cards from the suite. They also took cryptocurrency keys, which allow holders access to digital financial accounts.

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May, 2021	|	14 y/o boy	|	Bradford, UK	|	A 14-year old school boy who was target and kidnapped after seeing his social media posts that suggested he had made “a reasonable amount of money” from trading in bitcoin or other cryptocurrency. The kidnappers demanded £10,000 for his safe return.

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May, 2021	|	Liam Ghershony	|	Bethesda, Maryland	|	A son spiked his father’s tea with benzodiazepine, a class of depressants that includes drugs like Xanax, and was delivered in a dose large enough to purposely knock him out. Then, free to use his father’s cellphone, Ghershony tapped through a two-step authorization to hack into a $400,000 cryptocurrency account. His dad awoke two days later.

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June 11, 2021	|	40 y/o man	|	Gyeonggi Province, South Korea	|	A South Korean woman who met a man on a smartphone chat app, lace B’s drink with sleeping pills, before using his phone to transfer USD 87,000 in crypto from his smartphone-based crypto wallet to her own wallet. Although the smartphone in question was protected with a fingerprint sensor, she was able to press the victim's finger against the sensor to unlock the device while he was unconscious.

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June 14, 2021	|	22 y/o man	|	Kwun Tong, Hong Kong	|	A gang of thieves  attacked a 22-year old cryptocurrency trader. He was sprayed in his eyes with an unknown substance that had left him briefly unable to see and robbed of HK$2 million while he was on his way to buy bitcoin.

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June 16, 2021	|	Dillon Attard	|	Sliema, Malta	|	Dillon Attard had met with Luke Milton for lunch at a Sliema restaurant after Milton sought help to make a €5,000 blockchain investment on the phone. Dillon Attard soon realized that  Luke Milton had fraudulently transferred his crypto funds from his wallet to another trust wallet and not his(Luke Milton) own.

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June 24, 2021	|	39-year-old man	|	Leeuwarden, Netherlands	|	Three men in green jackets pretended to be technicians and asked if he had a malfunction. Before he knew it, he was grabbed by the throat and dragged into the living room, where he was abused. The resident had to provide the code for access to his crypto coins under threat. The robbers were aware that the resident was in possession of crypto coins. He has discussed it with a number of people in his area and that information may have ended up with the perpetrators through-through.

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July, 2021	|	Unidentified man	|	Omsk, Russia	|	Three persons having received information that the resident of the city Omsk owns significant funds in cryptocurrency, arrived in the city and monitored him for 10 days, finding out the routes of movement and daily routines. One day, they accosted the victim on the street and put the man in a car and forced him to transfer 3 million rubles and transfer more than 84 million rubles in cryptocurrency.

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July 1, 2021	|	Unidentified man	|	Unknown	|	A Bitcoin holder went on a date with his Tinder date who claims she works as a crypto trader. They went to the man's residence for a drink. As he went to the restroom. While he was there,  the woman laced his drink with scopolamine, also known as ‘Devil's Breath,’ or a benzodiazepine. Some time later, he believes the woman picked up his phone and asked him to show her how to unlock it and find his passwords. The man woke up the next day in his bed and noticed his phone was missing, The attacker managed to get a small amount of bitcoin out of one of his exchange accounts. He was able to block some of the other requested purchases and withdrawals by contacting those custodians to inform them of the compromise.

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July 14, 2021	|	Morakinyo Tobiloba Peter & Yusuf Samson Dayo	|	Lagos, Nigeria	|	Law enforcement officers extorted Twenty-Two Million Naira worth of Bitcoin from two young Nigerians, Morakinyo Tobiloba Peter and Yusuf Samson Dayo at gunpoint while driving along the Ikoyi/Ajah Expressway, Lagos State.

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July 28, 2021	|	39 y/o man	|	Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong	|	A 39-year-old cryptocurrency trader was robbed of more than HK$3 million (US$128,500) in cash at knifepoint by four men when he went to meet a bitcoin seller in Hong Kong. The criminals snatched a bag he was carrying with about HK$3.29 million inside and fled.

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August, 2021	|	3 women	|	Dubai, UAE	|	According to one of the victims, an African man offered her to buy cryptocurrency for Dhs300,000, and she accepted the offer and agreed to meet in Al Nahda, Dubai, she added, noting that she accompanied by two of her friends reached the specified location in time. After waiting for few minutes in a car owned by one of them, the women were surprised by four persons threatening them with blunt objects, ordering them to hand over the money they brought for the cryptocurrency deal. They gangsters were able to snatch the bag that contained Dhs300,000, in addition to another containing Dhs63,000, other valuable items and their passports as well and fled away.

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August 8, 2021	|	Wesley Pessano Santarem	|	Sao Pedro da Aldeia, Brazil	|	The victim a teenage Brazilian crypto trader was murdered and it was linked to the lavish lifestyle the victim had been showcasing on his social media accounts. He was gunned down in broad daylight. He was rolling in his Porsche Boxster sports car through the streets of Sao Pedro da Aldeia, a city in Brazil’s south-eastern state of Rio de Janeiro, to get a haircut.

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August 18, 2021	|	Simon Arthuis	|	Plancher-Bas, France	|	A 19 year old, computer engineering student was tortured and killed. His tortured body, larded of about twenty stab wounds, was found in a pond of Plancher-Bas (Haute-Saone). The five suspects motive for the killing was to extort to this young engineer who had created a software to stock market. This was generating on his account about 200,000 € of different cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin.

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September ?, 2021	|	Unidentified 31 y/o	|	Abkhazia	|	Thieves broke into his garage where he had set up a small and illegal bitcoin mining operation taking with them 20 mining servers worth about $10,000.

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September 9, 2021	|	Mark Geor	|	Westmere, New Zealand	|	A wealthy businessman is offering a hefty reward of $500,000 in return for a stolen safe containing $4 million in cryptocurrency. His family home was burgled while it was being renovated. He said the thieves took an extraordinary haul including $10,000 in cash, Rolex and Tag Hauer watches, diamond jewellery and family heirlooms.

