Crypto Kidnapping

So you think your life will be easy because you made a lot of money through early investment in cryptocurrencies? Not so fast.

It used to be just your computer was held hostage for a crypto ransom. Now it’s you. A slew of people have been abducted in France and even one New York. Why? Because they just get the password and transfer the crypto to a secret account—which no one can find.

The attacks are nasty and brazen. In France the abductors threw their victims into car trunks, beat them, threw gasoline on them, and threatened their knees with power drills. One man received a video of his kidnapped daughter. In another case they cut off a man’s finger to scare his family.

In New York, two men lured an Italian man into their expensive townhouse. For 17 days they beat, drugged, and shocked him with electricity. When he finally agreed to give up his password the kidnappers took him to his apartment to get his computer, and he escaped.

Crypto is so secret you would think it’s hard to identify possible victims. Not in France. To prevent money laundering, crypto investors must register personal addresses in public databases and report the identities of people involved in their transactions. But hacks of large companies or government institutions are not uncommon. The information is then probably sold on the dark web.

Top executives whose wealth is public now spend $50K or more per month on personal protection. But it is not just them. Their children and parents are also targets. People no longer brag about their crypto wealth.

Who are the perpetrators? In France it is small groups of young criminals involved in the drug trade. There were only two kidnappers in the U.S. So far.

And how are authorities fighting this? Crypto transfers are becoming increasingly secure. Sometimes they require several people to approve a single transaction. The latest technology is also making it easier to trace the payments.

Here is my advice to you if you’ve made a lot of money in crypto.

Shhhhh.