When people know who holds crypto. Attacks, documented worldwide.
An archive of known physical attacks on people who hold crypto-assets, or are believed to. Bitcoin works like cash: whoever holds the keys can move it. That draws criminals, hackers far away as well as attackers in person. So nobody should know who holds how much.
Far from complete. Most victims stay silent, and many cases never become public. How the attackers knew about their victims is rarely reported.
Attacks after data leaks2014–2026, newest first
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Three foreigners of Kazakh and Uzbek nationality arranged to meet a Kazakh man in his twenties to exchange Tether (USDT) for cash. In a public car park in Dunpo-myeon (Asan), they punched him as soon as he got out of his car and fled with KRW 12 million in cash.
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Three hooded men broke into a house home at 3am, tied up a couple in their sixties with cable ties and demanded cryptocurrency.
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Three masked individuals carrying a hammer, cable ties and screwdrivers tried to force the gate of a business owner's house in Brétigny-sur-Orge, whose personal data had been hacked and who was suspected of holding cryptocurrency. A dog barked and the alarm and cameras went off, alerting the owner who was away; the perpetrators said they had been recruited on social media for 200 euros each to hold him captive and take his crypto.
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Victim went with INR 25 lakh in cash to premises presented as a "Binance Wallet Office" in Bazarghat, Hyderabad, to convert it into USDT on behalf of a third party. Two men who asked to see the money sprayed pepper spray into his eyes and fled with the cash, escaping with INR 21 lakh after INR 4 lakh fell to the ground during a scuffle.
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Three armed robbers stormed a luxury home, taking cash and Rolex watches before forcing a Turkish businessman to transfer cryptocurrency worth US$820,000. Arrest warrants were issued for 5 Chinese nationals.
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Men posing as police officers cut off a foreign national's car in Sariyer, handcuffed him and took him to Basaksehir, where threats with a gun extracted ~USD 38,000 in crypto, a USD 150,000 watch and USD 10,000 collected from friends; he was freed in a police raid that detained six suspects.
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Unknown (no cash found; personal belongings of two people taken, not itemised) — On Wednesday 30 September 2026 at around 5 pm, two men who arrived on a motorcycle, faces covered and wearing helmets and gloves, one of them dressed as a state-school pupil (white smock and blue bow), entered a cryptocurrency buying and selling shop on Bulevar Artigas near Maldonado (Cordon neighbourhood) through a neighbouring business, as the shop's grilles were closed. At gunpoint they demanded money from staff and customers; since the company keeps no cash, they took the personal belongings of two people present and left on the motorcycle.
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A couple was targeted by 3 individuals for the second time in 6 months.
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Victim was abducted at the by men who had been watching him and who demanded 35,000-40,000 USDT through WhatsApp messages sent to a friend. He was beaten in captivity and released the next morning after his captors took a diamond ring, a gold chain and a gold bracelet; police are investigating where his cryptocurrency came from.
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A couple and their 2 children, aged 8 and 12, were kidnapped and assaulted. Father works in crypto industry, was forced to transfer 40,000 EUR.
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Two men in their forties lured a man in his thirties to an Incheon office building with a face-to-face crypto deal presented as a fee saver, gave him a drink that probably contained a drug and, once he lost consciousness, fled with the KRW 35,000,000 in cash he had prepared (KRW 5,500,000 later recovered). The victim woke about five hours later in his car and reported the robbery.
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A mother and her son held captive and a cryptocurrency account worth $25,000 stolen.
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Five men attacked a 22-year-old programmer near his home, forced him into a car and took him to a garage. Under threats and violence they made him reveal his wallet passwords, emptied his crypto holdings and took valuables from his home, then left him tied up in woodland.
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Near 888 S. Olive Street in downtown Los Angeles, two masked armed men robbed a person of jewelry and cryptocurrency, wounding them in the head before fleeing; an ambulance was called and no arrest has been announced. The exact circumstances (a P2P exchange meeting or an ambush near a residence) are not established by police.
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Two men posing as delivery workers came to the door of a south San Jose house around 9:30 p.m. on September 5 2026; one, wearing a ski mask, brandished a firearm, which the resident saw on his security camera, and as the door was not opened they drove off before police arrived. Police say the pair targeted people known to hold large amounts of cryptocurrency and is linked to other similar incidents, including in Atherton.
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USD 10,864 transferred from Binance (12,500 "Binance dollars" according to Prothom Alo) + about BDT 4.8 lakh (ATM withdrawal and mobile payment); BDT 18 lakh in total according to the complaints — On the morning of 4 September 2026, a team of plainclothes officers of the Chattogram Metropolitan Police, led by Assistant Commissioner Shariful Alam (LIC interception cell), picked up trader Akhtaruzzaman Shakil and his friend Mansur Ali at a residence in Halishahar and took them to the LIC offices at CMP headquarters. The officers, who knew Shakil's phone held substantial cryptocurrency on Binance, threatened to implicate him in a gambling case and to publish his private photos; after demanding BDT 10 million, they forced him to transfer about USD 10,864 from his Binance account in three transactions, then to withdraw money at an ATM and through a mobile payment app.
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On the night of September 3 2026, a 24-year-old Indian medical student was abducted from his Las Piñas apartment by five Indian classmates who wanted to use his crypto wallet account for criminal activity and held him captive after he refused; a PHP 250,000 ransom was demanded from his brother, who reported the disappearance, and the family wired INR 80,000 (~PHP 52,500) then deposited PHP 150,000 at an ATM. The victim was released on September 5 and the five suspects were arrested as they tried to retrieve the money.
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According to a single unconfirmed account, a Dutch national met a woman presenting herself as 'Maria Jose' on Bumble in Cartagena; during a second date at an apartment he lost consciousness after drinks and a massage, waking to find she had disappeared with his phone (holding his authenticator and password manager) and bank card, and 0.38 BTC (~USD 25,000) had been transferred. No toxicology report, police confirmation or charges are public; the case is known only from the sole testimony of the victim as relayed by a crypto blog.
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In early September 2026 at around 3 a.m., two armed, masked and gloved men entered through the garage of a 22-year-old game developer's house in Saint-Juery, threatened him with a firearm, struck him on the head with its butt and demanded 'your wallet', unlocking his phone with facial recognition. The victim jumped on one of them and set off a tear gas canister, driving them away with nothing obtained; he believes his personal data leaked in the France Connect hack.
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Gautham, 28, a real-estate site supervisor who also worked as a cryptocurrency exchanger, withdrew INR 5 lakh in cash at an ATM with a customer, Deva, for a USDT exchange and returned with it to his office in Saminathapuram. Three men then burst in, beat Deva and snatched the bag containing the INR 5 lakh before fleeing.
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A family and their domestic worker were killed at home by two men seeking a hardware wallet holding around $118,000 USD in bitcoin.
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Two armed individuals held a couple and their toddler hostage in their home, attempting to extort cryptocurrency. The police, alerted by neighbors, forced them to flee.
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Three criminals held a man hostage in his house to demand €6 million in cryptocurrency. He escaped after 2 hours.
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A family held hostage by mistake in a crypto-related case.
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A man who knew his attackers through online cryptocurrency trading was called to the Somerset Hotel in R. A. Puram, Chennai. Seven men, some posing as police officers, confined and beat him and, under threat of bodily harm, made him transfer INR 130,000 via G-Pay and bitcoin worth INR 380,000 from his accounts.
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A couple was sequestered at home around and kidnapped for their bitcoin.
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Six men gained Abhay Tiwari's trust through WhatsApp calls promising 6,000-7,000 USDT — even making him a small real transfer — then summoned him with INR 700,000 in cash near Saket Square in Indore; under the pretext of counting the money, accomplices posing as Crime Branch officers beat him and took the cash. Six suspects, including a lawyer, were arrested within 36 hours and part of the money recovered; a seventh remains wanted.
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Three individuals attempt to break into the home of a business owner who held crypto.
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Three masked men burst into a Novosibirsk resident's flat and, using physical force, demanded that he hand over his money and cryptocurrency. They left with RUB 230,000, USD 23,500 in cash, cryptocurrency worth about RUB 2 million, three laptops and six phones; three suspects were later identified and arrested.
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A dispute over a digital-currency transfer escalated when an armed group forced cryptocurrency dealer Pawan Verma and his friends Shubham and Saif into a vehicle. At gunpoint Pawan was made to transfer USDT from his phone, and the attackers seized INR 1.2 lakh in cash and his car.
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Mir Raza Ali, 25, owner of a dessert shop and a Binance futures trader for four years, disappeared on July 28 2026 from Karachi's PECHS neighborhood; his body was found the next day in bushes near a wedding hall, killed by gunshot, with a second autopsy concluding he had been tortured before being shot and ruling out the initial suicide theory. The cyber crime agency obtained six months of Binance data and the victim's trading activity is central to the investigation, but no crypto motive has been established and no charges filed.
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7 men, 3 of them Canadian military, abducted a cryptocurrency holder but released him after failing to gain access to his funds.
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A coffee and vending machine importer was attacked at his Bankya home by two hooded men who had waited and filmed around the house before his return from dinner; investigators say he was beaten and tortured for about three hours, then strangled, with the house cleaned with bleach and set on fire and his body found burned. Theft of as much as EUR 9,000,000 in BTC is the main line of investigation, as the perpetrators left behind over EUR 50,000 in cash and gold bars in an open safe plus his watch collection.
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On July 21 2026, transporter Dilip Majethiya was lured from his Gandhidham office by an acquaintance under the pretext of collecting a debt, taken to a house, tied up, beaten and threatened with a knife while the kidnappers demanded INR 20 lakh; in a video call to his brother in Dubai they showed the abuse, threatened to kill the victim and sent a QR code, and the brother transferred about 584,000 USDT (~INR 5.55 crore). Dilip was released unaware of the larger ransom; seven accused including the alleged mastermind were arrested, while three remain at large.
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Same group from June 24 and June 26 attempted to break into the couple's home but was scared off by the alarm.
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British tourist robbed by acquaintances while watching World Cup game.
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A family held hostage and assaulted over €100 in cryptocurrency.
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A 40-year-old woman who arranged via Instagram to exchange TWD 2,500,000 in cash for 70,000+ USDT met a self-presented crypto dealer on Taipei's Zhongxiao East Road; after taking the cash 'for verification' without delivering tokens, he grabbed the money and fled, but passers-by chased and restrained him as she held onto her backpack calling for help. The full amount was recovered and he was referred to the Taipei prosecutor's office for snatch theft and fraud.
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Vitcim came with friends to buy cryptocurrency with RUB 1,500,000 from a car sale, but the exchange office refused; strangers questioned him about the money's origin, and after the group got into a taxi the attackers pulled them out, pushed them into an underpass and snatched the bag of cash. Three suspects were arrested with part of the loot; prosecution carries up to 12 years under Article 161 §3.
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Two men posing as police kidnapped an 18-year-old influencer in São Paulo after learning he invested in cryptocurrencies.
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Victim abducted after leaving work, held captive for 30 hours, and forced to hand over $5 million USD in cryptocurrency.
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Four men aged 23 and 24 abducted an 18-year-old student from RUDN University and held him for four hours in a car after slipping him drugs, demanding 2 million rubles to "hush up the matter." The student was released after transferring 80,000 rubles to them in cryptocurrency, under threat of death if he spoke out. The four suspects — Zaour Kerimkhanov, Nikolai Bortsvadze, Dzhambulat Okuev and Alexander Ilinov (an associate of the rapper MACAN) — were arrested in July 2026 and are suspected of kidnapping and extortion.
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A victim who had come to exchange about 100,000 shekels in cash for digital currencies went to Yohanan Hyrcanus Street in northern Tel Aviv and got into a waiting vehicle: he was pepper-sprayed inside it, forcibly pulled out of the vehicle, beaten and stripped of his money. Passers-by who witnessed the struggle alerted police and noted the license plate; a 42-year-old resident of Bnei Brak was arrested at the wheel of the vehicle and his detention was extended by three days by the Tel Aviv magistrate's court, while the second suspect remains at large.
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Three armed men approached a couple in Forest Hills, demanding their crypto hardware wallet, but fled on foot empty-handed.
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Muhammad Raza Dar, grandson of Pakistan's deputy prime minister, had met two foreign women through a joint crypto investment (~USD 500,000) and brought them to Lahore on business visas; hours after landing on June 29 2026 they were held captive, gang-raped and threatened with death to hand over access to a computer containing crypto assets. The kidnappers demanded USD 1,500,000 in crypto via one victim's phone and received about USD 100,000 before a road accident near the airport allowed the women to escape; four suspects including Dar were arrested, a fifth remains at large, and the victims left Pakistan on July 3 2026.
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The same group from June 24 broke into the couple's home, bound one victim and beat the other, filming it on Snapchat, still seeking cryptocurrency.
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Home invasion attempt against a couple wrongly believed to hold cryptocurrency.
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Three police officers from Dnipropetrovsk Oblast who suspected a Nikopol resident of drug dealing and knew he held about USD 100,000 in a crypto wallet attacked him in the street, tear-gassing, shooting at and beating him. They forced him to unlock his phone and transfer his cryptocurrency, then made him call his mother to demand money for his release.
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A vehicle struck Karachi crypto trader Jan Sher Khan off his motorcycle, after which men in plain clothes chased, beat and forced him into the car; four armed men took him to an unknown location, subjected him to violence and extorted passwords, fingerprints and account access to transfer funds and data, demanded dollars from his friends while posing as him, and took his iPhone before leaving him blindfolded near Bin Qasim before dawn. An FIR was registered on June 18; police are using CCTV footage to identify the suspects and vehicle.
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Four individuals attempted a home jacking in the 13th district of Marseille.
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Four individuals held two women hostage, including one in her sixties. They were rescued by the police while the attackers were in the middle of a transaction.
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A crypto influencer was kidnapped out of his Porsche while on the street. He handed over USD 3,000 before escaping; one suspect was arrested.
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A Bengaluru resident preparing to open a café needed to pay in crypto for imported equipment; put at ease by a first successful INR 2.5 lakh exchange with a WhatsApp USDT trading group member on June 8 2026, he was summoned the next evening to Sanjaynagar to convert INR 17.64 lakh, which was snatched without any USDT transferred, and he and his two companions were physically assaulted. Twelve suspects aged 20 to 40 were arrested and INR 13.9 lakh, 13 phones, a car and six two-wheelers recovered.
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On June 8 2026 in a Coconut Creek apartment, Sheendalie Joseph allegedly let Tevin Dean (31) in while the occupant was upstairs; Dean held the victim at gunpoint, stripped and bound him, held a kitchen knife to his head and threatened to kill him unless he unlocked his phone, then took his Coinbase passwords. The attackers sold his cryptocurrency, sent about USD 1,200 via Zelle to an account belonging to Joseph's son, took cards and phones (factory-reset and pawned) and deleted seven Ring camera clips, for a haul of more than USD 27,000 in total.
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At about 2:30 a.m., a Colombian financial operator who converted cash into Bitcoin and USDT was lured by a fellow Colombian woman into a Rome B&B lobby where a gang led by a trafficker nicknamed 'il Presidente' beat him and forced him into a car; held seven hours tied hand and foot, threatened with a pistol and cut with a knife, he was forced to attempt transfers but secretly typed an emergency code that blocked all transactions, so no cryptocurrency was obtained. The attackers made off with EUR 8,900 in cash, gold chains (EUR 11,000), a Rolex (EUR 20,000) and a laptop; motive: a delay in converting EUR 7,000 entrusted to him by 'il Presidente'.
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On June 5 2026 in Ételfay (Somme), a resident returning from walking her grandson to the bus stop was surprised in her yard by three masked armed men who came to extort her cryptocurrencies, her granddaughter inside the house; the group fled without obtaining anything after being addressed in Ukrainian by the victim's mother-in-law, which made them suspicious. The victim had been identified through the data leak of the French crypto tax assistant Waltio (~50,000 users, January 2026) circulated on the darknet.
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Forced into a car, a 25-year-old man found himself blindfolded, his hands tied behind his back, and facing death threats.
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A Kotor resident invited to a hotel room to buy two bitcoins for EUR 100,000 was locked in while three accomplices took the cash, then beaten by the four men as he tried to stop their car; the suspects, three Americans and a Briton, were intercepted the same day with ~EUR 99,650 recovered.
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5 hooded accomplices attempted to kidnap victim from her home, but were stopped by neighbors who heard her screams. 2 attackers were quickly arrested.
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Three men forced their way into a man's home in Bristol, assaulted him and demanded a large amount of cryptocurrency, leaving him with a head injury that required hospital treatment. His teenage sister managed to alert the police and the three men were arrested at the scene.