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October, 2021	|	Crypto Miner	|	Tomsk, Russia	|	The robber attacked a cryptocurrency miner when he was leaving his home. One of them threatened him with an object resembling a gun and brought him back inside his apartment. Then, his accomplice went in and the two forced the victim to log into his account on a crypto exchange and transfer them 86 BTC from a wallet that contained 90 BTC. They were able to extort from him coins worth more than 360 million rubles at the time (over $4.8 million).

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October 7, 2021	|	Liquor Store	|	South Bay, California	|	Thieves break into Silicon Valley liquor store not to steal the cash ATM, but to steal the Bitcoin ATM. Video obtained shows the Bitcoin ATM wrapped with a cord and tied to the back of a white van outside the liquor store. The van then drives forward to pull the machine through the front of the store, knocking out a front door.

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October 20, 2021	|	Astamur Ardzibna	|	Abkhazia	|	A group of men running a cryptocurrency mining operation tried to stop the theft of their machines by at least five people they opened fire from the available firearms. Amid the gunfire, one of the men killed his friend.

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November 2, 2021	|	Zaryn Dentzel	|	Madrid, Spain	|	An organized gang extorted the founder of the Tuenti social network for several hours. After they gained entry into his apartment, handcuffed and gagged, his laptops, mobile phone and tablet were stolen. The assailants also managed to extract the password from an account in which, he claims, he had stored several tens of millions of euros in bitcoin.

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November 6, 2021	|	39 y/o trader crypto trader	|	Hong Kong	|	The cryptocurrency trader was lured into a Kowloon Bay industrial unit for a transaction involving HK$4 million in Tether tokens. He was then held hostage by his kidnappers and beaten with hammers in their unsuccessful attempt to force the ransom payment of HK$30 million ransom.

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November 12, 2021	|	GBTC Crypto Exchange	|	Barcelona, Spain	|	Thieves rip bitcoin ATM from crypto store at about 3.AM

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December 11, 2021	|	Camilla Guadagnuolo & Principe Nerini	|	Bali, Indonesia	|	Two foreign nationals robbed an Italian couple resulting in a loss of Rp 5.8 billion, including bitcoins. The victims were threatened, tied up, and assaulted by the perpetrators.

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December 15, 2021	|	Vincent Everts	|	Amsterdam, Netherlands	|	Vincent Everts was attacked in his home while he was in the middle of a livestream. Three boys, 20 or younger, came in, one of them wearing a DHL shirt pretending to deliver a package. They had a gun and demanded bitcoin.  the attackers also threatened his children and his wife. He was not willing to cooperate, and then they ran away.

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December 27, 2021	|	2 unidentified males	|	Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada	|	Two male victims were forced into cells and not allowed to leave by 11 male suspects for about 30 hours. The victims were repeatedly assaulted by the accused individuals while in the cells. Between the assaults, and while still being held captive, the victims were allegedly forced to make phone calls to transfer crypto currency from accounts they had access to the accounts of the accused.

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January 16, 2022	|	Gas Station	|	Memphis, TN	|	A group of people stole a Bitcoin ATM from a gas station after they rammed a truck through the windows.

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January 21, 2022	|	34 y/o teacher	|	Hoboken, Belgium	|	3 men invade home.The men were after cash but when they didn't find any, they attempted to empty the resident's digital wallet. They were unsuccessful.

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February 2, 2022	|	Vinay Naik	|	Pune, India	|	At least eight people, including a policeman, were involved in kidnapping a man to extort bitcoin worth Rs 300 crore. The Policeman while working with Pune cybercrime cell, had learned that share trader Vinay Naik had bitcoin cryptocurrency worth Rs 300 crore. Knowing this, he plan  with 7 others to kidnap Vinay Naik and extort bitcoins.

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February 3, 2022	|	Vinay Jain	|	Surat, India	|	Auto parts businessman brings suitcase full of $260K worth of cash to do an in-person crypto trade, gets beaten and robbed by 8 men.

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February 3, 2022	|	Ilya Basin	|	Brooklyn, New York	|	Home invaders hog-tied a Brooklyn man who is a crypto consultant and tech buff. They raided his home and stole Rolex Presidential watch and an Audemars Piguet watch.

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March, 2022	|	bitcoin trader	|	Dubai, UAE	|	Four men attacked a bitcoin trader in his house. They tied him up with plastic rope and retrieved a key to the safe that was placed under a table. They then proceeded to steal the  Dh1.7 million from the safe that belonged to his trading partner.

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March 2, 2022	|	Unidentified Businessman	|	Miami, FL	|	The victim said was coming from after a meeting when he was ambushed by an armed robber who robbed him of his phone with his crypto wallet and his pricey watch, a Patek Philippe rose gold watch estimated at $400,000 at that time. He seems to have been targeted because the robber knew exactly what he wanted.

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March 4, 2022	|	Electronics Dealer	|	Pune, India	|	A police woman was called in by her friend to settle a dispute between her friend and an electronic goods dealer, who also deals in digital currencies. During the meeting, the constable threatened the dealer with implicating him in a cheating case and asked him to make a transfer of cryptocurrencies in her favour if he wanted to avoid such a case and subsequent arrest.

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April, 2022	|	Bitcoin trading executive	|	Dubai, UAE	|	A gang comprising nine people stole Dh 4,120,000 from the owner of a Bitcoin trading company. They knocked on the door of his company, entered, they attacked him and stole the cash.

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April 21, 2022	|	Unidentified couple	|	Norrköping, Sweden	|	Robbers gained entrance into a couple's apartment, tied them up, assaulted them and then forced the man to transfer cryptocurrency of what is described as "a significant value."

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May, 2022	|	4 victims	|	London, UK	|	Multiple incidences of crypto muggings as reported by the London police. The thieves would target the people, who are digital investors by taking phones and force them to hand over cryptocurrency with the threat of violence.

_________________	|	__________________	|	_______________________	|	_______________________________________________________________________
May 20, 2022	|	Factory Owner	|	Klang, Malaysia	|	Twelve men broke into an aluminum factory and stole 180 bitcoin machines after tying up security personnel on duty.

_________________	|	__________________	|	_______________________	|	_______________________________________________________________________
July, 2022	|	Asian Investor	|	Dubai, UAE	|	The victim was robbed and assaulted in his residence after being lured into a Bitcoin investment scheme by a friend. A broker visited the victim's home to inspect the cash for the digital currency purchase. However, the broker left, claiming to return with the Bitcoin seller, but instead, two men arrived, assaulted the victim, and stole Dh183,000, three phones, documents, and bank cheques.

_________________	|	__________________	|	_______________________	|	_______________________________________________________________________
July, 2022	|	Vkusvill Supermarket	|	Kuchino, Russia	|	In Kuchino village near Domodedovo, a mining farm within the "VkusVill" retail network's warehouse was attacked. Four masked individuals entered, threatening and handcuffing security guards. The farm, situated on the grocery warehouse premises, four containers with 100 graphics cards were stolen. The total damage, considering stolen processors and servers, surpassed 1 million. To evade capture, the criminals took storage units with surveillance recordings.

_________________	|	__________________	|	_______________________	|	_______________________________________________________________________
August 6, 2022	|	30 y/o broker	|	Manerba, Italy	|	The victim was a local man who was approached by at least three individuals.  The robbers followed the victim home with a simple excuse. They then engaged in a general conversation, and one of them managed to enter the residence. The victim found himself facing a knife, and under threat, he was forced to provide the codes to transfer his Bitcoin to the account of the perpetrators of the theft.

_________________	|	__________________	|	_______________________	|	_______________________________________________________________________
August 7, 2022	|	Arjun Bhargav	|	Vrindavan Yojana, India	|	Three suspects who pretended to be real estate dealers abducted Arjun Bhargav, on the pretext of showing him a plot of land. They held him hostage at a house where they tied his hands and legs and tortured him for three hours. Forcing him to disclose the password and then got all the bitcoins which was Rs 1.3 crore transferred to their account.

_________________	|	__________________	|	_______________________	|	_______________________________________________________________________
September 6, 2022	|	19 y/o hacker	|	Lincolnshire, U.K.	|	Three men were arrested for attempting to assault a local man and steal his virtual currencies. The men upon arrest where found to have an imitation firearm, taser, a baseball bat and police uniform in their car's boot. The were charged with possession of the weapons, and “with intent to cause loss to another to make an unwarranted demand of Crypto Currency from a person.”

_________________	|	__________________	|	_______________________	|	_______________________________________________________________________
September 12, 2022	|	19 y/o man	|	Winnipeg, Canada	|	The victim had arranged to meet someone from social media in the parking lot of a Winnipeg high school with the intention of exchanging his money for Bitcoin. When he got into the person's car, he was immediately held at gunpoint, assaulted, tied up and driven around by a man who demanded his money.

_________________	|	__________________	|	_______________________	|	_______________________________________________________________________
September 15, 2022	|	Russian Couple	|	Koh Samui, Thailand	|	A Russian couple, while enjoying coffee at a café in the Taling Ngam area of Koh Samui, they were approached by a group of 6 foreign men who threatened and coerced them to transfer digital assets or cryptocurrencies. The amount transferred was 50,000 U.S. dollars, equivalent to 1.878 million Thai Baht.

_________________	|	__________________	|	_______________________	|	_______________________________________________________________________
December, 2022	|	Aiden Pleterski	|	Toronto, Ontario	|	Ontario’s self-described crypto king was abducted, tortured, and beaten for days as his kidnappers looked to solicit millions in ransom.

_________________	|	__________________	|	_______________________	|	_______________________________________________________________________
December 1, 2022	|	Russian Businessman	|	Moscow, Russia	|	The victim, a Russian businessman was kidnapped by masked men from his luxury car. The criminals took his mobile phone, on which an app was allegedly installed, allowing access to the so-called digital wallet. On it, there were 250 bitcoins. The attackers forced the man to reveal the password to this wallet. After the perpetrators got what they wanted, they dropped the man off in woods.

_________________	|	__________________	|	_______________________	|	_______________________________________________________________________
December 11, 2022	|	2 Russians	|	Phuket, Thailand	|	Two Russians working with the virtual currency Cryptus team in Phuket have been attacked and robbed of US$20,000 in cash and a crypto wallet reported to be carrying US$25,000 in cryptocurrency.

_________________	|	__________________	|	_______________________	|	_______________________________________________________________________
January 14, 2023	|	Crypto Company	|	Barcelona, Spain	|	The thieves had devised a plan in which one of them posed as a customer with a scheduled appointment to gain access to the offices without issues. Meanwhile, the other assailants stormed the property with electric pistols and zip ties, which they used to gag and tie up the caretaker. The owner caught the thieves in the act while they were trying to restrain the caretaker.

_________________	|	__________________	|	_______________________	|	_______________________________________________________________________
January, 2023	|	Elderly Japanese Woman	|	Tokyo, Japan	|	The victim, an elderly Japanese woman in her eighties was duped out of over $748,000 worth of tokens by a crypto scammer who told her that her bank account was under attack.

_________________	|	__________________	|	_______________________	|	_______________________________________________________________________
February, 2023	|	Unidentified Cryto holder	|	Osaka, Japan	|	The victim, a crypto holder was kidnapped, confined and beaten over a period of 20 days. The thieves numbering 8 men including the son of the former CEO of Mitsubishi Electric attempted to steal some $0.75 million worth of tokens.

_________________	|	__________________	|	_______________________	|	_______________________________________________________________________
February 25, 2023	|	Yuri Boytsov	|	Bali, Indonesia	|	A group of four men attacked Boytsov at his villa, forcing him to unlock his phone and give them the passwords to his crypto wallets. The attackers claimed that the blogger had “ripped someone off” and demanded to give them money. After refusing, they beat Boytsov and forced him to transfer $284 000 in bitcoins to their accounts. Given that the transactions were for large amounts, the criminals had to go through verification with a picture of the blogger with his passport, which was sent to customer service.