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A man was targeted in two kidnapping attempts after conducting cryptocurrency transactions in the region.
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Three armed men burst into a couple's home, tied them up, and beat them before searching the house for crypto.
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In the Barequeçaba neighborhood of São Sebastião, a resident was surprised by armed criminals at his home entrance, overpowered, held in private confinement and subjected to physical and psychological torture while the gang demanded transfers of his money and digital assets. On May 8 2026 the Civil Police executed four search and three arrest warrants in Topolândia: two men were arrested and BRL 1,585 with two phones seized, with a third suspect at large.
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Between October 2025 and May 2026, a shifting gang of ten people aged 17 to 26 lured at least seven victims aged 34 to 56 into rented apartments under the pretext of business meetings or an online purchase; victims were attacked by several assailants at once, tied up, threatened with a knife and sometimes injured, with loot including cash, jewelry, phones and cryptocurrencies. On September 10 2026 Hanover police searched ten locations and arrested four suspects, with the others still sought.
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Amit Kumar, a computer parts dealer, was contacted on WhatsApp by a purported USDT trader and summoned to a Sector 42 parking lot over a deal worth ~INR 40 lakh; there, four to five men chased him when he sensed a trap, beat him and his associate, threatened him with a weapon and grabbed two bags containing INR 1,750,000 in cash and his identity papers, the car's plate having been disguised with tape. Tracing the plate and CCTV footage led to one suspect's arrest and recovery of INR 500,000; the investigation continues.
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A 24-year-old Krasnoyarsk resident and a 19-year-old from Achinsk arranged to meet a 30-year-old cryptocurrency seller on Sverdlovskaya Street to exchange RUB 600,000 in cash for cryptocurrency. Once the coins had been transferred and the cash handed over, they pepper-sprayed and punched him, took back the RUB 600,000 and fled; both were later identified and arrested.
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On May 1 2026 in Nieuw-Vennep, after a dispute over cryptocurrency investments, a man was forced at gunpoint into a car and held captive by two MMA-fighter brothers and a third accomplice; forced to undress and filmed while being degraded, he was threatened with mutilation and made transfers totaling about EUR 60,000, with EUR 25,000 more demanded under threat of releasing the video. The defense disputes the weapon and shears, contending the defendant, a victim of a 'kind of pyramid scheme', was trying to recover his own money.
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Ravi Meena was put in contact with sellers offering USTC at a reduced price; two met him alone, noticed he had cash, and called in accomplices who seized INR 837,000 without ever delivering the cryptocurrency. Jaipur police arrested six men aged 22 to 25 on April 27 2026 after reviewing CCTV footage and seized the vehicle used; the suspects admitted tricking several people via social media under the guise of crypto deals.
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A Karachi resident was abducted near Jinnah International Airport and allegedly forced at gunpoint to transfer $8,600 from his digital account.
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Two men held three adults and two children hostage at their home, and managed to extort €700,000 in cryptocurrency from them.
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While a young man counted EUR 27,700 in cash inside a car to buy cryptocurrency on 9th Fort Street, a stranger ran up and grabbed the money in a scuffle; two suspects were placed in a holding cell and a pre-trial investigation was opened.
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3 South Korean men abduct fellow South Korean, demand $10M USDT from his family, receive $3M. He was rescued by police and most of the ransom recovered
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In the Moscow region, four men aged 23 to 35 ordered a delivery of printer cartridges through an app, then posed as police officers at handover with fake IDs and a traumatic pistol; they beat the two couriers and forced them to transfer more than RUB 300,000 on the spot, then demanded another RUB 10,000,000 within a week to a crypto wallet they dictated. The four were arrested; fake badges, the pistol, phones and bank cards were seized, and pretrial detention was ordered.
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Mother and her 10 years old child kidnapped
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An individual held a family at gunpoint, and he got into a fight with the father.
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Four masked people invade home, held occupants, couldn't find crypto businessman target, left with jewelry.
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Four men invade home, tie up family, demand crypto, fail to get any.
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Around mid-April 2026, a family was violently attacked at their isolated home in Saint-Germain-l'Herm (Puy-de-Dôme), suffering rib and finger fractures; investigators are exploring a cryptocurrency-linked motive, but this remains a working hypothesis with neither the prosecutor's office nor the prefecture commenting. The number of assailants, the method and the loot were not disclosed, and no arrests have been confirmed.
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In spring 2026, five teenagers from Ussuriysk — convinced a local man held about RUB 37,000,000 in cryptocurrency — burst into his flat on the evening of April 1 2026, beat him repeatedly on the head and body and took some of his belongings. The information was false: he had no cryptocurrency.
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A 25-year-old woman was kidnapped and held hostage by two men for cryptocurrency.
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Four young individuals, aged 21 to 24, are suspected of attempting to attack a young man.
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At dawn on March 27 2026 in Saint-Paul (Haute-Vienne), two masked armed individuals attacked a resident outside his home, forced him inside and beat him; realizing he was about to be tied up he escaped through a window, and the attackers fled on foot after striking a witness, taking nothing. The gendarmerie said the three suspects had 'carefully planned their action' and 'were looking for cryptocurrency'; the 22-year-old was sentenced on May 29 2026 to 10 years without parole, a 17-year-old to 27 months, with the third still to be tried.
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Violent kidnapping resulting in the transfer of €68,000.
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A woman lured by a high-yield crypto investment showed up with TWD 930,000 in cash in Luzhu District (Taoyuan) for a face-to-face exchange with a purported broker; a young collector snatched the money and fled on an unplated scooter. Spotted via the CCTV network, he was arrested the next day and jailed for fraud and snatch theft, but the funds were not recovered.
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Two Jaipur IT company executives were lured near a temple under the pretext of a USDT investment and abducted by six to seven masked men; the kidnappers used the victims' phones to demand an INR 1 crore ransom from their families. Tracked all night via the rental vehicle's GPS and CCTV, they abandoned the victims in the Galta forest around 5:30 a.m. after about eleven hours of captivity; police said the kidnappers were known to the victims and linked the case to a financial dispute.
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Armed men broke into the home of a middle-aged crypto company CEO near Nantes, struck him in the head and were driven off by the alarm system.
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Three Serbs kidnap a Canadian millionaire in cryptocurrencies on the fashionable street of Madrid.
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Two masked men broke into a woman's home then attempted to abduct her in her own car to extort cryptocurrency.
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Zheng (20) and a minor, posing as USDT sellers met online, arranged a convenience-store meeting in Taipei's Wenshan District; after the victim withdrew TWD 100,000 from the ATM they pepper-sprayed his face and eyes, snatched the cash and fled separately. Both unemployed men, with no criminal record and holding no cryptocurrency, were arrested in Sanchong six hours later with part of the loot recovered.
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Two criminals tied up a mother and her two adult children to extort cryptocurrency. The family was targeted by mistake.
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Two criminals carrying small explosives attempted to enter an unidentified man's home seeking cryptocurrency
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Mr. Guo, 31, responded to a Facebook crypto exchange ad and showed up in Taipei with TWD 4,000,000 in cash to buy USDT from a purported broker; the 19-year-old seller pepper-sprayed him to snatch the bag, but Guo held on and the attacker, fearing passersby, gave up and fled by taxi. Nothing was taken; Huang was arrested on March 12-13 for attempted aggravated robbery, two more suspects on March 23, and the suspected mastermind remains at large.
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Ms. Lin, contacted via social media by a purported USDT broker, went with TWD 2,000,000 in cash to verify his identity in Taipei's Shilin District; a man posing as the broker's emissary snatched the bag and jumped into a rental car. Three accomplices were intercepted in Yilan that evening, three others on March 13-14, and the mastermind — a collector for a fraud network who knew via the network how much she would bring and decided to 'rob the robbers' — was arrested April 16 with three accomplices; 12 people in total were arrested, ~TWD 710,000 recovered, and an etomidate-packaging lab dismantled.
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A 48-year-old former colleague let himself into the home of a 52-year-old IT engineer through an unlocked door and stabbed him to death overnight in an attempt to seize ~EUR 1.7 million in cryptocurrency, reportedly torturing the victim for hours; the suspect was charged and the crypto seized by investigators.
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3 men posing as police rob €900,000 in bitcoin from a couple during violent homejacking.
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Several individuals posing as police officers attempted to break into a home, hoping to get cryptocurrency.
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Fake delivery person used to gain entry and invade home at gunpoint. Demanded victim's ledger; the victim bit an attacker's finger and fled when a child arrived home. Attackers took jewelry and electronic devices but failed to obtain any cryptocurrency
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A woman defrauded by a fake investment offer went to a Zhunan park with TWD 15,000,000 in cash for a face-to-face crypto purchase; the network's collector, lacking the promised tokens, snatched her backpack and was picked up by car. Both were arrested that evening in a nationwide sweep, then five upstream accomplices; all seven were referred for aggravated robbery and held incommunicado, but the money, already handed to the network's leadership, was not recovered.
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Man seeking to trade detained and assaulted by 4 men at a hotel and forced to hand over crypto passwords, leading to the theft of about $680,000 in cryptocurrency and 42 kg of silver.
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UK game developer and erstwhile crypto enthusiast Sillytuna has reported being forced to hand over almost $24 million worth of crypto in a violent robbery.
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KRW 30,000,000 — Four teenagers approached a man in his thirties via Telegram offering to sell him cryptocurrency 'at a discounted price' in a face-to-face meeting, although they did not actually hold any. On March 2, 2026 around 5:50 p.m., near a residential building in Deogeun-dong (Deogyang-gu, Goyang), they beat him and then fled with 30 million won in cash; one suspect was remanded in custody for aggravated theft, two others were arrested and questioned, and a fourth was still on the run.
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more than USD 700,000 in cryptocurrency — On March 4, 2026, the Central Investigation Directorate (Dicrim) of the Dominican National Police announced it was searching for a man wanted under an arrest warrant for 'unlawful confinement and aggravated theft': according to preliminary information, the victim, a foreign national, was illegally held and then forced to hand over access to his digital assets valued at more than 700,000 dollars. The police stated that the investigation is continuing to determine whether other people were involved and urged the suspect to turn himself in; neither the exact date nor the exact location of the events was disclosed.
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Zheng, defrauded in early 2026 by a network posing as a USDT seller, had TWD 200,000 snatched from him in the street during a meeting in Hsinchu in March 2026, the collector fleeing by car fearing a police setup. After more than a month of investigation, the Hsinchu First Precinct dismantled the gang — ringleader posing as dealer, fake broker, surveillance and fund retrieval roles, rental cars and unlicensed taxis; the four suspects confessed and were placed in pretrial detention.
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A B.Tech student who answered an Instagram ad offering discounted USDT was robbed at gunpoint near the Paschim Vihar East metro station: an attacker forced his way into his car, pointed a pistol while six accomplices surrounded it, and he lost his INR 1.83 lakh investment. Seven network members aged 22 to 31 were arrested — including the ringleader, ruined by INR 62 lakh in export losses — with INR 96,000 and a pistol recovered, and the gang linked to three similar robberies.
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A man posing as a postal worker handed a letter to a homeowner and told the homeowner to open it. The letter demanded an amount of cryptocurrency, before the suspect forced his way inside and assaulted the victim and his wife.
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3 men searched the home of the CEO of Binance France, before realizing he was not there and fleeing after stealing two phones.
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A woman was struck on the head by several masked men who had gone to the wrong address while looking for a crypto entrepreneur.
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In Alanya's Mahmutlar district, four hooded armed individuals intercepted a 46-year-old Ukrainian woman in her residence hallway, forced her inside and tied her hands, then made her unlock her crypto account via facial recognition and transferred EUR 18,000, also taking EUR 5,000, USD 7,000, ~200 g of gold and a watch worth USD 10,000. The gendarmerie's JASAT arrested the four suspects, who had fled; the loot was found in their vehicle and returned, and all four were remanded to Alanya's L-type prison.
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A woman in her fifties, caught by a fake crypto investment ad on Facebook, arranged to hand TWD 6,100,000 in cash to two collectors in Sanchong; growing suspicious when they could not say when the crypto would be credited, she tried to stop the transaction, and the collectors snatched the bag and fled on a scooter, though she grabbed back TWD 1,000,000 in the struggle. Arrested five hours later in Douliu thanks to video surveillance and communications analysis, they were referred for aggravated theft, snatch theft and fraud, with TWD 600,000 and two phones seized.
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Liu Jitao, a 32-year-old Chinese national, was taken gambling in Bangkok by Chinese 'friends' and lost THB 300,000, then held captive in a locked Pattaya hotel room and forced to have his wife transfer 3,000 USDT (~THB 100,000) to pay the debt, after which he managed to send his location. Immigration and tourist police freed him on February 10 2026 and arrested one captor, with another on the run facing extortion with unlawful confinement charges.
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In Indore, crypto trader Abdul Fahad was lured under the pretext of a USDT purchase, forcibly taken from an ATM to an isolated location, stripped of INR 200,000 in cash and forced to transfer 4,000 USDT (~INR 400,000) from his phone — about INR 600,000 total. The ambush had been set up with information from two police constables, a childhood friend of the lurer who passed on the victim's identity and vehicle; both officers were suspended and remanded in custody along with a third suspect, with about INR 100,000 recovered.
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A couple and their 20-year-old daughter were violently held captive by a group of criminals searching for bitcoins.
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Twelve men wearing police reflective vests and displaying service cards burst into a Kajang bungalow housing eight Chinese nationals, searched phones and computers and accused the occupants of links to a Cambodia-based scam syndicate, finding no evidence; under threat of detention and immigration measures they demanded MYR 400,000, settling for 50,000 USDT (~MYR 200,000) transferred to a wallet they provided, and demanded the occupants vacate within two days. Twelve serving police officers aged 24 to 47 were arrested on February 7 and 9 2026, the case classified as gang robbery under Section 395 of the Penal Code.
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A commando broke down the door of the home of a 35-year-old Grenoble magistrate and abducted her along with her 67-year-old mother, demanding a cryptocurrency ransom from the magistrate's partner, who works in a start-up with cryptocurrency activities; the two women, injured, freed themselves after about 30 hours of captivity in a garage. No ransom paid.
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On February 3 2026, Ms. Hsu, 57, a victim of a romance scam followed by a fake investment platform, brought TWD 7,000,000 in cash to a Taipei alley for a face-to-face crypto exchange; while she verified the transaction on the fake app a man grabbed the bag and fled toward Yanping North Road, where a Mercedes picked him up. Police arrested six accomplices within 48 hours and recovered the entire amount; an internal 'black eats black' dispute within the scam network is the favored theory.
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In Ponferrada, five hooded individuals had the building gate opened for them and forced their way into a 52-year-old man's apartment, intimidating the occupants; rather than conventional valuables they took a laptop and a mobile phone, which investigators consider the means of access to crypto wallets. The Policía Nacional is treating this as the province's first documented 'wrench attack'; no arrests have been reported.
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Home invasion by two teenagers posing as delivery drivers seeking an alleged $66M in crypto.
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Five men walked through the unlocked door of a central Zagreb flat, threatened the four young occupants with a knife and gun and forced them to transfer their cryptocurrency, cutting one who refused (~EUR 400,000 total loss); a 50-year-old suspect was reported to prosecutors and four accomplices remain unidentified.
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Near Guui Station in Seoul, five individuals including a soldier on leave posed as cryptocurrency sellers to lure a 42-year-old cash buyer; the group's 17-year-old beat him in an attempt to grab his money, but the group fled without any loot. Prosecuted after his discharge, the soldier was sentenced on August 22 2026 to 2 years in prison and a KRW 5 million fine for aggravated group theft attempt, illegal gambling and providing falsely registered phones.
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A Telegram group called "台中火車站" set up a fake crypto sale. Three minors sent by taxi met him at the scooter park of Miaoli station and, while he was handing them bundles to count, one of them pepper-sprayed his eyes on a coordinator's instructions and ran off with TWD 4 million, the other two taking TWD 160,000. The first minor missed the getaway car; the victim caught and pinned him down, taking back the TWD 4 million. The adult coordinator was sentenced on to 7 years 2 months for aggravated armed group robbery; the three minors were referred to the juvenile court.
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A family was targeted in four home invasion attempts, including one where a shot was fired.
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Five men tipped off about a young online seller's money boxed in his car with two BMWs, took his girlfriend hostage and beat him until he transferred 11,942 USDT and handed over cash; three Tiraspol residents were remanded and two accomplices were charged in absentia.
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A 74-year-old man was kidnapped by individuals seeking to extort cryptocurrency from his son. They tried to cut off his little finger, eventually released him without ransom being paid.
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A 38-year-old Chinese businessman was killed and found buried in the ground with his hands and feet bound with packing tape.