_________________	|	__________________	|	_______________________	|	_______________________________________________________________________
February 27, 2023	|	German man	|	Medellin, Colombia	|	The victim, was robbed by a 20-year-old woman of Venezuelan nationality who he brought to his apartment. After rendering him unconscious, she took away 5 cell phones, his passport, all his clothing, utensils, food, appliances, including a suitcase containing a wallet with access to $20,000 in bitcoin (BTC).

_________________	|	__________________	|	_______________________	|	_______________________________________________________________________
March 9, 2023	|	Peter Vuong	|	Sydney, Australia	|	The victim was kidnapped from the bed of his influencer girlfriend and had his teeth pulled out as he was tortured over six days in a squalid home - before his 'abductors' demanded $5m from her crypto trader relative.

_________________	|	__________________	|	_______________________	|	_______________________________________________________________________
March 20, 2023	|	Virendra Malik	|	Noida, India	|	The Police arrested three people, including a couple, for staging a robbery in their own flat to get the cryptocurrency of a businessman-friend. During the staged episode, the "robbers" made off with some gold jewellery worn by the businessman and also administered some narcotics, leaving him unconscious for more than 24 hours. They also asked him for his cryptocurrency details and mobile passwords, which Malik refused to share despite being beaten up.

_________________	|	__________________	|	_______________________	|	_______________________________________________________________________
March 29, 2023	|	48 y/o woman	|	Seoul, South Korea	|	Four men kidnapped and murdered a woman over failed crypto investment.

_________________	|	__________________	|	_______________________	|	_______________________________________________________________________
April, 2023	|	Dubai, UAE	|	Dubai, UAE	|	A driver working for the victim who was a woman knew that she was a cryptocurrency investor. He plotted with three others to lure her into a bogus deal so they could steal her money. She had agreed to meet the group, but when she arrived at the specified location within Dubai Investments Park, she was shocked to see a group of people coming toward her. They assaulted her, stripped her naked, and converted her money into bitcoin.

_________________	|	__________________	|	_______________________	|	_______________________________________________________________________
April 12, 2023	|	76 y/o couple	|	Durham, NC	|	Two men had handguns, used zip ties to restrain two 76-year-olds and forced them to transfer $250,000 worth of cryptocurrency to an unknown account.

I am victim of a physical bitcoin attack. I have been, handcuffed, beaten, and threatened with a gun not by armed robbers but the Police in my country. Their reason was because they found a Binance, TrustWallet  and other crypto apps on my mobile device during a routine stop and search. I was forced to send $1000 worth of bitcoin to a wallet address provided after they had treated me inhumanely or else they were going shoot me dead and frame me for robbery. I was scared shitless. My story is not unique to me only. There are many more Nigerians like me who had to part away with their bitcoins at the hands of Police offers and unfortunately some have lost their lives too because they refused. Many of which weren't reported and still happened up this till very day.

So when I found this GitHub repository by jlopp on physical bitcoin attacks, it felt very personal. I read each of the stories of all the victims and created a much wider summary. If you don't mind, you can share your own story below if you have ever been attacked.

Summary of these physical attacks and lessons to be learned

• Trust no one.
• Anyone can be a thief and anyone can be the victim. It doesn't matter your profession age group, race, country, religion or ethnicity
• Physical attacks on cryptocurrency holders can happen in any country of the world.
• There are more male attackers than females.
• You biggest threat to being targeted is your social media life. What you posts online, the cars, the money, the beautiful girls, the resort where you are vacationing in, the private jet etc
• Never accept a face to face cryptocurrency trade.
• Be honest in your business dealings. If you lose investors money, repay them back or they will carry out a revenge attack on you.

---

Date	|	Victim	|	Location	|	Summary
_________________	|	__________________	|	_______________________	|	___________________________________________________________________________
December 29, 2014	|	Hal Finney	|	Santa Barbara,  California	|	Hal Finney faced a swatting attack in the final stages of his five-year battle with Lou Gehrig’s disease from an extortionist demanding that the Finneys pay an extortion fee of 1,000 bitcoin.

_________________	|	__________________	|	_______________________	|	_____________________________________________________________________________
January 3, 2015	|	Amanda McCollum	|	Atlanta, Georgia	|	Bitcoin ATM thieves stole the machine from a smoke shop in Georgia.

_________________	|	__________________	|	_______________________	|	______________________________________________________________________________
January 22, 2015	|	Martin Wismeijer	|	Amsterdam, Netherlands	|	Thieves stole two bitcoin ATMs located at Warie's Thai Food restaurant on Amsterdam's Rozengracht and at café 't Hofje van Wijs on Zeedijk.

_________________	|	__________________	|	_______________________	|	_______________________________________________________________________
February, 2015	|	Dean Katz	|	New York, New York	|	Mr. Katz, a one-man bitcoin exchange, who drives around New York buying and selling bitcoin, on call to a large customer base was held up at gunpoint by a thief and forced to transfer $8,500 worth of bitcoin.

_________________	|	__________________	|	_______________________	|	_______________________________________________________________________
February, 2015	|	Dwayne Richards	|	Brooklyn, New York City	|	Dwayne Richards was stabbed in Willamsburg, Brooklyn, by muggers who demanded he transferred bitcoin to their digital wallets. The robbers met with him under the pretense of exchanging bitcoin for cash.

_________________	|	__________________	|	_______________________	|	_______________________________________________________________________
November 16, 2015	|	Robert Nederhoed	|	Delft, Netherlands	|	Thieves stole a Bitcoin ATM from Café De Waag. Around €2,000 in banknotes were in the machine during the theft.