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Around midnight on January 24 2026, a Benin City trader visiting Lagos was intercepted at his residence entrance by armed men wearing police insignia, driven around until morning, then forced at Ladipo to transfer NGN 5,000,000 in bitcoin and surrender his iPhone 17 and Mercedes-Benz ML350. Released around 9 a.m., he was then demanded a further NGN 2,000,000 for the car's return and threatened via WhatsApp; no arrests have been made, and an anti-kidnapping unit officer also extorted NGN 500,000 from him just to open the investigation.
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On January 23 2026, a 54-year-old former Ukrainian banker was lured to Milan by his son under the pretext of a business meeting, then directed via Telegram to a bed and breakfast where men described as 'Russians, professionals' held him captive to force a transfer of EUR 250,000 in cryptocurrency; his wallet was emptied shortly before police arrived, and the autopsy established he had been strangled and was already dead when thrown from the window. His son was arrested in Spain on February 27 2026 on a European arrest warrant for aggravated unlawful confinement resulting in death; the accomplices remain at large.
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Two 19-year-old Russian nationals arranged a cryptocurrency sale on Severni bulevar, then pepper-sprayed the buyer and took the EUR 22,600 she had brought; both were arrested a week later and referred to prosecutors for robbery.
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Attempted kidnapping of a couple working in cryptocurrency, foiled by a building guard who raised the alarm; the commando fled and was intercepted by police.
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Unknown — During the night of Saturday 17 to Sunday 18 January 2026, in a housing estate in Rosières-près-Troyes, a retired couple was surprised in their house by four individuals who tied them up and held them for several hours at home in order to extort cryptocurrency from them.
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Home invasion by 4 men who tied up and threatened a Chinese man, at least $400,000 in crypto stolen.
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A couple kidnapped for their son's money, €8 million in cryptocurrency.
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Home invasion and torture of a League of Legends streamer. He didn't have cryptocurrency, so attackers only took his Pokémon cards; 2 suspects were arrested.
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A gang lured a cryptocurrency buyer via LINE to a Xindian meeting to buy crypto for TWD 3,000,000 in cash, the organizer supplying an electric stun baton; once in the rental car the victim handed over his backpack for 'counting' and was then grabbed by the throat, hit with the stun baton and punched in the face. In the struggle the car crashed into an arcade pillar and the two attackers fled without the money.
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A cryptocurrency investor and their family tied up and beaten.
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Armed home invasion by 2 men who beat and tied up doctor, but she didn't have any crypto.
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43 years old man kidnapped for his crypto.
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A couple and 3 children held hostage for 40min over crypto.
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Unknown (nothing taken) — Tipped off that a crew from the Yvelines was preparing a home invasion against a cryptocurrency investor in Puteaux, the Versailles BRI (police search and intervention unit) put the area under surveillance. On 7 January 2026, a Renault Megane parked near the target's building and figures went inside before leaving, then the car came back during the night; on 8 January, officers caught four members of the gang in the stairwell as they were about to strike, with fake weapons, stun guns, walkie-talkies and break-in tools.
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A woman was held captive by several hooded individuals.
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Young man kidnapped and held captive over crypto scam.
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about KRW 34,000,000 ("3400여만 원") in cash — Four teenagers aged 17 and 18 who had bonded at a juvenile detention center lured a motorist in broad daylight by offering to sell him cryptocurrency at a bargain price, on the premise that "money from people who buy coins in person is dirty money, so they won't file a complaint." Near a residential complex, one got into the passenger seat, two others got into the vehicle, fought with the driver, and left with more than KRW 34 million in cash, one of them leaving his jacket behind in the struggle. The car had been rented using a third party's driver's license fraudulently presented; the four were arrested within a few days of each other and placed in pretrial detention for aggravated group robbery.
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A man was tied up and subjected for several hours to extreme violence by attackers trying to force him to hand over cash, gold and cryptocurrency. A woman in the group had gained his trust several months earlier; the date of the attack was not published and two people were arrested in a Guardia Civil operation announced on 18 September 2026.
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After lengthy surveillance, members of an organized criminal group from Andijan lured a young cryptocurrency exchanger to a fake client meeting at a supermarket, forced him into a Damas van while posing as law enforcement officers, and, threatening him with weapons and bladed objects and with criminal prosecution, demanded USD 150,000 before obtaining a transfer of about USD 100,000 in cryptocurrency, handing him USD 160,000 in counterfeit bills in exchange. The joint MVD and SGB operation led to several arrests, with the two organizers nicknamed "Khoji" and "Mufti" having fled abroad and remaining wanted.
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In January 2026, a group linked to the 太陽聯盟 (Sun Alliance) triad offered a Pingtung resident 20,000 USDT (~NTD 560,000) for 3.28 taels of gold at a Kaohsiung convenience store meeting; after an on-the-spot gold-melting test allayed suspicion, Chen (20) snatched the gold once handed over and fled without delivering the USDT. Four men were arrested in Sanchong and referred in August 2026 to the Ciaotou prosecutor's office for snatch theft and money laundering.
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Two young men, one carrying a food-delivery backpack, rang the door of a student claiming a friend had ordered food, then burst in, threatened him with an air pistol, hit him and took his computer tower, keyboard, bracelet and two watches (~RUB 150,000). One attacker said the computer was the target: he believed the victim's crypto wallets held a large sum.
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An attacker pretending to deliver a package asked the victim for a glass of water and was let into his home; he then pointed a gun, was joined by an additional suspect with a third person providing phone support, and threatened to cut off the victim's fingers before being scared away after the woman escaped and called the police. One suspect was also involved in the December 22 Sunnyvale attack.
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Man kidnapped by attackers posing as police, who demanded victim's older brother pay a cryptocurrency ransom. Brother paid but also called real police who raided and arrested the attackers.
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Around 5 a.m. on December 29 2025, a crew in police uniform with fake IDs and a purported search warrant talked their way into Cem Turan's Antalya villa and handcuffed his two employees; under death and torture threats against him and his family, after first demanding USD 200 million the victim transferred his entire cold wallet — about USD 4 million (~TRY 192 million) in crypto — to attacker-controlled accounts, and the crew also took the surveillance recorder. Thirteen suspects were arrested that day, including serving and retired police officers and foreigners intercepted at the airport; nine were remanded and the trial was ongoing in August 2026.
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Two attackers posing as DoorDash drivers forced their way inside a man's home while brandishing a gun, they fled after the man fought back. The attackers used access to the victim's Doordash account to surveil his location and monitor when he was placing food orders they could impersonate.
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Three attackers invaded a home, tied up family, and made several crypto transfers. Unconfirmed rumor is they took $10M.
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At least three attackers stole multiple briefcases of cash from employees of an unidentified Japanese cryptocurrency company as they arrived at a Hong Kong currency exchange.
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Before 6 a.m. on December 18 2025, Lagos police officers stopped a couple leaving the city, 'profiled' and threatened the husband, seized his phones and took both to the Ogudu station, where he was forced to write a compromising statement without a lawyer; the officers first demanded 5,000 USDT then extorted 2,000 USDT (~NGN 3,330,000) sent to a wallet they provided, erasing all trace of the transaction — a copy of the evidence survived only because the transfer was made from a friend's wallet. After the matter reached the Police Complaints Response Unit and FIJ published an investigation, the officers repaid the full amount.
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A man was attacked by two assailants with a gun while returning home from work. Attack was interrupted midway by a delivery truck driving by and attackers fled.
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Crypto exchange owner & employee threatened by 4 or 5 men with knives. They resisted and the attackers fled empty-handed.
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Couple assaulted by 3 masked men when they returned home. Forced to transfer large sum of cryptocurrency and high value watches.
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A 17-year-old kidnapped by two men to blackmail his older brother, a trader in Dubai.
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From October 26 to December 12 2025, three men surveilled the Miami Beach home of a cryptocurrency holder — drone flyovers, repeated drive-bys, a magnetic GPS tracker planted under his vehicle on December 8, and jammers imported from China to disable Wi-Fi cameras — ahead of a planned kidnapping, extortion or physical theft targeting his crypto assets, to be followed by seed-phrase extraction via fake 'Google Support' calls. The FBI, which had already moved the victim to safety, arrested all three on December 12.
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UK rapper "Buckfiddy" charged with armed robbery of $563K in cryptocurrency and $400K in jewelery.
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A woman described as an influencer in the investment sector was forcibly taken away by car, held captive and beaten, her attackers stealing about JPY 15,000,000 in crypto assets. Four men were arrested by Nagoya's Nishi police and the Aichi prefectural police, with the case made public on December 4 2025 (the date of the arrests, not the events).
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Between late December 2025 and mid-January 2026, a resident of Arvillers (Somme) was targeted by four attempted break-ins by masked, armed men convinced — based on holder files resold on underground markets — that she held a crypto fortune; her wallet held only about EUR 300-400, which the attackers never got, with the four men crossing the border several times trying to seize it.
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The father of a crypto entrepreneur based in Dubai was kidnapped by 4 people.
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A British-Zimbabwean national was lured to Kampala for a fake USD 19,000 gold deal by a network that had learned he held USD 4.25 million in cryptocurrency. The group abducted him from the Hilton Garden Inn in Kamwokya and forced him to give up his passwords; when the transfer failed because he was not the wallet's sole signatory, they took USD 600 in cash, killed him and dumped his body in Lake Victoria.
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Man meeting a long-time counterparty in a pharmacy car park to buy cryptocurrency was ambushed by 2 armed men in hoodies, who took the $85,800 in cash intended for the purchase along with both parties' phones.
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Taiwanese YouTuber, who had moved from gaming to crypto investing, was approached months earlier by Chen, 34, posing as a struggling investor seeking advice; after a 'thank-you' dinner on November 29 2025, Chen led him to a Xinzhuang parking lot where two accomplices forced him into a rental car, and he was driven to Taipei, beaten and threatened he would 'never go home' until he transferred TWD 90,000 and 170,000 USDT (worth over TWD 5 million), before being dropped near Taoyuan Airport. Wu and Li were arrested within 24 hours and held incommunicado; Chen remained at large.
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Son of Ukrainian mayor of Kharkiv betrayed by fellow student, tortured, burned to death after revealing cryptocurrency wallets.
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A 21-year-old man robbed a crypto exchange office using airsoft and smoke grenades, demanding employees transfer cryptocurrency to his wallet. He was arrested at the scene.
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Armed robber posing as a delivery worker invaded home, tied up the homeowner, took $11 million worth of cryptocurrency.
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Six men, including two minors, are suspected of having attempted to kidnap a man holding crypto for the fourth time.
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Ms. Lai, identified in a LINE crypto exchange group, was lured to a Yingge parking lot by three 北聯幇 gang members claiming to sell her nearly USD 30,000 of USDT; after a one-USDT test transfer gained her trust, the executor grabbed the TWD 900,000 she had brought for verification, fled and pepper-sprayed her during the chase, though she recovered TWD 500,000 in the struggle. The three were arrested between November 14 and 18, police recovering about TWD 200,000 and seizing the BMW used along with ketamine.
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Armed assault on mining facility results in death of owner and 1 attacker.
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A gang of three Moscow residents posing as law enforcement identified crypto sellers online, surveilled them to learn their habits, arranged fake-customer meetings and, displaying fake badges, told victims they were being arrested for financing the Ukrainian armed forces, handcuffing them at the slightest resistance and offering a way out: from one trader they demanded RUB 17,000,000, of which more than RUB 1,000,000 was paid as a first installment. The three were arrested and placed under formal investigation for large-scale fraud and arms trafficking, with fake badges, an unregistered firearm, a knuckle-duster, handcuffs, radios and GPS trackers seized.
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Car with 3 women & 2 men robbed by 4 men, who forced an occupant to transfer £1.1 million in cryptocurrency. Attackers were later arrested.
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3 men aged 25-30 charged with kidnapping, sequestration in organized group, extortion and money laundering of a crypto holder; 2 of them are also charged in the December 2025 Dompierre-sur-Mer case.
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Two suspects used a Facebook page dedicated to virtual currency trading to arrange fake exchange meetings and rob the victims — pepper-spraying one who managed to flee, and snatching the money and fleeing in other cases. They were arrested by Holon police after about a month of undercover investigation; laptops, a bitcoin wallet and phones were seized, with total damage estimated at tens of thousands of shekels.
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A crypto blogger was lured to a meeting and taken to a Moscow parking lot, where he was threatened with a pistol and forced to hand over NFTs worth about RUB 60,000, the attackers also demanding a crypto transfer; the teenager deceived them by claiming to hold more than RUB 9,000,000 and, released to make the transfer, used the opportunity to alert the police. Three suspects were identified and arrested and are prosecuted for armed robbery and extortion.
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On November 1 2025, a foreign national who had posted a Telegram ad offering USDT for sale was lured to an apartment in Santiago's Gurabo sector, where attackers tied him, tried to suffocate him with a towel and held a gun to his head until he surrendered his passcode; they emptied his crypto account (~USD 700,000) to Binance and ByBit addresses and abandoned him beaten on a vacant lot in Bonao. Joan Carlos Miranda Furcal, described as the network's leader and previously convicted, is at large under an arrest warrant (issued March 2026).
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3 men kidnap victim off street, force him to send $9,375 USDT. Attackers were later arrested.
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Three hooded men broke into a family home on Halloween night, tied up a couple and the grandmother with cable ties and beat them in front of 2 young children, attempting to extort €200,000 in cryptocurrency. The transfer never went through.
Report: francebleu.fr Archive copy Report: ici.fr Archive copy
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After being defrauded of TWD 280,000 in July 2025 by a 'broker' named Lin, Mr. Chen set up a sting with police for a staged TWD 3,000,000 purchase on October 29 2025; the mule Pu grabbed the bag, two minor accomplices attacked the waiting officers with a baseball bat and a bladed weapon injuring two, and another accomplice retrieved the bag while Lin sped off. Lin and Wang were arrested the next day (an air pistol seized), then 9 more members of the 風飛砂 gang in early December 2025 — 13 in total — recovering TWD 781,600.
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Russian influencer kidnapped, beaten, tased, until he transferred $4,600 in cryptocurrency. Attackers later demanded $1M which he couldn't pay, after which he was released.
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Ms. Ding parked in Taipei with TWD 1,920,000 in cash to buy USDT from a 'broker' met online; a man named Tang got into the back seat, never transferred the tokens, forcibly grabbed the cash and fled on foot with the victim chasing and shouting 'thief'. Police intercepted him about 20 minutes later in his rental car and recovered the money; he turned out to be a mule for a fraud network and was referred for prosecution and detained.
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A Telegram-directed cell lured a buyer with a fake cryptocurrency sale to a Taichung car park with TWD 2,440,000 in cash; an accomplice counted the money, two others pepper-sprayed the victim and his companion, and when the victim refused to let go of the bag he was stabbed in the leg before the attackers fled without the money. The same cell had attempted a similar robbery in Dali the day before.
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Directed via Telegram, four men lured a buyer to a Dali (Taichung) temple for a TWD 1,100,000 cash-for-USDT exchange, fitting fake plates to their vehicle beforehand; once the victim sat in the back seat with the counted cash, an accomplice pepper-sprayed him, but he grabbed back the money and jumped from the moving vehicle, foiling the robbery. The four were sentenced on August 12 2026 to 3 years 10 months to 4 years 10 months for attempted armed gang robbery.
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A man was kidnapped by three men in military uniform, zip tied, beaten and threatened with weapons while held hostage in a basement. He was released after transferring 83,000 USDT; the attackers were quickly identified and detained.
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Three men posing as Crime Branch officers broke into Sneh Parmar's Indore home, accused him of fraud, beat him and his father, and drove them away, forcing him under threat of imprisonment to transfer 5,773 USDT (~INR 5.12 lakh) from his trading account and demanding more money to 'hush up the case'. The three were arrested following technical analysis and account freezes; a fourth accomplice is on the run.
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Russian crypto scammer kidnapped, ransomed, murdered, dismembered by Russian nationals after random demands were not met.
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Bitcoin trader kidnapped by 2 cops & 2 other attackers, released after family paid $45K ransom.
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AMD 14,000,000 (USD 35,000 to 37,000 according to sources) — Two men posing as police officers entered the apartment of foreign nationals in Yerevan, claiming to have found drugs there, then took them away under the pretext of driving them to the police station, actually heading onto the Yerevan-Sevan road. There, threatening to release compromising material, they forced one of them to transfer the equivalent of 14 million drams (about USD 35,000) in cryptocurrency.
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A woman and her two children were threatened by two masked individuals in order to blackmail her husband, who is a crypto investor.
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At noon on September 30 2025, the owner of a currency exchange office in Saadatabad was shot twice while parking his car in western Tehran, with dollars and euros scattered near the body; the shooter, an already client, had ordered the equivalent of 6 billion tomans in dollars and euros paid in Tether and planned with accomplice Majid to kill him at the handover, in an area scouted as camera-free. Both men were arrested in Karaj less than a month later, and an indictment for premeditated murder and complicity was issued in late July 2026.
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Four people arrested after robbing family of millions of dollars worth of cryptocurrency.
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Three men and a woman climbed over the fence of a crypto entrepreneur’s property to kidnap him.
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In Port Harcourt, five men in unmarked black tactical gear presenting themselves as Bayelsa State police stopped a resident's Bolt ride, pulled him out, beat and handcuffed him — including a blow to the neck with a gun butt — and drove him out of the city in an unmarked minibus, where he was forced to unlock his phone and liquidate more than USD 3,000 (over NGN 5,000,000) in crypto from his Trust Wallet, the funds converted to naira and withdrawn through several POS operators. The victim posted the transaction receipts on X; the police spokesperson did not respond to requests for comment.
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Home invasion of victims suspected of owning USD 3,800,000 in cryptocurrency. Attackers duct taped and threatened victims but found no crypto; 7 suspects were later arrested.
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Two brothers from Texas held a MN family hostage at gunpoint for nine hours, forced the father to drive 3 hours to the family cabin to transfer $36,000 in crypto. Son called 911 and attackers were caught.
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On the morning of September 19 2025, a young man disguised as a DHL courier rang the door of an Arnhem house and rushed inside followed by three other men; the occupants were zip-tied in the bedroom while the attackers demanded crypto wallet access codes under threat, beating the resident (who had freed himself) severely enough to hospitalize him, and taking the safe keys and a legally owned automatic CZ 858 rifle before fleeing toward Amsterdam-Zuidoost.
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On September 15 2025, a gang led by a police head constable, with other officers and accomplices posing as senior officers, abducted three men in Noida and held them captive at several Ludhiana locations, forcing them to transfer 999 UST and 3,650 USDT and surrender gift cards worth INR 1 lakh, seizing their phones and valuables and demanding ransoms of several crore rupees. Several arrests followed (FIR no. 18, Cyber Crime police station, Khanna), with two released on bail on March 11 2026, the court noting a larger criminal syndicate.
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A Telegram organiser who had learned the victim wanted to buy USDC and told Chiang Ping-hsun to pepper spray the buyer, tie him up and destroy the dashcam; He pepper-sprayed Yang and tried to leave with the money, but Yang held him back and pinned him down until the driver who had brought Chiang called the police. Chiang, arrested on the spot, received a suspended sentence of 1 year 10 months.
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Armed home-invasion: attackers bound and stabbed the resident, forced him to open an Exodus wallet and transferred ~4.94862 BTC and ~42,248.5 USDT (total ≈ $590k), stole a Trezor hardware wallet, laptop and a Rolex; suspects threatened victim and family.
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A Telegram-organized group lured a buyer offering 10,000 USDT for TWD 300,000 at a Chiayi 7-Eleven; once the victim handed over the cash, an accomplice shot him in the face with a handgun (described as an air pistol), fracturing his left facial bone, while the driver drove them away to Taichung. The Chiayi court sentenced the driver to 7 years and 4 months for aggravated robbery committed by a group of three or more with a weapon.
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Victim targeted via a fake Litmatch investment profile that referred him to a supposed exchanger, handed TWD 2 million in cash to collector Yeh Hung-yu; after receiving a single test USDT he tried to call off the deal and take back the bag, and Yeh chased him and pepper-sprayed him while trying to wrench the bag away, until passers-by stepped in and Yeh drove off. Yeh was arrested the same day.
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Victim forced into a van by 5 men, physically assaulted, threatened with a gun. Released after being forced to transfer cryptocurrency.
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On the morning of September 5 2025, a man who had come from Da Nang with VND 3,000,000,000 in cash (~USD 114,000) to buy USDT was lured into a fake cash-for-crypto meeting in Hung Yen province: four men staged the transaction, snatched the bag of cash and scattered across provinces. Within 48 hours the criminal police arrested all four in simultaneous operations; they confessed and were placed under formal investigation and pretrial detention on September 11 2025.
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Family tied up, mock executed, $200,000 robbed. Saved by other family members who were contacted via video game chat.
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A man was kidnapped and tortured for 4 days, possible mistaken identity. He was rescued by GIGN and 7 suspects were arrested.
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A Russian national went to a house for a business investment consultation; when he arrived, a group of four Russians assaulted him and forced him to transfer 35,000 USDT. The attackers fled the country, but one was caught aboard a ferry.
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Three men who knew a man held a large amount of cryptocurrency forced him into their car. He was held for about a week until more than RUB 1.3 billion in cryptocurrency reached their wallets, and two of them took RUB 50 million in cash from his apartment.
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A former cryptocurrency trader, aged 35, was kidnapped and held captive between Paris and Saint-Germain-en-Laye (Yvelines). The kidnappers demanded €10K from his wife for his release.
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Chinese nationals kidnap man, hold him hostage for a day until he hands over 60,000 USDT.
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A 25-year-old man from the Tosno district got himself hired as a security guard at a Saint Petersburg crypto exchange office with the sole purpose of robbing it; taking advantage of a moment when only the manager was present, he pepper-sprayed him in the face and fled with RUB 11,000,000. He bought a Mercedes G-Wagen with the proceeds and was arrested near Moscow; prosecuted for armed robbery, he already has a criminal record.
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At a Rio de Janeiro event, three women offered two British tourists caipirinhas laced with a drowsing substance ('boa noite Cinderela') and, once the victims were unable to react, withdrew GBP 2,100 from their accounts (GBP 300 converted to crypto, GBP 1,800 in four transactions), while an attempted GBP 16,000 transfer failed on facial recognition. The Rio prosecutor's office indicted them in August 2025 for theft with improper violence, aggravated electronic fraud theft and criminal association, requesting pretrial detention.
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At around 3 a.m. on August 11 2025, five masked armed men with a signal jammer, guided by a sixth accomplice by phone, broke into crypto entrepreneur Álvaro Romillo's villa near Madrid shortly after his return from Ibiza; he and his partner were gagged, bound and held about four hours with pistols chambered at their heads, the attackers demanding EUR 40 million in crypto and obtaining a forced transfer of EUR 1,300,000 plus cash, jewelry, 30+ watches and 20 gold coins — roughly EUR 3 million total. On May 28 2026 the Policía Nacional announced the dismantling of the Tren de Aragua-linked network: six Venezuelans were arrested, three remanded, for this home invasion and two similar apartment invasions, one in which a resisting victim was shot in the face.
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Robbers posing as food-delivery workers tied up a family with three children in their home and threatened to shoot the mother unless the family handed over their cryptocurrency.
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5 men threatened, kidnapped, and beat a crypto industry worker before stealing 2M euros in bitcoin from him. The attackers were quickly captured by police.
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4 Chinese nationals kidnapped a man seeking money transfer services. Victim was handcuffed, threatened with a firearm, physically harmed, and forced to transfer $50,000.
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On August 2 2025 in Lima, six men posing as National Police officers intercepted Colombian crypto investor Juan Mauricio Padilla Piraban as he left his hotel for the airport, put him in a police patrol car and held him captive for hours at gunpoint in an abandoned house, first demanding USD 1,000,000 then USD 400,000 from his digital wallet, with an accomplice 'hacker' tasked with converting and transferring the funds. Tracked by police intelligence, the kidnappers changed vehicles several times before pushing the victim from a moving car; he was recovered unharmed, nothing was paid, and several active-duty officers were arrested.
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Unknown (debt arising from digital asset transactions, not quantified by police) — A middle-aged man was abducted in the city of Kerman by a group whose motive, established by the provincial judicial police, was to recover a debt arising from cryptocurrency transactions. Injured, he was abandoned by his captors in the Mahan road area; four suspects, including one of the main suspects arrested within days, were taken into custody and the search continues for the others.
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On August 25 2025, four men wearing jackets marked 'Justitie' held a Utrecht resident captive for hours in his home — hooded, gagged, bound and pushed under the shower with a firearm constantly pointed at him — to obtain credentials and empty his crypto account, taking more than EUR 40,000 in cryptocurrencies plus cash, USB keys, car keys, a laptop, a phone and a wallet; the injured victim was hospitalized. Several suspects were arrested; a 23-year-old from Amsterdam acknowledged a logistical role at a February 16 2026 hearing, while another was released for lack of evidence.
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RSD 6,000,000 in cash (over EUR 50,000 according to the Greek press), brought for a USDT purchase; no cryptocurrency was part of the loot — Contacted on Telegram by a fake seller calling himself 'Marko', a cryptocurrency buyer agreed to buy USDT for EUR 55,000 to 60,000 and went on 16 July 2025 at about 10 pm, with his partner and a bag holding 6 million dinars in cash, to a locked exchange office on Ustanicka Street in Belgrade. The sellers pushed him against the door, one of them hit him on the head and an unidentified accomplice threatened him with a knife ('let go of the bag or I'll stab you') while another snatched the bag; the attackers fled to a Skoda Superb driven by a fourth man.
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3 men lured a trader into a trap and assaulted him while demanding 50,000 USDT. The victim's father contacted police and they managed to find and rescue him.
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5 constables kidnap 2 men and extort them with threats of false criminal charges until they handed over cash and $9,000 USD worth of cryptocurrency. Cops were later arrested and fired.
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Men who flaunted wealth on social media kidnapped and tortured for 2 days before being rescued by police
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During the night of July 11-12 2025, a trader and programmer leaving Belo Horizonte with friends for Rio de Janeiro said the couple diverted the route, pointed a gun at his neck, tied him up and forced him under threat of death to transfer about BRL 600,000 in crypto; military police alerted by gunfire in Brumadinho found him shouting from a stopped BMW that he was being held captive, and the couple later turned themselves in. The suspects dispute this version — one claims he was lured into a trap — and pretrial detention had not yet been ratified at publication.
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At a home in Jimbaran (Bali), two Russian gangsters strangled Roman Smeliov, 42, with tape and beat him while two uniformed Indonesian immigration officers threatened him with deportation, imprisonment or death and seized his phone — only to realize they had the wrong target, a Russian mastermind having paid an officer to locate a man 'R' who owed IDR 2.3 billion. Bali's police chief said the Russian network had operated at 27 crime scenes between January and July 2025 with a consistent abduction-violence-forced-crypto-transfer modus operandi; four suspects were arrested and presented to the press on August 1 2025.
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Victim kidnapped by 6 men and held for 10 days until he transferred $6,000 in fiat & cryptocurrency
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A woman was attacked at her home and punched 10 times in front of her husband and children.
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During the night of July 5 2025, four masked men prowled around the home of 'Buenos Aires', founder of Fiji Solutions and convicted for a crypto pyramid scheme; alerted, he called the police, who were met with gunfire, and the ensuing chase ended with the vehicle rolling over near Gurjão, killing one occupant while the other three fled. A suspect arrested the next day confessed to the attempted kidnapping, saying he was to handle 'the financial part'; two men remain at large and police are investigating the link to the pyramid scheme.
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A man was befriended by a group of 4 men while drinking, who eventually followed him home and knocked him out with a wrench before forcing him to use Face ID to access accounts and transfer cryptocurrency.
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Four men who had arrived in a rental car called the victim claiming to have damaged his vehicle in order to get him to come outside; four individuals in camouflage clothing and balaclavas then forcibly took him back into his apartment, tied him up and beat him, then forced him to hand over the access codes to his phone and his account on an exchange platform, from which they transferred the equivalent of 4.6 million rubles in cryptocurrency. Identified through surveillance cameras, they were arrested in Bashkortostan.
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Unknown (value of the machine not disclosed) — During the night of Thursday July 17 to Friday July 18, 2025, burglars forced open the entrance door of an office building in Greinsfurth (Amstetten) and, using an unidentified means of transport, made off with the heavy bitcoin ATM installed in a room on the upper floor. The criminal investigation unit (KAD Wieselburg) collected forensic evidence and is reviewing CCTV footage and neighborhood testimony; no other bitcoin ATM theft was known in Lower Austria, and no arrest has been reported.
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Shortly before 5 a.m. on July 1 2025, the Ontario Provincial Police responded to an armed home invasion in Hillside, east of Huntsville, closing Highway 11, issuing a shelter-in-place order and pursuing suspects with a canine unit. Eight people aged 16 to 32 were charged between July 2025 and February 2026 with armed robbery, kidnapping with a firearm, unlawful confinement and armed assault; neighbors claimed the attack targeted cryptocurrency, but the OPP declined to confirm the motive.
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OTC trade of $100,000 USD worth of baht for crypto in a mall parking garage. The 7 suspects had done smaller trades with the victims previously.
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Four men presented as Russians forced their way at gunpoint into the Jomtien (Pattaya) hotel room of a young Russian national, handcuffed, blindfolded and beat him, filming him to pressure his partner in Bangkok, and forced him to transfer the equivalent of about 1.9-2 million THB in bitcoin; the partner also deposited a Rolex Daytona (~500,000-600,000 THB) in a hiding place, bringing the total to ~2.5 million THB. The victim was abandoned and filed a complaint that evening; a Russian suspect was arrested but charged only with illegal residence, with the bitcoin tracing still under investigation.
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OTC trade of $240,000 worth of rupees into USDT. Half a dozen men interrupted the transaction and robbed him.
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Victim tricked into attending a business meeting that ended up being a wrench attack trap. Attack failed, 2 attackers were killed by police, mastermind was caught fleeing to Miami.
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In the underground parking lot of a Yongin commercial building, two men lured a buyer they had met via social media with an over-the-counter crypto transaction at a discounted rate, then overpowered and beat him as he got into their vehicle and fled with a bag containing KRW 70,000,000 (~USD 51,000). The accomplice was arrested at the scene and the fleeing ringleader on June 30 in Seoul's Gangnam-gu; both are prosecuted for aggravated robbery.
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A 23-year-old man was held for several hours, and the kidnappers demanded a 5k ransom from his wife.
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TikTok trader kidnapped by 4 men as he was returning home, attackers demanded 50K EUR, released after opening his wallet and finding a tiny balance.
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A man presented as a cryptocurrency scammer was lured to Brussels by a fake romantic date, then intercepted by four men who locked him in an underground parking garage basement in Evere and tortured him for about an hour with a hot iron, electrical cables and waterboarding; one tormentor, a restaurant owner, said he had lost EUR 40,000 after entrusting him with his bank card and codes. On January 23 2026 the four men were sentenced to 5 years (3 suspended); the woman who acted as bait was acquitted.
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Unknown (multiple victims; no figure published) — In early June 2025, the Chaco police and the cybercrime division of the Buenos Aires city police dismantled a gang in Resistencia that identified cryptocurrency holders, broke violently into their homes, and, using beatings and firearm threats, forced them to transfer their crypto assets to accounts controlled by the group, then to delete their original accounts to erase the trace of the operations. Ten searches led to nine arrests and the seizure of cryptocurrency, cash, firearms, electronic equipment and vehicles; the suspects are being prosecuted for aggravated robbery and unlawful deprivation of liberty.
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Outside a Utrecht bowling alley, three men pulled the victim into an isolated alley and, for about thirty minutes, threatened reprisals against his relatives (holding a handwritten note with names and addresses supplied by a complicit friend) while he transferred cryptocurrencies worth about USD 30,000, then attempted to extort a further EUR 100,000. He filed a complaint that same night.
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Chechens invite victims to dinner, take them hostage and demand ransom. A friend sends them $43,000 and they flee to UAE.
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Police arrest 10 men in balaclavas, foiling their attempted kidnapping of a crypto entrepreneur.
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Russian nationals lure victim to hotel for crypto trade, attempt to rob him of 1 billion won, but victim escaped.
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Victims were being surveilled, had GPS tracker placed on their car. Police counter-surveilled the kidnappers and arrested 5 people before they attacked.
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Crypto founder abducted by men posing as military, forced to transfer $500,000 at gunpoint. One suspect later arrested.
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Four men in military-style clothing presenting themselves as a security agency forced a cryptocurrency trader into a car near Kyiv's Volodymyrskyi market and drove him to a basement, where at gunpoint he transferred USD 170,000 from his wallets, gathered another USD 130,000 in cash from relatives and was ordered to hand over half his business profits monthly. Prosecutors say the gang was led by an officer of a Ukrainian assault battalion armed with a service pistol and an AK-74, and targeted crypto traders.
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3 Chinese citizens entered Paraguay illegally, tried to rob a mining facility, got in a shootout with police, were deported.
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Attempted abduction of crypto exchange CEO's daughter in broad daylight, caught on camera, attackers were fought off by her partner & bystanders.