_________________	|	__________________	|	_______________________	|	_______________________________________________________________________
July 11, 2016	|	Tadas Kasputis	|	Kaunas, Lithuania	|	Kasputis was physically assaulted and kidnapped near an automobile car wash.  The kidnappers demanded 52 bitcoins (worth 104,000 euros) from Kasputis, but when they couldn't get his login details, they demanded 300,000 euros.

_________________	|	__________________	|	_______________________	|	_______________________________________________________________________
July 25, 2016	|	Steve Manos	|	West Palm Beach, Florida	|	Manos met with two men whom he had done business with several times before. He wanted to exchange $28,000 in cash for Bitcoins, a digital currency for online transactions. Instead, it ended in armed robbery.

_________________	|	__________________	|	_______________________	|	_______________________________________________________________________
November 6, 2017	|	Herman Vissia	|	Oudenbosch, Netherlands	|	Thieves stole a bitcoin ATM installed in Oudenbosch, Netherlands. The ATM had operated at the Tivoli Brasserie, a restaurant in Oudenbosch since 2014. Thieves stole only the bitcoin machine, and nothing else.

_________________	|	__________________	|	_______________________	|	_______________________________________________________________________
May 3, 2017	|	Rocelo Lopes' wife	|	São Paulo, Brazil	|	Kidnappers demanded ransom payment through cryptocurrencies(bitcoins) for the release of a 32-year-old woman from Florianópolis in São Paulo, Brazil.

_________________	|	__________________	|	_______________________	|	_______________________________________________________________________
March 14, 2017	|	three Indian traders	|	Dubai, UAE	|	Three Emirati men posed as cops conned three Indian traders into riding in their car after falsely claiming that they were being wanted by authorities for dealing in the virtual currency. They drove to a remote desert location off Al Barsha where they used the victims' laptop to transfer 25 bitcoins from their account into the account of one of them in Japan.

_________________	|	__________________	|	_______________________	|	_______________________________________________________________________
June 17, 2017	|	Miyuki Noda	|	Gifu, Japan	|	Woman strangled, attacker takes 100,000 yen worth of BTC.

_________________	|	__________________	|	_______________________	|	_______________________________________________________________________
September 4, 2017	|	Alexey Sherstnev	|	Kyiv, Ukraine	|	Sherstnev, a cryptocurrency trader and consultant was tortured for about three hours by three strong men who demanded him to transfer 10-12 Bitcoins to their account during a cryptocurrency consultation meeting.

_________________	|	__________________	|	_______________________	|	_______________________________________________________________________
October, 2017	|	Multiple	|	Toulouse, France	|	Four young people, aged 18 to 24, gathered in one of their apartments with the two men they had met through an online sales website. The "guests" opened a suitcase and brandished a weapon, demanding that the young individuals transfer them $20,000 worth of virtual currency. The transaction failed though.

_________________	|	__________________	|	_______________________	|	_______________________________________________________________________
October, 2017	|	Multiple	|	Los Angeles, California	|	Two East Hollywood residents known as the “Discount Bitcoin Bandits” robbed people who sought to buy the cryptocurrency in 2017 and 2018.

_________________	|	__________________	|	_______________________	|	_______________________________________________________________________
November 4, 2017	|	Unidentified	|	New York, New York	|	Three men, kidnapped a crypto millionaire, then drove the victim around for two hours at gunpoint until he coughed up the location of his 24-word passphrase. After which, they proceeded to break into the victim's apartment where they nabbed his digital wallet and stole $1.8 million.

_________________	|	__________________	|	_______________________	|	_______________________________________________________________________
November 15, 2017	|	Unidentified	|	Istanbul, Turkey	|	A gang, consisting of five people, stole bitcoin and bitcoin mining devices from three different people in Esenler district. The Bitcoin was worth $2.83M

_________________	|	__________________	|	_______________________	|	_______________________________________________________________________
December, 2017	|	Unidentified	|	Reykjavik, Iceland	|	This one is called the biggest bitcoin heist in Iceland. Some 600 computers used to "mine" bitcoin and other virtual currencies were stolen from data centers. Other items stolen include the motherboards, graphics cards, and power accessories—a haul worth $500,000 for the hardware alone.The total take: $2 million in tech gear.1

_________________	|	__________________	|	_______________________	|	_______________________________________________________________________
December 26, 2017	|	Pavel Lerner	|	Kiev, Ukraine	|	Pavel Lerner, a leading analyst and blockchain expert, was abducted by unknown masked people. He was released after they got more than $1 million in bitcoins as ransom

_________________	|	__________________	|	_______________________	|	_______________________________________________________________________
January 3, 2018	|	"Dallas"	|	Milwaukee, Wisconsin	|	A witness said, he had met Royce to sell bitcoin. An argument ensued between Royce and a man named "Dallas" in the condo during the meeting regarding the transaction.  Royce didn’t want to complete the sale and Dallas was encouraging him to. Royce pulled out a silver handgun and pointed it at Dallas and fired some shots.

_________________	|	__________________	|	_______________________	|	_______________________________________________________________________
January 15, 2018	|	Maxsim Latsoka and Anna Nikurina	|	Phuket, Thailand	|	A Russian gang pretending to be Interpol from Russia investigating Bitcoin irregularities stole a couple's bitcoin worth 100,000 Euros. They entered into the couple's hotel room and ordered them to give the password of their computer notebook then the password of their Bitcoin account or else they would be injected with drugs and handed over to the Thai police.

_________________	|	__________________	|	_______________________	|	_______________________________________________________________________
January 18, 2018	|	Lee	|	North Point, Hong Kong	|	The victim was lured by 5 men who gave him an offer to buy five bitcoin at a five per cent discount off the market price, but was instructed that the transaction would be conducted in cash. The transaction was not completed and he was told that wanted to trade more bitcoin, and another meeting was arranged at a McDonald’s outlet in North Point at 9.30pm the same day. He was robbed at the second meeting of HK$1.4 million (US$180,000).

_________________	|	__________________	|	_______________________	|	_______________________________________________________________________
January 23, 2018	|	Canadian Bitcoins	|	Ottawa, Canada	|	A failed robbery attempt at a Bitcoin financial institution. The employees where held at gun point by the robbers who later fled empty-handed after the Police were contacted.

_________________	|	__________________	|	_______________________	|	_______________________________________________________________________
January 27, 2018	|	Danny Aston & Amy Jay	|	Moulsford, Oxfordshire, England	|	Four robbers in balaclavas forced their way into the home of Danny Aston, 30, who runs a digital currency trading firm. The robbers tied up his partner Amy Jay and forced Mr Aston at gunpoint to transfer an unknown quantity of bitcoin. This is known as Britain's first Bitcoin heist.

_________________	|	__________________	|	_______________________	|	_______________________________________________________________________
January 29, 2018	|	Unidentified	|	Cumming, Georgia	|	Five men were arrested for plotting to break into a Forsyth County home to steal Bitcoin worth nearly $1 million.

_________________	|	__________________	|	_______________________	|	_______________________________________________________________________
January 2018	|	Unidentified	|	Odessa, Ukraine	|	A criminals temporarily rented an apartment on General Petrov Street in Odessa and arranged a meeting with a potential client for buying and selling cryptocurrency. When the unsuspecting prospective buyer came for negotiations, the criminal and his accomplices beat him and robbed him of 1.5 Million UAH ($57,000 USD).

_________________	|	__________________	|	_______________________	|	_______________________________________________________________________
February 9, 2018	|	Sailesh Bhatt	|	Amreli, India	|	Ten cops kidnapped and extorted 200 Bitcoins worth Rs 13 crore from Shailesh Bhatt, a Surat-based builder and businessman. He was beaten up inside a room and threatened to be kill if he did not hand over his Bitcoins. He did.

_________________	|	__________________	|	_______________________	|	_______________________________________________________________________
February 21, 2018	|	Tai	|	Taichung, Taiwan	|	Three men in their early twenties lured a man surnamed Tai to the central city of Taichung, pretending to be interested in buying bitcoins. After Tai showed proof of his bitcoins on his phone, the scammers assaulted him and his friend, then transferred 18 bitcoins worth 5 million Taiwanese dollars from Tai’s account via his phone.

_________________	|	__________________	|	_______________________	|	_______________________________________________________________________
February 23, 2018	|	Yury Mayorov	|	Moscow, Russia	|	Four unknown men kidnapped Yury Mayorov, the creator of cryptocurrency PRIZM. He was grabbed off of Isakovskogo Street by four men on Feb. 23 at 10:00 pm in Moscow, put into a Mercedes, and beaten while the men drove around the city. Mayorov was robbed of $20,000, 300 bitcoins (BTC), and three iPhones.

_________________	|	__________________	|	_______________________	|	_______________________________________________________________________
February 23, 2018	|	Unidentified	|	Moscow, Russia	|	The unidentified victim, was in the southern district of the Russian capital when a group of muggers stopped him and demanded he transfer his holdings. When he refused, they “mutilated his face with a knife” before he surrendered his collection of around 100 BTC.

_________________	|	__________________	|	_______________________	|	_______________________________________________________________________
March 2018	|	Undisclosed woman	|	Killingly, Connecticut	|	Two women invaded the home of another woman who had opened a "Bitcoin account" in the name of one of the attackers and used it to steal her money.

_________________	|	__________________	|	_______________________	|	_______________________________________________________________________
March 2018	|	Unidentified Miner	|	Kiev, Ukraine	|	The criminals waited for the victim, a cryptocurrency miner near his own residence. They placed a bag over his head by force, forced him into a car, and drove him out of the city. They threatened him with murder and thus obtained the keys to his apartment, as well as information about where he kept his money. He was released after giving the criminals $50,000.

_________________	|	__________________	|	_______________________	|	_______________________________________________________________________
March 22, 2018	|	Multiple gas stations	|	Irving & Mesquite, Texas	|	Robbers douse clerks with pepper spray, steal from Bitcoin ATMs in Irving and Mesquite.

_________________	|	__________________	|	_______________________	|	_______________________________________________________________________
April 8, 2018	|	Pang Joon Hau	|	Singapore	|	Mr Pang Joon Hau, traveled to Singapore to buy bitcoins and contacted a Singaporean broker. He and his broker met a man who claimed to have bitcoins to sell, as well as another man who passed himself off as a broker, at the hotel he was staying. After ascertaining that Mr Pang had the sum that both parties agreed upon, the two men assaulted the Malaysian and his broker and made off with cash worth $365,000.

_________________	|	__________________	|	_______________________	|	_______________________________________________________________________
April 11, 2018	|	Ryan Rice	|	Miami, Florida	|	Ryan Rice and an unidentified companion had $30,000 cash with a plan to buy Bitcoin. Shortly after the pair met up at a Whole Foods with the Bitcoin dealer, the transaction turned violent. A fourth man, Marcarrous Clark, rushed them in a parking garage and a struggle erupted for the cash. Rice, shot Clark in self-defense.

_________________	|	__________________	|	_______________________	|	_______________________________________________________________________
April 25, 2018	|	2 unidentified Asian brothers	|	Dubai, UAE	|	Two brothers were looking for someone to buy Bitcoin. A gang of 10 lured the two, claiming that they can sell Bitcoin. The head of the gang deceived a commercial shop owner in Al Muraqabbat area, who put an advertisement to sell his office and trade license. The gang leader told him that he wanted to buy his office and license, and the owner gave him the key to check his office after 8pm. Using this opportunity, the gang lured the two brothers to the office. After assaulting the brothers, the gang stole the money worth AED 7m ($1.9m)  and left the scene.

_________________	|	__________________	|	_______________________	|	_______________________________________________________________________
June 6, 2018	|	Unidentified 22-year-old	|	Milan, Italy	|	In this incident,  a 33-year-old Serbian and a 35-year-old Cuban, attempted to trade a suitcase full of counterfeit money for Bitcoin. The scheme involved a 22-year-old individual who became suspicious of the scam just before transferring the Bitcoin to the fake clients' account. Upon refusing to proceed with the transaction, he was attacked by the two men and a woman. It involved 7 Bitcoins exchanged for 50,000 euros.