Report: bbc.com Archive copy Report: cryptonews.com Archive copy
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American tourist drugged by fake Uber driver who drained wallets of $123K in BTC & XRP.
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Crypto entrepreneur tortures man for weeks with a chainsaw & taser in a luxury $30K+ per month apartment. Victim escaped w/o giving up funds.
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On May 6 2025, a group abducted the complainant at Kumbla (Kerala), beat him and stripped him of 20,743 USDT; six accused are being prosecuted under the BNS, two were arrested on June 4 2025 and denied bail by the Kerala High Court on July 2 2025, and accused nos. 1 and 6 remain at large.
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In the first minutes of May 2 2025, an armed group overpowered the security guard at the Global Hass crypto-mining company in Caaguazú, brought in a heavy-duty truck and loaded about 130 mining machines they had unplugged and ripped out, along with the solar panels powering the installation. The Caaguazú police opened an investigation amid a series of attacks on mining sites in the region.
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A 50-year-old Spaniard of Russian origin posed as a cryptocurrency seller on social media and arranged to meet buyers in shopping center parking lots in Leganés, Madrid and Valladolid; once victims got into his stolen car with fake plates he threatened them with a handgun (in reality fake) and stole the cash intended for the purchases, totaling EUR 28,000. Arrested on May 9 2025 in possession of the fake pistol and over EUR 1,500 cash, he was brought before the courts and incarcerated.
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A criminal organization 'focused on cryptocurrencies' was dismantled in Batman on May 11 2025 after a six-month investigation: a female key figure selected crypto holders and supplied their addresses and schedules, while other members in balaclavas handcuffed victims at wrists and ankles, abducted them at gunpoint and transferred their crypto to other accounts, also firing at night on certain victims' businesses and vehicles. Simultaneous operations in three provinces identified 10 suspects, 9 of whom were jailed.
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Father of crypto millionaire abducted in broad daylight, 5M EUR ransom demanded, finger severed before being rescued by police.
Report: france24.com Archive copy Report: cryptonews.com Archive copy
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In the early hours of April 30 2025, six to seven men broke into a house in Aylesbury, gathered the seven occupants aged 21 to 75 and demanded cryptocurrency transfers; when the victims could not comply they were violently beaten, leaving one with a fractured spine. The gang had used GPS trackers and signal jammers; Glen Johnson, arrested at the scene, was found guilty on March 6 2026 and sentenced to 15 years in prison.
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On April 30 2025, at least four armed individuals overpowered a crypto-asset trader at his Resistencia home, beat him and held him captive about four hours, using his biometric data to unlock his phone and transfer about USD 150,000 in digital assets before forcing him to delete his crypto apps. An OnlyFans content creator who had prior contact with the victim reportedly supplied the gang with his address, schedule and the nature of his operations.
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About a dozen masked men in military-style clothing, armed with rifles and handguns, stormed the Richford S.A. mining data center in Altos, tied up the guards, took employees hostage and made off with 360 to 500 ASIC mining machines (estimated USD 2,000-2,500 each) belonging to a French national, plus phones, computers, a revolver and the video surveillance equipment. Eleven machines were found in Ciudad del Este in late May and a truck driver was arrested and charged on May 29 2025.
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KRW 150,000,000 (about USD 104,500) — On April 26, 2025, around 2:00 p.m., on a public street in Yeonsu-dong (Incheon), an Uzbek woman handed over KRW 150 million in cash to a Russian seller as part of a cryptocurrency transaction; three Russian accomplices then attacked him, beat him, and took back the bag of money. The gang had prepared a vehicle with a false license plate, which was abandoned after the incident on a deserted road in Yeongjongdo.
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Gang poses as police, kidnaps victim, forces him to hand over Bitcoin.
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Chuang Wen-che, 23, was randomly approached in Songshan District by a man claiming to 'negotiate a debt' on behalf of a scam organization that accused him of embezzling TWD 20 million; taken to a private site in Shilin, he was stripped, shackled and beaten by four men until he surrendered his phone passcodes, after which USDT 6,859.9 was transferred and TWD 9,334 withdrawn, and a ransom reduced to TWD 6 million was demanded from his mother. Police, alerted early that morning, located the vehicle and freed the victim in under eight hours, arresting the kidnappers and seizing handcuffs, baseball bats, machetes and stun batons.
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On the night of April 4-5 2025, four residents of Magistralny climbed the fence of an industrial site, broke into a warehouse and stole 28 mining machines worth more than RUB 5.3 million, later moved between hiding places. The equipment was recovered from a truck and returned; the court found them guilty of group theft on an especially large scale, sentencing them to suspended terms of 1 year 8 months to 2 years.
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Masked armed individuals attacked a couple, shooting man in the leg as he tried to flee, then held both victims for several hours in a house while trying to access their crypto wallets; the woman was released around midnight and the man's body was found shortly afterwards in a wooded area. Attackers were arrested in December.
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A 22-year-old man from Isère was lured to a fake romantic date via social media and driven to Moirans, where masked individuals pulled him from the vehicle at shotgun point, beat and held him for several hours; convinced from his online posts that he held a large sum in cryptoassets, the attackers left with his watch, jewelry and car keys and unsuccessfully demanded money the next day. Five suspects aged 21 to 23 were arrested on November 5 2025 and placed under formal investigation for unlawful confinement, attempted extortion and armed robbery.
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In late April 2025, a business owner from Lara State was abducted by an armed commando and held 19 days; relatives paid between USD 500,000 and 800,000 in USDT out of the USD 1 million demanded before his release in mid-May. The gang, nicknamed 'Los Cripto Activos', included serving and former CONAS officers: five were arrested and five others remain at large.
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A businessman was lured by a woman to a house and taken hostage; the attackers demanded USD 20,000,000 in cryptocurrency and received over USD 3,000,000 in multiple tranches, killing the victim anyway.
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Man brought a bag containing €5 million in cash to trade for crypto when he was attacked by two assailants, one of whom slashed him with a knife. He fought them off and they were later arrested.
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Man kidnapped by 2 fake police officers, held for a week and drugged, demanded $50M, escaped on his own.
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Crypto manager surveilled, mother kidnapped, ransomed for 5 BTC. 4 people were later arrested.
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On the morning of March 20 2025, a gang of young organized-crime members broke into a call center used for a stock-investment scam, threatened employees with edged weapons and extorted 43,700 USDT (KRW 64.44 million). The two ringleaders, who had met in detention, had planned the robbery against the fraudulent operation, recruiting young affiliates and supplying the weapons.
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During the night of March 20 2025, four men broke into a house on Wechelsebaan in Lille, beat and tied up the 40-year-old occupant while talking about cryptocurrency, but realized they had the wrong target after opening his phone and left; police found him shirtless, tied with a belt, gagged with tape and with a bruised eye. Only the driver, a 25-year-old from Mol, was tried by the Turnhout criminal court in September 2026, with judgment expected on October 28 2026; the other attackers and those who ordered the attack remain unidentified.
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On the evening of March 17 2025, a group posing as police officers intercepted a victim in his building's private parking lot in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, drove him to an industrial warehouse, and held him for several hours, forcing him under threats and assault to make a large cryptocurrency transfer and taking cash and valuables before abandoning him with warnings not to alert authorities. Operation 'Kripto' led in August 2026 to seven arrests, including two pretrial detentions.
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Man sells HK $318,000 worth of cryptocurrency, is then beaten with a stick and robbed of the cash he received.
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A man who announced in a WhatsApp crypto trading group that he wanted to buy USD 5,000 of digital currency was lured to a park in Kiryat Bialik, where after handing over 50 $100 bills 'to verify their authenticity' he was pepper-sprayed by an unidentified accomplice while the defendant pushed him, and the two fled with the money. An indictment for aggravated robbery was filed on March 31 2025, requesting detention until the end of proceedings.
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During the night of March 9-10 2025, Belgian federal police spotted a reconnaissance operation by a French commando in Braine-l'Alleud and arrested ten people including a minor before any attack; searches uncovered in Loverval a plastic-lined torture room stocked with cable ties, saws, pliers and other tools, intended for kidnapping and torturing the 13- and 17-year-old relatives of a crypto-wealthy investor for ransom. In March 2026 the Brussels court convicted seven defendants to 12-14 years; the suspected mastermind, arrested in Tangier and linked to several French crypto kidnappings, faces extradition.
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A woman who believed a cryptocurrency trader had swindled her of EUR 15,000 went to his home with an accomplice and two men from Amsterdam, who beat him and held a kitchen knife to his throat. They demanded his Ledger hardware wallet and cryptocurrency and left with the Ledger, EUR 5,000 in cash, keys, Cartier glasses and a Moncler jacket.
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Popular Streamer Amouranth posts screenshot of $20M BTC wallet, becomes victim of armed home invasion. Her husband defended her by shooting an attacker.
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Victim kidnapped by gang who took him into the woods, kicked and punched him, poured gasoline over him, threatened to set him on fire, placed pliers to his hand, and threatened to cut off his fingers.
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Victim was lured into a trap, beaten, tied up, forced to give access to his accounts, emptied of around $200,000.
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Naiping Hou, 74, father of the chief investment officer of crypto fund Coincident Capital, was last seen mid-March 2025 at his Rancho Cucamonga home and not reported missing until a May 4 wellness check found the house emptied of furniture and belongings; more than USD 1,000,000 was siphoned from his accounts through withdrawals, unauthorized vehicle sales, and gold and crypto purchases, with 'robotic' texts sent to family from his phone. The sheriff and FBI treat the case as a possible kidnapping motivated by the family's crypto fortune; no arrests and no trace of the victim to date, with a USD 250,000 family reward.
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Four men who had entrusted funds to a 22-year-old Chelyabinsk crypto trader who lost them on the markets demanded repayment plus interest totaling RUB 8,000,000; in March 2025 they kidnapped him and held him captive for a week in a house where he was beaten, and in May they made the same demands of his 48-year-old mother. The four suspects were arrested, with two high-end vehicles and cash seized.
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A gang staged a fake over-the-counter USDT deal: once the dealer transferred more than 40,000 USDT to their wallet, they pepper-sprayed him and forcibly took back the CNY 340,000+ in cash; the whole gang was arrested the next day and five were sentenced to 5.5 to 10.3 years in February 2026.
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Chinese gang kidnaps victim, extorts 600,000 USDT, are quickly apprehended by police.
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4 Chinese suspects stab man lured to perform a trade in hotel room, steal 85 million won.
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In February 2025 four foreign men, assisted by a Portuguese businesswoman, targeted a Luso-Brazilian financial intermediary at his home in Sao Pedro do Sul, believing he held codes releasing several million dollars in dividends; under coercion they forced him on February 20 to retrieve a device from a bank safe deposit box in Viseu supposedly containing thousands of bitcoins, but he claimed a technical problem, returned to the bank and raised the alarm, triggering the PSP and Judicial Police. Four men were jailed pending trial, followed by the businesswoman; all five were subsequently convicted.
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TWD 13,000,000 (cash + cryptocurrencies) + a Maserati — In mid-February 2025, a man working in cryptocurrency training and his wife were lured to Ximending (Taipei) under the pretext of a video shoot whose script had been arranged the day before; on arrival, the attackers changed the meeting location and nine men dressed in black surrounded them, handcuffed them, beat them and threatened them with a knife and a firearm to force them to transfer all their cash and cryptoassets, amounting to TWD 13 million, and to take their Maserati. Held captive for a day and a half, photographed naked under duress, the victim had his head split open against a steel bar (two stitches); more than five months after the complaint was filed, no suspect had been arrested, with the couple stating that the gang had already robbed one of their friends a week earlier.
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Crypto investor lured to meeting by woman, abducted by 3 men who demand 40K EUR.
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Li You-kuan, a leader of the Hongren cell of the Bamboo Union who had lost his commissions after his intermediary switched exchanges, organized an ambush against a cryptocurrency trader in Taipei: on February 8 2025 the victim and a friend were pinned at knife and gunpoint, tied up, forced to transfer more than 330,000 USDT (NT$10.93 million) and to film a 'voluntary' transfer video, then released after two hours. The same gang attacked a cryptocurrency trainer and his wife a week later.
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A crypto trader who casually mentioned his profession to men he met at a hotel was later invited over, taken hostage, and held for a EUR 30,000 ransom. He called a friend, who alerted police and got him rescued.
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Woman conspires with brother & gang to rob her boyfriend of 3 iPhones and $10K USD of bitcoin.
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Man lured into OTC trade, ambushed and kidnapped at shopping center. Wife called police and gave them location of his phone; he was rescued.
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Seven individuals rented the apartment above a Brasov crypto trading meeting place; in February 2025 five in balaclavas and 'Politia'-marked clothing broke in staging a home search, zip-tying the four men, and after a failed conversion attempt used violence and coercion to force transfers of over USD 595,000 to their wallets, also taking watches and currency worth about USD 100,000. Operation Jupiter (June 2025) led to 28 searches in eight counties and three arrests.
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USD 500,000 in cryptoassets (targeted, not obtained) — A father and his eldest son, residing in Croatia, commissioned from abroad the kidnapping and torture of the younger son in Ukraine in order to make him hand over a USB key containing USD 500,000 in cryptoassets, recruiting perpetrators in the Zaporizhzhia region. The National Police of Ukraine infiltrated the plot, replaced the perpetrators with its own officers, staged the kidnapping and sent fake photos of the bloodied victim; the instigators were caught out after a second payment and are being prosecuted under Article 189 §4 of the Criminal Code (up to 12 years and confiscation).
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Five men contacted Mr. Qiu via Messenger and Telegram claiming they would sell him 20,000 USDT for TWD 600,000 cash; at the meeting Cai pepper-sprayed him while Zheng whisked him away on a scooter wrapped in tape to hide its plates, and the group scattered after regrouping at a temple. Gu, Cai and Zheng were arrested and prosecuted for snatch theft; the two men named Li remain under arrest warrants.
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From mid-January to mid-February 2025, an organized network using stolen vehicles burgled Melbourne-area businesses, taking six cryptocurrency dispensers and about AUD 50,000 in collectible cards. The February 17 search turned up five firearms, ammunition, about a hundred car keys, a pill press and tools; four men were charged, and police suspect Middle Eastern organized crime syndicates commissioned the thefts.
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Victim was lured by his friend Siavash to a garden near Damavand, where Siavash and an accomplice, Hamid, tied him up and tortured him to extract the password to his bitcoin wallet, estimated at 20 billion tomans; when he resisted they shot him dead and buried the body, and the bitcoins were never recovered. Siavash's conviction was overturned by the Supreme Court and sent for retrial, while Hamid's 25-year sentence was upheld.
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In February and March 2025, three active Moscow police officers showed their service IDs, accused young men of terrorism complicity and threatened arrest before offering to 'settle' the matter, extorting the equivalent of USD 27,400 in crypto from one and about USD 15,000 (~RUB 1.2 million) from two others, with a civilian suspected of acting as the group's 'banker'. Criminal cases for abuse of power were opened on April 18 2025, with total damage estimated at about RUB 4 million.
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A crypto broker presenting himself as CEO of Crypto-World was held at gunpoint after an OTC transaction whose buyers, paid with funds from a bank intrusion, felt cheated when the transfer was blocked; police tracking his phone arrested four kidnappers, and a wider gang was dismantled in April 2026.
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Criminals invade home, hold family hostage, force transfer of $16,000 USD in cryptocurrencies
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Four men threatened a 38-year-old with a firearm and beat him in an Amora street, demanding money, phone, passwords and access codes to his bank and cryptoasset accounts before fleeing; cryptoassets and cash were indeed stolen. The Judicial Police arrested two of the four on May 19 2025 for aggravated theft, weapon possession and assault; the other two remain at large.
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Crypto miner was lured to a meeting, taken hostage, 20K EUR ransom demanded. Police rescued him & arrested 4 suspects.
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Three armed masked men broke into the bedroom of Herminio Andrés Paredes and his partner in Hernandarias, tied them with a cable and repeatedly questioned them about crypto mining machines they mistakenly believed were stored in the house, then searched every room without finding any. Finding no equipment, they took Gs 10,000,000 hidden in the wardrobe, three phones and a motorcycle before fleeing.
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Ledger co-founder & wife kidnapped and ransomed, his finger was severed, rescued by GIGN. Ransom was partially paid but later seized via Tether
Report: lemonde.fr Archive copy Report: cryptonews.com Archive copy
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Gang of 6 people meet OTC trader in luxury hotel, assault and rob him of $580K in cash and crypto.
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Korean bitcoin trader kidnapped, held hostage for 3 days. No crypto taken.
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Man tied up in condo, forced to transfer $290,000 in cryptocurrency.