_________________	|	__________________	|	_______________________	|	_______________________________________________________________________
June 19, 2018	|	Unidentified couples	|	Wels, Austria	|	Four unknown assailants brutally attacked a young couple in their apartment. The attackers posed as postal workers and appeared at the couple's apartment. The attackers stole cash as well as various designer clothing. They also demanded online access to transfer the victim's cryptocurrency account balance worth 250,000 US dollars (216,000 euros) from a crypto currency account.

_________________	|	__________________	|	_______________________	|	_______________________________________________________________________
July 6, 2018	|	Unidentified	|	Northborough, Massachusetts	|	Two individuals broke into the home of a LocalBitcoin trader and specifically demanded cash and bitcoin. He handed the robbers “a couple hundred in twenty dollar bills,” and when asked for bitcoin claimed not to have any. The trader managed to escape and call the police, leading to the arrest of both suspects.

_________________	|	__________________	|	_______________________	|	_______________________________________________________________________
September 7, 2018	|	Nicholas Truglia	|	New York, New York	|	A group of friends ransacked their pal’s luxury apartment after a night of drinking and demanded that he provided them with login information for his cryptocurrency accounts while holding his head underwater in the bathtub, punching him in the stomach and throwing hot wax on him

_________________	|	__________________	|	_______________________	|	_______________________________________________________________________
January 5, 2018	|	Kieran Hamilton	|	Manchester, England	|	Kieren Hamilton, a cryptocurrency trader who would post photos on Instagram as he enjoyed luxury holidays, nights out in swanky restaurants and shopping sprees in Selfridges was attacked by two masked robbers armed with machetes who burst into his home. He was stabbed and the robbers made off with his pet dog, worth an estimated £1,000, an Apple MacBook laptop, gold bracelets and a gold wedding ring.

_________________	|	__________________	|	_______________________	|	_______________________________________________________________________
November 16, 2018	|	Andrew	|	Lanseria, South Africa	|	Andrew, a Bitcoin trader  after meeting a man on Facebook was invited to do a presentation on Bitcoin. During the meeting, someone approached him from behind and stuck a cloth, after which he passed out unconscious. He was stripped of his clothing, tortured and assaulted. The group demanded his FNB account details as well as his Bitcoin password, burning him with a hot iron and threatening to kill him if he did not provide the information. Because of the torture, he relented and transferred R 800 000 worth of Bitcoin to an account the group provided him with, transferring a second amount of R 100 000 from his bank account into one he was provided with.

_________________	|	__________________	|	_______________________	|	_______________________________________________________________________
February 10, 2019	|	Tjeerd H.	|	Drouwenerveen, Netherlands	|	Three robbers severely assaulted a resident of a building in Drouwenerveen in Drenthe by assaulting his body with a drill. The criminals entered the cryptocurrency trader's house disguised as members of a SWAT team.

_________________	|	__________________	|	_______________________	|	_______________________________________________________________________
March 12, 2019	|	Costcutter shop	|	Far Cotton, Northampton, England	|	Three men went to the Costcutter shop where one waited outside. The other two went inside, where one threatened staff with a curved machete while the other smashed a Bitcoin machine off the shop wall with a sledgehammer. The men then left the shop with the machine.

_________________	|	__________________	|	_______________________	|	_______________________________________________________________________
May 14, 2019	|	Undisclosed	|	Oslo, Norway	|	The victim has been working with crypto currency for nearly ten years. The multi-millionaire in his 40s was at home in the apartment block in Oslo when it rang on the door. When he opened, a man stood outside with a laid-off shotgun in his hands. The robber paved his way into the apartment and said "lie down, otherwise I'll shoot". The man ran out onto the balcony and jumped out of the second floor and ended up on the street.

_________________	|	__________________	|	_______________________	|	_______________________________________________________________________
June 30, 2019	|	Luftan Shaikh, Mohammad Shazad, and Malang Shah	|	Jaipur, Rajasthan, India	|	A criminal gang operating in India kidnapped and tortured three cryptocurrency traders. They were held captive for 15 days inside a high-rise building and were beaten and tortured  before demanding 80 bitcoins as ransom.

_________________	|	__________________	|	_______________________	|	_______________________________________________________________________
July 15, 2019	|	Bitcoin Exchange	|	Sparkhill, Birmingham, England	|	A gang of masked raiders raided a bitcoin store on a busy city street. As an alarm blared, the raiders rushed from the Bitcoin Exchange store into a blue Seat Leon parked across the pavement directly outside. They scooted back and forth, stuffing goods into the open boot. They filled the car with what appeared to be bundles of thin long strips from the Bitcoin store.

_________________	|	__________________	|	_______________________	|	_______________________________________________________________________
July 26, 2019	|	Unidentified Man	|	Wels, Austria	|	Masked men rang the late evening at the 30-year-old's office door. The man opened and was pushed into the office by the men. Armed with a pistol and a rubber truncheon, they demanded money and cryptocurrencies. The victim gave them cash and then had to transfer cryptocurrencies from his computer. The sum is not yet known. Then the two men tied the 30-year-old with cable and adhesive tape, leaving him in his office. The man was later able to get rid of himself with difficulty and inform the police.

_________________	|	__________________	|	_______________________	|	_______________________________________________________________________
August 26, 2019	|	Abdul Shakoor	|	Dehradun, India	|	The kingpin of a bitcoin scam valued at Rs 485 crore was been beaten to death by five of his associates. The attackers tortured Abdul Shakoor till he fell unconscious and left the body at the emergency ward of a private hospital.

_________________	|	__________________	|	_______________________	|	_______________________________________________________________________
November 19, 2019	|	Simply Delicious Food Market	|	Vernon, British Columbia	|	Two masked men broke into Simply Delicious Food Market and ran off with cash stolen from a bitcoin ATM.