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A group posing as police officers — with ministry IDs, police lights and plates stolen in Novi Sad — stopped a 19-year-old in a schoolyard in Gornji Milanovac and forced him into a car, stealing under death threats two USB keys holding wallet data worth EUR 400,000, then abandoning him near a gas station. Five men aged 22 to 31 were arrested on January 30 2025 and a 17-year-old targeted; the keys, laptop, vehicles and fake IDs were seized.
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Gang of 4 men arrested by FBI on their way to rob jeweler of $2M.
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After the partner of a tax adviser holding substantial digital assets found a GPS tracker outside their Norges-la-Ville home, the Dijon BRI set up surveillance and arrested a four-man team from the Lyon region on January 6 2025 with a stolen van containing gloves, cable ties, tear gas, petrol cans and nails; they planned to hold the victim captive to force access to his crypto wallet. Nothing was obtained; the operation was allegedly ordered from prison via encrypted messaging.
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Man attacked and tied up in hotel, refuses to give up phone password, is knocked out and has cash stolen.
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Five serving Rivers State police inspectors ran a kidnapping syndicate from September 2025 to January 2026, intercepting passersby at gunpoint during fake checkpoints and forcing victims to unlock phones and surrender banking and crypto wallet codes; one victim lost NGN 4.5 million from an Opay account and USD 1,742 from his crypto wallet (total NGN 7.3 million), with two others losing NGN 7.3 million and NGN 1.5 million. The five inspectors were dismissed.
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An armed group of four former police officers and a civilian accomplice kidnapped at least four crypto-sector entrepreneurs, surveilling targets, traveling in official vehicles while posing as police, holding victims at gunpoint and forcing them to transfer cryptocurrency or sign fictitious debt acknowledgments; about USD 2,200,000 was handed over in total. Attackers charged with banditry, kidnapping, unlawful confinement, robbery and extortion.
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An Australian businessman living in Thailand was robbed twice by a gang of fellow countrymen led by 'Billy': first four men broke into his Phuket villa and forced transfers and cash totaling ~THB 10.5 million, then in late January 2025 a group forced him on Koh Samui to transfer 2.8 BTC, bringing losses to ~THB 21 million. Billy was arrested May 10 2025 at a THB 30 million Pattaya villa where police found two live lions, and an influencer admitted receiving ~900,000 baht for the 'debt recovery'.
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Crypto influencer's father was kidnapped on New Year's Eve
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LAPD officer & man tied to Israeli mob commit home invasion, robs $350,000 in cryptocurrency.
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Crypto trader in Karachi, Pakistan abducted by 5 men in a police van and forced to transfer $340,000 at gunpoint.
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Wife of crypto influencer who bragged about wealth was kidnapped by 3 men, police chase led to car crash.
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Victims arrived with EUR 100,000 in a suitcase to buy cryptocurrency from a 29-year-old Swede he had transacted with since 2022; as soon as the bag was opened the Swede grabbed it while an accomplice struck the victim on the head until he bled, then fled on foot and tried to reach Turkey by sea before being handed over to Cypriot authorities. Attackers were convicted 2 years later.
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Three alleged members of the 'las Brisas' gang held a 22-year-old captive in Bello, holding him responsible for USD 8,000 lost on a crypto platform he had introduced them to, and demanded COP 12,000,000 for his release. The police Gaula unit freed the victim in a house raid and caught the three in the act, including the alleged gang leader; no ransom was paid.
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Four criminals waited for a São Paulo doctor at his home, restrained him for five hours and used his facial recognition to open his Binance account, transferring USD 86,000 (~BRL 500,000) — even paying a fee to instantly unlock USD 36,000 in staking — while deliberately leaving BRL 300,000 in his checking account untouched on the mastermind's orders. The victim suspects inside betrayal, as the attackers entered with a non-cloneable gate remote; police are investigating with no suspect identified.
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Businessman lured to meeting, handcuffed, beaten, electrocuted for 15 hours before being rescued by police.
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USD 400,000 in bitcoins (targeted, not obtained) — Three men aged 39 to 43 from Dubăsari and Anenii Noi abducted an entrepreneur from Dubăsari and transported him to Poland to try to make him open his crypto wallet containing USD 400,000 in bitcoins, part of which was to go to the criminal group known as "the Chinese." No bitcoins were obtained: the abductors were arrested on December 18, 2024 at the Leușeni border checkpoint as they were preparing to take the victim to Serbia, and were placed in detention for 30 days for extortion.
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A Russian gang of four men ambushed a Ukrainian on the road in Bali; the victim was kidnapped and beaten until he handed over USD 200,000 in crypto from his Binance account. The gang leader was arrested a month later trying to flee to Dubai.
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Cassandra Dianne Thompson met her victim at Brickell bars and followed him home, where a drink she prepared left him unconscious; she took USD 10,000 cash and his iPhone, transferring USD 72,860 in DOGE, HBAR, XRP and ADA (with ~USD 230,000 more blocked by Coinbase) before fleeing on a morning flight to New York. Airline, T-Mobile, Coinbase and Venmo records identified her; she was booked into Miami-Dade jail on USD 25,000 bail.
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3 suspects posing as DoorDash delivery workers invade home, demand wallet. Wife calls 911 and they are quickly caught.
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Crypto ATM stolen from shopping center.
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A Riyadh gang of seven Syrians in an irregular immigration situation lured victims wanting to buy digital currencies and real estate, then held them captive and assaulted them with firearms using rental vehicles with stolen plates, stealing about SAR 1.3 million transferred to backers outside the Kingdom. All seven were arrested and referred to the public prosecutor's office.
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Software engineer lured by X account promising sex, ambushed at hotel by a gang that robbed him of 6 BTC.
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Sex worker accused of kidnapping, stealing $300K in crypto from man she met at nightclub.
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About ten attackers linked to the Bamboo Union abducted four men over a disputed USDT transaction, holding them captive three days across four locations, beating them with belts, bottles, bats and a spiked mace, forcing degrading filmed acts to pressure families for ransom and stealing 15,000 USDT. Police arrested 15 people in March 2025 (including the gang leader, already sentenced to 14 years for forgery, and five minors); the Taichung prosecutor indicted them in May 2025 for criminal organization, aggravated kidnapping for ransom and aggravated sexual assault.
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13 year old's dog stolen after he rug pulled a token on pump.fun
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Two men on a motorcycle intercepted crypto investor Dmitri Samsonov and his partner near a Bali hotel, beating him unconscious and dragging him toward the jungle while the second attacker forced the woman to fetch money and valuables from their hotel; the haul exceeded 63,000 USDT plus a forced RUB 38,000 transfer, two iPhone 15 Pro Max units and a MacBook Pro (total damage RUB 7,368,782). Four expatriate Russian suspects were placed on a federal wanted list, with no arrest to date.
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Attempted kidnapping by 4 individuals who wanted to torture him to steal forum mod's bitcoins.
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Tourist robbed by armed gang in friend's hotel room, forced to transfer $250K USDT.
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WonderFi CEO kidnapped during rush hour, held until $1M ransom paid.
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Dan Oteleanu, a church cantor grown wealthy from bitcoin investments, was lured into an apartment and thrown into a car by three masked men, then locked in a room, bound and threatened with death while they used Face ID to try to transfer ~EUR 90,000 from his Kraken account — impossible, as the funds were locked in staking. Released after medical care was needed, five suspects were placed in pretrial detention on January 22 2025.
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A fake maintenance crew in matching uniforms stole at least three bitcoin ATMs from Oregon businesses (two in Portland, one in Albany) between October and November 2024, unbolted and loaded into a silver Dodge Ram, per surveillance video; about USD 400 in cash was in the deli's machine. No arrests had been announced when the article was published.
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An investor ruined by the OmegaPro Ponzi scheme watched a promoter's home all night, then forced his way in with two accomplices, beating him with an iron bar, choking him and stabbing his calf while demanding phone passcodes for his cryptocurrency; the victim escaped and no crypto was taken.
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3 teens kidnap man who hosted a crypto event. Drove him out to the desert, forced him to transfer $4 million at gunpoint.
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Woman whose office was being renovated told construction worker about being a crypto investor; soon after a gang invaded her home and robbed her of over $50,000 USD in bitcoin along with other valuables.
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Two Volgograd police officers forced a crypto entrepreneur into a Volkswagen Touareg and extorted his wallet passwords, transferring ~USD 283,000 in crypto later resold for ~RUB 22 million, of which RUB 7 million went to the officers. Both were arrested and prosecuted for kidnapping and extortion, which they deny.
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A man was lured by a childhood friend into a staged attack on the B270: two armed men threw the friend in a trunk and forced the victim into the back seat threatening his family, then extorted transfers prosecutors put at EUR 20,000 plus EUR 750,000 in crypto (only EUR 10,300 proven at trial). When a further million was demanded he drove them to his Luxembourg bank and alerted an employee, leading to one arrest; the Zweibrücken court sentenced the three confessed defendants to up to six and a half years.
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6 men accused of kidnapping family from Chicago townhouse and forcing a transfer of $15 million in cryptocurrency
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Five individuals posing as police officers broke into a Moscow apartment occupied by four crypto-trading youths aged 17–18, forced them to the floor, searched the flat and left with RUB 1.36 million in cash. Three suspects of comparable age were arrested the next day; the victims suspect a tip-off tied to their crypto activity.
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Three men presenting themselves as anti-terrorism police surrounded a Richebourg resident outside his home and entered intending to steal his cryptocurrency; it was the trivial theft of a EUR 50 Transformers toy that exposed the deception and let gendarmes reconstruct the case. The crypto haul was likely nil or marginal.
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A gang of twelve including nine Thai police officers broke into Mr. Sai's home brandishing a fake court search warrant, accused him of passport fraud, and demanded THB 300 million or 10 million USDT, extorting 170,148 USDT (~THB 6.3 million) over two days after taking him and his wife to a police interrogation room. Seven suspects including six officers were arrested on October 30 2024; two interpreters remain at large.
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2 men posed as police, kidnapped victim, held a gun at his head for an hour and demanded 14 bitcoin from him. They failed to get any BTC, let the victim go, and were arrested 2 months later.
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Accountant / crypto trader met a woman on Tinder, likely drugged, beaten by several men, forced to transfer funds, then murdered.
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Four men posing as police officers came to an online entrepreneur's home, accused him of treason over alleged cooperation with a Russian, and coerced him into transferring nearly UAH 10 million (~USD 250,000) in crypto, cashed out the same day. The four were notified of suspicion of group extortion under martial law in early September 2024, two held without bail; searches uncovered fake press and law-enforcement ID cards, ammunition and luxury cars.
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Man seeks p2p trade of cash for USDT, punched by attackers, successfully escapes.
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Parents of $243M heist thieves get carjacked & kidnapped in botched ransom plot.
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A man from Lissone who had lost money entrusted to him for bitcoin investment was held captive several hours in a Concesio apartment by eight people, tied up, beaten and strangled with a rope to make him repay; he escaped by climbing down to a lower balcony where occupants called for help. The Carabinieri are investigating, with the victim's account still to be verified.
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3 men invade home of crypto entrepreneur, torture him for hours until he transfers $15K.
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A masked man with a 32 cm knife burst into a Mong Kok cryptocurrency exchange shop, pinned the employee counting cash to the counter and fled with HK$400,000, cutting her hand; Peter So was arrested in September 2024 and sentenced to 5 years 4 months in June 2026.
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8 men, possibly police, overpower security guard, rob 11 tourists of 10+ BTC.
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Gang of 4 Chinese nationals sneak into gated estate, commit armed home invasion, rob $2M USD of cryptocurrency.
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Two men disguised as electricians forced their way into a Minsk IT specialist's flat, threatened him with an imitation Makarov air pistol, handcuffed and tortured him with a stun gun, demanding transfer of 5,750 BTC (~BYN 1 billion); when he refused they tied him up with a 24-hour deadline. Nothing was transferred; one attacker was sentenced on May 13 2025 to 13 years in a reinforced-regime colony plus a fine, while his accomplice fled abroad.
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Guo, posing as a broker who claimed he had himself been robbed in a crypto purchase, lured buyer Shi to a Taipei exchange of 200,000 USDT for TWD 6.45 million cash, then he and four accomplices attacked with pepper spray and tape; Shi and his armed friend fought back, wounding two attackers, and kept the money. All seven parties were arrested the same day and referred for prosecution.
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Crypto billionaire attacked at rental home by men posing at painters, successfully fights them off and prevents kidnapping.
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4 men kidnap foreigner, rob, & murder him for 3 BTC.
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Gang of 5 kidnaps trader and robs him at knifepoint of $18,000 in USDT
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5 people tie up trader, assault, and rob him.
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18 people kidnap 2 victims, hold them for $1.2M ransom, get in shootout with police.
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Charles Gardiner, believing a former investment adviser had stolen AUD 20,000 from him, threatened him by email, scouted his home and showed up with Travis Thickens who lured him out with a fake towing story; held about two and a half hours and driven around under threats to shoot him or burn his face with a blowtorch, the victim was forced to withdraw AUD 1,000 and transfer AUD 2,000 (of AUD 14,000–19,000 demanded). Alerted via Find My, police intercepted the vehicle and seized a fake pistol; Gardiner received 12 months' prison plus a 15-month CCO, and Thickens 7 months plus a 12-month CCO, for blackmail and theft.
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2 men invade home, threaten victim with knife & crowbar, demand 10,000 EUR.
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Five Eastern European men posing as police officers beat two people believed to hold crypto in a Majadahonda shopping center parking lot and forced them toward a van, part of a crypto-linked extortion plot; already under surveillance, they were caught in the act by the Guardia Civil, who freed the victims and seized imitation firearms, tactical clothing, cable ties and a GPS tracker. The five were placed under judicial order.
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2 women abduct toddler from mall, demand $660,000 USDT ransom.
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As part of the DOJ network prosecuted for ~USD 263 million in crypto thefts, Marlon Ferro ('GothFerrari') broke into a New Mexico victim's home in July 2024 to steal a hardware wallet, coordinated in real time with Malone Lam, who allegedly tracked the victim via iCloud. The organization ran a cell dedicated to burglaries of surveilled crypto holders; Ferro was sentenced to 78 months in the RICO case.
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Six to seven perpetrators held Minga Guazú mine site manager Isidro Bogado Ozuna at gunpoint, assuring him they only wanted equipment, then made off with 150 mining machines; the young man fled into woods and reported an hour later, later declining to file a complaint or identify the owners as the site was suspected of illegal power draws.
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USDT trader Liu Po-cheng boarded a car near Taipei's Neihu tech park for a supposed sale when Lin Cheng-hsiang pointed a switchblade, blindfolded and tied him, the driver brandishing a second blade; impersonating him on his phone they had a contact transfer 21,084 USDT (~TWD 700,000) plus TWD 10,000 cash before dumping him in Shulin. Arrested two days later, Lin and intermediary Chang were sentenced to about 7.5 years each for aggravated robbery with a weapon, upheld on appeal.
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A cryptocurrency influencer beaten to death in a torture room.
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Two Chinese medical-equipment executives lured to Manila by a fake distributor and shell company were abducted at the airport on June 20 2024 and mistreated, with families receiving death threats; kidnappers demanded 25 million yuan then accepted 3 million paid in USDT on June 24. Both hostages were killed despite payment, and Philippine, Chinese and American police investigated.
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3 men armed with machetes invade home, force owner to transfer 1,000+ ETH.
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Victim was pulled into a dark vehicle, beaten and threatened with death until he surrendered phone and crypto codes, his Solana (~EUR 150,000) transferred, then thrown out in an industrial area. Five men were arrested in October 2024; four stood trial from April 1 2025 for extortionate kidnapping before the Saarbrücken juvenile chamber.
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A doctor from Campinas meeting a woman from a dating app in São Paulo was overpowered, taken into another vehicle, and the kidnappers used his phone to steal about USD 100,000 in crypto along with Pix transfers. He escaped by jumping from the moving vehicle; Military Police tracked the phone and arrested three suspects.
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Naman Jain, lured to buy USDT in Model Town (New Delhi), was attacked in his car by three men on a motorcycle who snatched his bag of INR 3.5 lakh at gunpoint; he held on and was pistol-whipped and stabbed twice in the chest, requiring surgery, but the attackers fled without the money. The investigation identified six accused and established that Tarandeep Singh orchestrated this type of robbery under cover of crypto transactions.
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Nukri M., a 45-year-old Ukrainian lawyer, and accomplices allegedly planned from June 2024 to abduct a Berlin-Mitte businessman reputed to hold EUR 2 million in crypto, drag him into a vehicle and take him to a Polish apartment to force transfers, believing he would not report it. An undercover agent had infiltrated the group and the abduction never took place; Nukri M. was wanted since July 2024.