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January, 2020	|	Iroro Wisdom Ovie	|	Abraka, Nigeria	|	The victim, Iroro Wisdom Ovie, a father of two, was beaten and shot by unknown gunmen. Investigations so far have also revealed that the bosom friend of the victim arrested had hinted one of the suspects of the discovery of $10, 000 in the victim’s Bitcoin wallet and then contacted the other suspects for the robbery operation.

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January, 2020	|	17-year-old trader	|	Preston, Lancashire, England	|	The victim was lured to a Preston apartment and kidnapped by a gang, who tried to tried to rob him of £20,000 worth of cryptocurrency.

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January 8, 2020	|	Mark Cheng Jin Quan	|	Bangkok, Thailand	|	Mark Cheng Jin Quan, a Singaporean businessman was on a business trip to Thailand. His Singaporean acquaintance, Kim Lee Yao Wei persuaded him to go to Thailand and negotiate a business deal with some locals. This his friend who accompanied him on the trip. As soon as they left the airport, he was kidnapped and the kidnappers demanded that he handed over US$1 million ($1.3m) in Bitcoin but he gave them only 1.4 million baht ($62,400) in Bitcoin. He later escaped and his friend Kim Lee Yao Wei confessed to be the master mind behind his ordeal.

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January 21, 2020	|	Mayfair Quick Mart	|	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania	|	Two brazen robbers used crowbars to break into a bitcoin ATM in a store and took the cash box from inside.

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February 10, 2020	|	Unidentified couple	|	Carlisle, England	|	Ted Richards, 24, and Jordan Barrett, 23, held two young men prisoner at a house on Moorhouse Road for more than two hours and, while threatening them with a gun and a knife. The two young men who were the victims were threatened and were forced to allow their ID to be used to create cryptocurrency accounts so that the two robbers could transfer money into them so as to evade identification.

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May 17, 2020	|	Le	|	Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam	|	Two police officers, Nguyen Quoc Dung, 40, and Nguyen Anh Tuan, 28, and their accomplices businessman Ho Ngoc Tai, 32, and 14 others orchestrated a fake accident and steal VND37 billion ($1.63 million) worth of bitcoins from a businessman, Le. They forced Le to disclose the password into his cryptocurrency digital wallet.

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May 19, 2020	|	Exxon Gas Station	|	East Lansdowne, Pennsylvania	|	Two robbers entered the gas station and pried open the Bitcoin ATM removed the cash and fled on foot.

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May 23, 2020	|	Ellis Pinsky	|	Irvinton, NY	|	Four robbers broke into the house of Ellis Pinsky, a 15-year old internet hacker, who had just  pulled off a heist of $23.8 million cryptocurrency hack to steal the bitcoins he had hacked.

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September, 2020	|	Male Fresher	|	Kent, England	|	A fresher had been discussing cryptocurrency with a new friend on campus just five days after he started his course. This friend then invited eight school friends over. The fresher was robbed by these people at knifepoint for Bitcoin worth £6,000 during his first week at university. A further £3,000 of his grant money was also stolen. Unfortunately, no one was ever charged in connection with the incident. And none of the money could be refunded.

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October 1, 2020	|	Unidentified	|	Kiev, Ukraine	|	Police kidnapped a businessman, tortured him, and they demanded that the businessman transfer $80,000 to the SBU agents, to which the businessman agreed and called his wife. She transferred 7 bitcoins (BTC) from her electronic wallet to the provided details, which were equivalent to $80,000 USD at the time of the transaction.

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October 7, 2020	|	Mike's Produce	|	Kelowna, BC, Canada	|	Two suspects attempts to steal a bitcoin machine. After breaking into the produce store, located at the Guisachan Village Centre, the two suspects allegedly tried to steal the machine, located against the back wall of the shop. When they were unable to get it out, they fled.

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October 22, 2020	|	Undisclosed	|	Riga, Latvia	|	The State Police of Latvia thwarted the abduction and murder of two individuals planned by a criminal with the aim of obtaining approximately 500,000 euros in cryptocurrency from them.

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December, 2020	|	Undisclosed	|	Dubai, UAE	|	Four Ukrainian, broke into an office in the Al Barsha area of Dubai and tried to steal Dh500,000 from an investor and two of his friends which they intended to use in buying bitcoin.

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December 24, 2020	|	Undisclosed	|	Ternopil, Ukraine	|	A group of unknown individuals held and tortured a man that resides in Kyiv and is involved in a cryptocurrency-related business. He and his wife had come to Ternopil to visit a relative for a birthday celebration. According to the victim, the unknown individuals tortured him and threatened to kill him if he did not pay them $800,000.

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January 5, 2021	|	Lee	|	Chai Wan, Hong Kong	|	A gang of six robbers stole bitcoin valued at more than HK$3 million from Lee a bitcoin trader after he met them to make a transaction in their car. They later kicked him out of the vehicle on a hillside on Tai Tam Road in Chai Wan. They first paid the victim with cash but took it straight back after he transferred 15 bitcoin.

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January 18, 2021	|	Unidentified Woman	|	Kwun Tong, Hong Kong	|	A gang of thieves lured a female cryptocurrency trader to an office for a deal and robbed her of HK$3.5 million (US$448,700) in cash at knifepoint. The robbery took place after the woman met a man posing as a buyer. She had recently sold the man digital money in three transactions, each involving HK$600,000 to HK$700,000. Soon after she was handed the money, three men carrying either a knife or a rod rushed out from a room and snatched the money and the iPhone from her at knifepoint. The four fled after locking the victim in the office.

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February 4, 2021	|	Married Couple	|	Stockholm, Sweden	|	Three robbers broke into a residence of a couple, armed with a pistol and a knife and forced them to transfer a substantial amount of Bitcoin cryptocurrency. As they fled the residence, one of the victims to chase them until the police arrived. According to the investigations, it's likely that the perpetrators knew in advance that the victims had bitcoin in their possession.