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Eight men posing as Interpol agents abducted crypto-recovery company operator Shepherd Sikhosana from his Honeydew office and his wife from their Pretoria home, illegally crossing with them into Zimbabwe where they were held captive with phones confiscated; prosecutors say the goal was seizing USD 13.9 million in crypto the company had recovered for the wife. Harare police freed the couple on May 19 after relatives passed their location; Moses Nhachi Chademana was charged and refused bail.
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Six masked armed men blocked Sofian F., described as a drug trafficker, and a friend selling a car in Pibrac, abducting them; the friend was released hours later but Sofian was held two days in Toulouse-suburb hideouts, beaten and tortured into surrendering about EUR 60,000 in bitcoin, EUR 100,000 cash, a Rolex and other items (~EUR 200,000 total). The alleged organizer reportedly targeted him over a EUR 15,000 drug debt because of his reputation for wealth.
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Four men blocked Mrs. Chu's car in Sheung Shui, forcibly taking her while beating her husband with fists and a stun gun, then ordered her to settle a HKD 15 million debt linked to her crypto investments before releasing her near Ta Kwu Ling; she went straight to police. Nothing was handed over; both spouses were hospitalized and two men, father and son, were arrested the next day for assault and unlawful confinement.
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Belgian barber Quentin Cepeljac bragged about being a successful crypto dealer to impress a woman, who invited him to her luxury flat — a trap where he was attacked with a wrench; he turned out to hold only £6.71 in crypto. The attackers were quickly caught because they had rented an Airbnb for the trap.
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Three men forced a Moldovan businessman into a van in his residence complex's underground car park, beat and handcuffed him during the drive while demanding his crypto wallet passwords; he refused, was dumped injured in another district, and no cryptocurrency was obtained.
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Four residents of Kyiv and the Kyiv and Cherkasy oblasts, posing as law enforcement officers, targeted a 20-year-old online business founder after estimating his income, falsely accused him of collaborating with Russia, and threatened him with lengthy detention for high treason, offering to "settle the matter" for USD 250,000. The victim transferred 250,000 USDT (over UAH 10 million), which the extortionists immediately converted to cash; the four suspects were identified and then arrested during simultaneous searches, and were notified of suspicion under Article 189, Part 4 of the Criminal Code (extortion, up to 12 years).
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Two men who knew the victim had invested large sums in cryptocurrency entered his apartment, beat him, tied him up and held a knife to his throat, demanding a EUR 1 million cryptocurrency transfer. Neighbours alerted by his screams called the Mossos d'Esquadra, who forced the door and arrested both attackers, one of whom jumped from the balcony.
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Violent home invasion, suspect arrested at airport and eventually sentenced to 7 years.
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A gang of about fifteen attacked a Minga Guazú mining farm and made off with 362 bitcoin mining machines; police arrested a suspected fence reselling miners and seized 15 more machines in a search, recovering 21 total, while the robbers remained at large.
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4 men rob suspected Chinese crypto gambling ring of $3M USD.
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Robert Barr, 28, an inmate at Edinburgh Prison, organized attacks on cryptocurrency holders from his cell: after a January 2024 burglary of a Bonnyrigg crypto start-up co-founder's home netted a Ledger wallet but no PIN, two masked men came on April 17 2024 to seize the crypto assets but gave up when faced with the video doorbell. No crypto was obtained; Barr's estimated target holdings exceeded GBP 2 million.
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In a Gangnam officetel, a man lured a buyer promising below-market USDT then struck him repeatedly on the head with a blunt object and fled with the KRW 500 million cash brought for the deal. Arrested the next day and charged with attempted murder in aggravated robbery, with two getaway accomplices also arrested; most of the cash was recovered, and Gangnam police linked the case to a series of at least four OTC USDT robberies.
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In Chiayi, a gang of eight staged a fake USDT sale: trader Mr. Chen handed TWD 2.36 million to Lou for counting when a minor accomplice pepper-sprayed him and the driver sped off with fake plates; Chen clung to the windshield until Lou ordered acceleration and swerving, throwing him to his death. In February 2025 the Chiayi court sentenced Lou to 13 years and Qiu to 11 years 2 months for robbery causing death, and six accomplices to 7 months to 3 years; the money had been returned to the family.
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A 36-year-old Russian national meeting a stranger in Limassol to exchange EUR 50,000 for crypto was grabbed by the throat in his car while two other foreign nationals seized the bag of cash, all three fleeing. Limassol CID opened an investigation and a judicial arrest warrant was issued against a 35-year-old, the two accomplices remaining unidentified.
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A 19-year-old crypto trader was summoned to a Hung Hom hotel room he shared and held captive and beaten by six men and two women demanding HKD 180,000 in trading profits, struck with a softball bat before alerting relatives by phone. Police arrested three men including his roommate and a 17-year-old for unlawful confinement, extortion and causing bodily harm; five other participants fled.
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A man from out of town was abducted outside a Tehran hospital by three young men who beat him and forced him into a car, then called his wife threatening death and demanded IRR 500 billion in Tether over an unpaid IRR 50 billion USDT debt. Sensing police were near, they released the hostage unharmed without receiving anything and fled.
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A man went to a lower Manhattan hotel for a cash-for-crypto exchange and was lured to a room where two accomplices waited; the three beat him, taped his wrists, ankles and mouth, and fled with USD 20,000 in cash. The NYPD released surveillance footage of the three suspects, aged 18 to 22.
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A heavily indebted USDT trader, Lin, paid a friend TWD 100,000 to rob his regular client Liao during a fake sale of TWD 3 million in USDT in Dali (Taichung); once Liao boarded with TWD 3,303,000 in cash, Chen strangled him from the back seat with kraft paper simulating a weapon and took the bag. Both were arrested within nine hours, the money returned, and each sentenced to 3 years 6 months for aggravated robbery.
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Tsai Chia-yu set up a fake sale to buyer Li Kuo-hsiang of TWD 6,420,000 in crypto at a Taichung studio with two accomplices and pepper spray; on the signal an accomplice overturned the table to grab the cash bags, the victims resisted and the money spilled, and Li was injured in the struggle. Li and a friend pinned one attacker until police arrived; Tsai fled but was arrested hours later, along with the driver.
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KRW 100,000,000 — On March 21, 2024, at around 0:45 a.m., about ten men in their twenties, friends or classmates who had split up roles (luring, theft, getaway, blocking pursuers), arranged via Telegram to meet a man in his forties in Yeoksam-dong to sell him Tether below market price. While pretending to transfer the coins from a phone and then to count the money, they restrained the victim, beat him, and fled with a paper bag containing 100 million won; they in fact held no cryptocurrency at all and had obtained the victim's information via Telegram.
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Gang of 6 Russians robs Russian man and wife at coffee shop for 1.8 million baht in BTC.
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Three men robbed a Birmingham, Alabama Sunoco gas station around 2:40 a.m., taking a Bitcoin ATM and firing shots at a man, who was uninjured. Police released suspect images and appealed for witnesses; no arrests had been announced by then.
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Two masked men who arranged a meeting through kinky.nl broke into a Rijswijk home, threatened the two women residents with firearms, taped and held them captive for hours; they took EUR 7,500 cash, crypto, and cards, forced facial-recognition transfer of EUR 26,001 to a Bitvavo account, and withdrew EUR 10,000 from ATMs (total approx. EUR 43,501). A man later received six years in prison for the violent crypto robbery.
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Gang of 4 kidnaps couple and robs them of $25,000 in cryptocurrency.
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Mr. Kwong, 40, had withdrawn HKD 1,000,000 in cash on behalf of his employer to buy discounted USDT in a Hung Hom industrial building; one man greeted him, then four others burst in brandishing meat cleavers, the first suspect counted and took the entire sum, and the five masked men fled. The Kowloon City district crime squad arrested the unit's 56-year-old tenant that same day for robbery.
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Fake Uber driver stole $200K+ in crypto from customers' Coinbase accounts by taking their phones.
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In two Wellington supermarket car park robberies of P2P crypto traders (February 29 and March 5 2024), the attacker struck one victim repeatedly in the neck and pointed a handgun-like object at the second's head, taking about NZD 7,000 per victim (approx. NZD 14,000 total). Hiram Kanona St John Tufuga pleaded guilty to two counts of aggravated robbery and was sentenced on July 4 2025 to three years ten months, with NZD 2,000 reparations per victim.
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About USD 272,000 from Binance (about BDT 3 to 3.1 crore) + BDT 10 lakh — On the night of 26 February 2024, a Detective Branch team (North-South zone) of the Chattogram Metropolitan Police led by Inspector Ruhul Amin detained freelancer Abu Bakkar Siddique and a friend in the Bayezid area, seized their phones, threatened them with a false cybercrime and money-laundering case, then took them to the DB office in Mansurabad. In custody, the officers forcibly unlocked his phone with his fingerprint, logged into his Binance account and transferred about USD 272,000 to another account, and took BDT 10 lakh from his bank account.
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During the night of 18 to 19 February 2024 in Têche (Isère), a driver who had just sold a quad bike for cash was stopped on the road by fake police officers driving a vehicle fitted with a flashing light and wearing jackets marked "Police". Believing it was a traffic stop, he let them approach; the criminals handcuffed him, put a bag over his head and held him for about four hours, until around 3 a.m., forcing him to transfer EUR 75,000 in cryptocurrency before releasing him.
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"GothFerrari" broke into victim's home and stole hardware wallet with ~100 BTC ($5M+); sentenced to 78 months under RICO conspiracy as part of $250M crypto theft ring.
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5 Russians arrested in crypto abduction case (~USD 801,200)
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Three men recruited by a former business partner who knew the victim held at least a five-figure crypto sum waited in his Leipzig stairwell; one, armed with a machete, forced the door, struck him and held the blade to his throat demanding his laptop and e-wallet password, while an accomplice pinned his partner to the wall. The victim resisted and shouted, suffering deep hand cuts from a glass table; the attackers fled without taking anything.
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Three men ambushed a meeting arranged for a EUR 202,000 cryptocurrency deal near a Belgrade car park, taking the cash by force and beating the victim; the three suspects were arrested on February 13, 2024.
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At around 3:30 a.m., two men stole a bitcoin ATM terminal from a pub. According to the capital's police, they had rented a vehicle abroad, bought tools specifically for breaking into and carrying off the ATM, and had scouted the location beforehand, then destroyed a surveillance camera during the operation; the damage is estimated at RON 87,500, including over RON 85,000 in cash contained in the machine.
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Roberto Felipe Mejía Caicedo, 43, a Cali influencer, was lured to a shopping center on the Medellín–Envigado border under the pretext of a crypto deal and abducted to a country house, held about 36 hours by members of 'La Oficina' who demanded 3,000 million pesos and forced him to transfer USD 184,000 in crypto before he alerted his bodyguard by WhatsApp. CTI and army Gaula units located the house, freed him unharmed and arrested five kidnappers on the spot.
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A courier carrying TWD 8.5 million in cash to buy 260,000+ USDT at a watch shop was held by five men after the fake seller demanded the money be left behind; police broke in, freed the slightly injured courier, recovered the full amount and arrested five.
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Restaurant owner kidnapped, doused in diesel, force fed alcohol, has finger cut off, until he transferred $200K USD in crypto.
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A high school student was abducted on his way to school in Gargas (Vaucluse) by individuals who were actually looking for another young man from the town, known to them only by his online pseudonym, in order to extort a cryptocurrency security key giving access to several tens of thousands of euros. Realizing their mistake, the kidnappers released the teenager, who filed a complaint with the Apt gendarmerie.
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A young man who had been put in touch through a Snapchat group with a supposed bitcoin seller went to an address while a friend waited in the car with EUR 2,200. Upstairs, three men tied his wrists to a radiator and pressed a shotgun to his temple; they fled through the garden when police arrived.
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A programmer parked outside a friend's home in Anavyssos was restrained by men posing as police officers, taken in his own car, and locked in another vehicle's trunk in a wooded area, where violence and threats extracted his phones, cards and PINs and forced fingerprint-unlock of his crypto app for EUR 3,000 in transfers. Bound, handcuffed and sprayed with bleach, he freed himself and alerted police; a 25-year-old Moldovan was arrested on the spot.
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An OTC USDT trader meeting familiar buyers at a hotel had his 400,000 USDT transferred and cash seized; ten people identified through conversations, withdrawal records and CCTV were convicted of robbery with violence and sentenced to 8 to over 10 years, with USDT 53,262 seized restored. Neither the date nor jurisdiction was published.
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In summer 2024 a six-man organized group surveilled a crypto operator's bank withdrawals, then beat him and his brother — heads enclosed in plastic bags — and took them to a suburban house demanding a fabricated UAH 600,000 debt; when unpaid, they raided a partner's home for over UAH 157,000 in cash, jewelry and equipment before abandoning the brothers. Six members were arrested by KORD on September 25 2024.
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Tega Abikure, founder of crypto company Kumo Africa, was abducted mid-Abuja in January 2024 and recounted being beaten, tortured and humiliated during captivity, without detailing his release. Recorded fragments suggest the kidnapping was linked to a failed OTC bitcoin transaction eight months earlier in the United States; rivals allegedly coveted his large crypto portfolio.
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Miner kidnapped from home, ransomed, rescued by police.
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Around twelve armed men arriving in a medium-sized truck broke into a cryptocurrency mining warehouse in the San Francisco neighborhood of Hernandarias, a border town near Ciudad del Este, and overpowered the four employees present. They made off with approximately 430 mining machines, as well as three rifles belonging to the site's security guards.
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Two gloved, masked armed individuals broke into a Saint-Coulomb couple's home as their 2-year-old slept upstairs, demanding "EUR 400,000" or "a cryptocurrency USB key"; the father was zip-tied, beaten and cut with a knife, with threats to rape his partner and throw the child out the window. He seized a shotgun and drove them off, though they returned to remove traces and take two small gold bars and a headset.
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Recruited that same morning on Telegram by two strangers ("小阿仁" and "XUNW"), Lin Tien-chen (林天辰) posed as a cryptocurrency seller and arranged to meet two buyers at a Louisa cafe Armed with pepper spray and a folding knife, he sprayed their faces and then grabbed the TWD 1.7 million in cash they had brought, before fleeing; chased by the victims, he threw the money by the roadside and hid in a bedding store, where police arrested him.
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Victim was kidnapped from a friend's house, had bag placed over head, rescued by police after anonymous tip sent.
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A man arranging a Telegram exchange of SGD 81,060 in cash for crypto was robbed by a 16-year-old recruited on Telegram, who grabbed the money and fled, briefly brandishing a kitchen knife before dropping it; bystanders helped restrain him until police arrived. The full amount was recovered.
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Executives lured into fake business trip, kidnapped, forced to empty wallets of $12M USDT.
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4 men fly from FL to OR, kidnap target from apartment, torture him until he revealed seed phrase.
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A Brazilian entrepreneur investing since 2018 through purported Swiss contacts was summoned to Zurich for a 'personal identification' before withdrawing gains; at the airport his luggage vanished via a boarding-pass swap in Barcelona, and after fingerprints and passport were taken he was bundled into a van and driven to France, held twelve days at gunpoint while his captors sought his phone with 'millions' in access. He overpowered the last guard on the twelfth day and escaped, reaching Barcelona.
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Couple tied up, beaten, and threatened with their own kitchen knives.
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6 men rob exchange office, take $900K USD in crypto.
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At least five armed individuals entered influencer Matías Oviedo's home-studio in Paraná in the early hours of October 26 2023, tied him and two companions up and forced him at gunpoint to transfer about USD 15,000 in crypto from his Binance account. Police traced the funds and arrested four young men aged 27–28 on December 5 2023.
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4 masked robbers invaded home, tied up victims.
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Victim dragged into a flat, tied up, assaulted, locked in a cupboard all night until they received cryptocurrency.
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Days after previous attack, victim was kidnapped, had bag placed over head, released after sending cryptocurrency.
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Four friends aged 21 to 24 who learned the victim held cryptocurrency forced their way into his Kyiv home, beat him and forced him at knifepoint to transfer about USD 28,000, also taking papers, USD 1,400 cash and bank cards before locking him in the apartment. The four were arrested in October 2023 and sent to court in May 2024 for robbery and unlawful confinement, facing up to 15 years.
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Russian MMA fighter & twin brother rob man of watches, seek Ledger wallet.
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Muhammed Boduroglu, 41, described as a hacker, was lured to a Kocaeli meeting by five individuals who tortured him to extract his crypto wallet password and then beat him to death, breaking his neck, around mid-September 2023. His body was found half-buried in a vacant lot in the Akfirat district of Tuzla and identified by fingerprints; five suspects were later arrested.
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A man posing as an Amazon delivery driver kidnapped the 60-year-old father of Malta-based gaming influencer TeufeurS; the son paid a EUR 1.7 million crypto ransom after receiving a video of his father bound with an automatic weapon strapped to his head. The same criminal network was later linked to the January 2025 kidnapping of a Ledger co-founder.
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Criminals rammed a car through the storefront of the Dima shopping center in the Bufalotta district of Rome and made off with an ATM dedicated to buying bitcoin. Officers from the Fidene police station seized CCTV footage to identify the perpetrators; no arrest was reported.
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USDT trader Hsieh Ming-lun and six accomplices coordinated via Telegram to rob the buyer instead of delivering tokens; during a banknote count at Taipei's Songshan Station two men appeared with knives pressed to the courier's abdomen and the trader's throat, seizing the bag of money and the phone. The buyer had himself set up a scam — the bag held only TWD 370,000 real out of 5,270,000 claimed.
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A man who had invited a Grindr contact to his home was attacked by two men, hit with bolt cutters and tied to his bed. The attackers forced him to call his bank and transfer EUR 42,250 to Kraken and emptied his own exchange account of about EUR 2,565; it was the first of four attacks on gay men by the Venlo "Grindr gang.""
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Remy Ra St Felix, head of the home invasion team of the Florida-based Seemungal network, traveled from Florida to Long Island, New York, to break into the home of a family of five in East Meadow: he had identified his target, Kevin Butler, a cryptocurrency holder, had his address, photos of his house, and his driver's license, was surveilling the home, and was discussing on Telegram with the accomplice 'Neb' a plan to access the victim's Coinbase account by using his child as 'leverage.' He was arrested by law enforcement on the morning of July 27, 2023, alone in his vehicle in the parking lot of a McDonald's in West Hempstead, before carrying out the act: police seized a pistol at his feet, an AR-style rifle, and plastic zip ties in the trunk. On September 11, 2024, he was sentenced to 47 years in prison.
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Six men abducted a digital-marketing company director outside his HSR Layout home and tortured him into transferring ~170,000 USDT plus INR 2 million from his bank; the plot was instigated by a former home guard who enlisted two police officers, all later arrested by the CCB.
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A man disguised as a delivery courier and two accomplices forced their way into a woman's home, taping her from feet to shoulders and threatening her with a machete and hammer to extort 10 million euros in crypto from her son, a New York-based crypto entrepreneur; only 30,000 euros were actually paid. She freed herself from the gag and screamed, and a neighbor climbed in through a window and freed her.
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Two plain-clothes criminal investigation lieutenants detained a cryptocurrency entrepreneur on an invented pretext. They handcuffed him, took his phone and, threatening him with criminal charges, forced him to transfer 9.6 bitcoins to their wallets in exchange for dropping the case.
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Fake FBI agents in Porsche tase and tie up couple, steal Mercedes, $40K in cash, crypto
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The victim was abducted on Broad Street in Birmingham, forced into a van, force-fed cannabis and nitrous oxide, then held for over twelve hours while attackers used his stolen phone's biometrics to steal GBP 2,458 from accounts and nearly GBP 18,000 in crypto. The incident was part of a nine-robbery conspiracy against gay and bisexual men lured via fake Grindr profiles, which drew sentences of 12 years to 17 years 3 months on January 13 2025.
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A Telegram organizer nicknamed 'Doctor Strange' recruited two accomplices for a fake purchase of 95,000 USDT (~TWD 3,035,250) in Sanchong; the seller was locked in the car, choked and immobilized, and her iPhone containing the wallet torn away. She refused to give the passcode and escaped with wounds to wrist and knee; the phone was resold the next day for TWD 8,500.
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Two Turkish nationals contacted through a dating app were taken to a Medellín apartment and made to drink a substance leaving them unconscious for two days; the attackers then transferred more than 165 million pesos in crypto plus 19 million in goods. The network 'Los Criptocitas,' using scopolamine through fake sexual services offered to foreigners, saw three members arrested in Dosquebradas with COP 150,560,000 and eight phones seized.
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A group formed on Telegram by an organizer nicknamed 'James' and led by Chung Jui-chien (鍾睿謙) bought a car without registration papers and three air pistols the same day, then lured Yeh Chia-jung into a fake exchange of USDT 60,000 for TWD 1,900,000 in front of the Carrefour on Zhongshan Road in Rende, Tainan, on July 5, 2023 at 10:37 p.m. Once Yeh got into the back of the vehicle, two men held him at gunpoint, struck his left cheek with the butt of an air rifle, and forced him to hand over his phone passcode, which they used to send his associate a fake cash receipt confirmation, triggering the transfer of the USDT 60,000 to a designated wallet; Yeh was released at an intersection in Rende and his iPhone was thrown out of the window during the getaway.
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A four-man gang from Altai Krai — tipped off by a police economic-security head who sold them Interior Ministry data for RUB 300,000 — kidnapped a cryptocurrency entrepreneur in Rudny after weeks of surveillance, beating him and threatening him with firearms until he surrendered wallet logins; over RUB 5.6–5.8 million in crypto were transferred and resold. Tried by jury, the defendants received 7 to 14 years in a strict-regime colony plus fines in November 2025, including 10 years for the former officer.
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A city employee answering a USDT sale offer pulled a pistol on the dealer inside his car after the tokens arrived, reclaiming the TWD 7.8 million cash bag and tossing it to an accomplice; arrests followed within two weeks and a pistol with 33 rounds was seized.
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Two men posing as crypto buyers lured trader Liu to a Neihu meeting in Taipei, where Lin overpowered him with a machete, blindfolded and zip-tied him while Yang used his phone to impersonate him: 84 then 21,000 USDT were transferred plus TWD 10,000 cash taken, before the pair fled to split the loot at a KTV. The Shilin District Court sentenced them on May 21 2025 to 7 years and 8 months for aggravated robbery.
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Kayla Pawa, 28, was abducted from her bedroom by armed intruders linked to the Nomads gang and held across two Auckland locations for 24 days, during which she was tied up, beaten with a bat and hammer, burned with a blowtorch, threatened with finger amputation and forced to dig her own grave — all to break her will into revealing a crypto password she insisted she did not know. She escaped from a vehicle on July 6 2023 and flagged down an ambulance.
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Kuo Che-an set up an ambush on Instagram with three accomplices, posing as a buyer of 20,000 USDT and luring the seller to a Kaohsiung apartment; there he beat the victim with a baseball bat while others pepper-sprayed him and produced a knife, forcing him to hand over wallet credentials from which 20,000 USDT were transferred, 18,000 resold and split. The Kaohsiung District Court sentenced the perpetrators on March 31 2026 to terms up to 8 years for armed robbery by a group of three or more, with a suspended sentence for the accomplice who compensated the victim.
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Crypto entrepreneur robbed at gunpoint in his home in Tel Aviv
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Three masked men overpowered a man leaving his home in L'Ile-Bizard and forced him at knifepoint to transfer his bitcoins via a Binance QR code — which he made fail — while his partner was bound at gunpoint and their infant torn from her arms; the man alerted 911 via his smartwatch and both victims eventually escaped. Joe-Marshall Altidort, 22, pleaded guilty and was sentenced on February 10 2026 to 10 years in a penitentiary; his accomplices were never arrested.
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In early June 2023, four armed men rammed the gate of a cryptocurrency mining farm and overpowered site manager, taking him at gunpoint into a bedroom. They loaded 300 mining machines onto a truck along with a laptop, a TV set, a generator and the CCTV recorder.
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7 men arrested after ramming store with stolen truck in failed attempt to steal Bitcoin ATM.
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3 men kidnap crypto businessman, demand €1 million ransom. He was rescued by police.
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A Muscovite and two accomplices posed as police officers to stage fake arrests: they abducted and held captive a courier for a cryptocurrency company in Anapa, then a second one in Moscow whose car they also stole, beating them, threatening to kill them and confronting them with false accusations of fraud and terrorism financing. They demanded RUB 5 million per courier from their families and RUB 25 million from the company's director to 'avoid prosecution.' Sentenced by the Anapa court to 10 years in a strict-regime penal colony and a RUB 140,000 fine (kidnapping, extortion of a very large amount, robbery, vehicle theft), the organizer had his sentence upheld on cassation appeal on August 11, 2026; the cases of the two accomplices were separated.
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Two men broke into the Anyang home of a man running a crypto trading 'leading room,' taped and held him captive, demanding the return of invested funds — the main suspect claiming to have lost KRW 5 billion on his advice — and forcing him to ingest zolpidem; the safe was not opened and nothing was taken. The victim alerted a neighbor, police intervened, and the Anyang court issued detention warrants for aggravated robbery and unlawful confinement.
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Between 8 and 10 armed men broke into the Arimar mining farm at Km 11 Monday in Presidente Franco around 2 a.m. and overpowered the 18-year-old guard, spending about two hours dismantling and loading 492 ASIC miners, plus a truck, laptops, phones, 100,000 pesos and the surveillance DVR. No arrests had been reported at publication.
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2 men posing as construction workers invade home, force transfer of $250K in crypto.
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Driver & 3 friends lured an investor into a fake deal, robbed, electrocuted, stripped naked, and took blackmail videos.
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Two men aged 43 and 47 showed up at a Turin financial intermediary's business demanding the return of a USB drive they claimed held one million euros in bitcoins, though the victim had no connection to it, issuing death threats and against his family and business, with a fire breaking out at the premises. After his complaint the Rivoli carabinieri placed them under house arrest on June 22 2023 by order of the Turin court for aggravated attempted extortion.
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Three young brothers were assaulted and held captive in a Milan bed and breakfast by three Sardinian men claiming to have been defrauded by them, with the kidnappers demanding EUR 120,000 in cryptocurrency plus the return of valuable watches. Geolocation of the ransom calls let the carabinieri free the victims and arrest the perpetrators, who were definitively sentenced to 9 years and 1 day.
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Two women contacted three Dominican tourists via dating apps and lured them to an El Poblado nightclub in Medellín, administering scopolamine; the victims were taken to a rented apartment where their passwords were extracted and accounts emptied over 16 hours — 21 purchases totaling 11 million pesos plus about 43 million pesos in Bitcoin and Ethereum. The two women were captured, accepted the charges, and the Fiscalía created a judicial wallet to return the frozen crypto.
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For ten months a gang of five men used fake Grindr profiles to lure LGBT+ men to meetings in Birmingham and Derby, assaulting them, threatening them with knives and using their phones to empty their accounts, for total damages around GBP 100,000; one victim was drugged and forced to unlock his phone, his wallets emptied through more than 80 transactions. On January 13 2025 Birmingham Crown Court sentenced the five men to prison terms of up to 17 years and 3 months.
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4 men kidnap woman, steal crypto, murder her.
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Couple stages robbery to steal bitcoin from their friend, but he doesn't comply.
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Victims were abducted in Bangkok by five men dressed as police officers — actually immigration bureau personnel — and driven around for over four hours under threat of prosecution, with 60,000 USDT demanded; the victim's son negotiated and paid 30,000 USDT before they were released. Three immigration officers were arrested, one remains at large, and dismissal proceedings were initiated.
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Gang kidnaps boyfriend of crypto trader's relative, demands $5M ransom while torturing him for 6 days.
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Wu, 32, presenting himself as head of a Bamboo Union branch, broke into a Taipei crypto analysis company accusing manager Cao of letting a subordinate embezzle NT$12 million of gang funds; Cao and three employees were held captive for four and a half days under threat of being 'buried alive in the mountains' until they transferred 400,000 USDT (~NT$12 million) and signed a NT$15 million promissory note. Taipei police arrested five gang members in late March 2023, seizing machetes, axes, batons and masks.
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20 year old Venezuelan woman drugs and robs man of 1 BTC.
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4 men invade crypto blogger's home, beat him until he transfers $284,000 in BTC.
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TikTok influencer lures Saudi royal to her home where he was imprisoned until he handed over $40K in BTC.
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A lawyer invited a Colombian woman he had met via a dating app to his home; she drugged him with Rohypnol and then used his phone to empty his accounts of 23,000 USD in cryptocurrency and 3,200 BRL from his bank account. The Colombian network, active in Rio and São Paulo, was the target of the MPRJ's Operação Medellín with TRM Forensics: four Colombians were arrested on December 8, 2023 and about 6,000 USDT were recovered, Angie Paola Parra Hoyos was arrested on February 28, 2025 in Colombia and then extradited, and six Colombians were indicted in the second phase in April 2025.
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Ankur Surana, 30, was abducted in Guwahati by one of his kidnappers, whom he knew, while driving to a resort party, and held captive; his sister received demands via a QR-code link for 104 bitcoins (about 20 crore rupees), a method never before seen in India. Under police pressure he was released injured in the early hours of February 4; five resort employees were arrested and three accomplices remained at large.
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Wang offered via Telegram to buy CNY 320,000 of USDT from Mr. Deng, who sent his uncle to the meeting; Wang had the uncle driven to another district, held a knife to his throat and forced him to announce by voice message that the cash had arrived, prompting the nephew to remotely transfer 43,785 USDT (CNY 299,489.4). Wang was arrested the next evening after converting 2,500 USDT; on appeal the court revised his conviction.
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Two masked men abducted a couple leaving a Fairfield hair salon and drove them about 200 km to a property near Newcastle, holding them tied to chairs for about 36 hours while demanding crypto ransom of up to AUD 5 million and attempting to sever the man's finger with garden shears, requiring surgery. The victims escaped after two days; police charged two men aged 24 and 25, noting the victims were wrongly presumed to hold large sums.
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5 men stormed into a company's office armed with tasers and zip ties.
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Victim was brought by an acquaintance to a party room in under the pretext of discussing a yacht sale, where a Hong Kong man and four South Asian men burst in and threatened them with 30 cm butcher knives. Bound with tape, Hung was forced to give up his phone passcode and had about HK$900,000 transferred from his bank account plus about US$30,000 in Dogecoin moved out of his exchange account.
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Wang and three accomplices lured USDT seller Mr. Zhang — selling 166,000 USDT for TWD 5,146,000 — to Qingxi Road in Zhongli carrying toy banknotes, a hammer, a knife and a concealed machete; pulling him into their car, the ringleader held the machete to his throat demanding money. Injured, Zhang jumped from the moving vehicle while his friend chased and rammed the car, which was stopped and abandoned by the fleeing four.
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A group of youths engaged in "paedophile hunting" lured a man through a fake social-media profile in which he had mentioned bitcoins. Up to six youths threatened him with a knife and pepper spray, beat him and repeatedly demanded his bitcoins and passwords, forcing his phone open with his fingerprint and pushing him into the water.
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A man handing over a USB drive containing about HKD 150,000 in USDT at a Lai Chi Kok bus stop was punched, robbed of the drive, and the attacker fled by car. The victim was hospitalized; police classified the case as theft and assault and assigned it to the Sham Shui Po Crime Squad, with the suspect still at large.
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The federal trial brief of in United States v. Remy Ra St Felix states that a home invasion attempt was unsuccessful here but not specifically dated.
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Zhou and accomplices staged a fake over-the-counter transaction: he bought CNY 400,000 of USDT from sellers including Mr. Wu, confirmed receipt, then demanded the cash back claiming he had received nothing, and the group forcibly took the money before fleeing. Zhou was intercepted by the sellers and handed to police, accomplices turned themselves in, and he admitted the facts at the Fuqing People's Court hearing in April 2023.
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Two men who learned a 20-year-old did business in cryptocurrency followed him home, forced him into a car and held him in a rented garage, taking his phones and laptops and forcing him under death threats to transfer USD 290,000 and 190,000 more in cryptocurrency; one was remanded in custody and the other was wanted as of June 2023.
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Man knocks on door, threatens to assault victim, leaves after he sends some cryptocurrency.
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Three armed individuals broke into a businessman's residence in Praia Brava (Itajaí, Santa Catarina) and held the victim, his relatives, and his employees for about three hours; through violence and serious threats against his family, the businessman was forced to carry out cryptocurrency transfers, and jewelry, electronic devices, and cash were also taken, for total losses of about BRL 1.2 million. Tracing of the transfers showed the funds scattered toward Argentina and Peru; Operation "Blockchain" by Itajaí's DIC, conducted with Interpol, the Brazilian and Argentine federal police, and the civil police of Sergipe and Goiás, led on 4 and 5 October 2023 to seven arrests (2 in Buenos Aires, 1 in Ituporanga d'Ajuda, 1 in Balneário Camboriú, 3 already incarcerated), with one suspect still at large.
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A cryptocurrency investor leaving an industry meetup was intercepted and overpowered in a vehicle; the attackers forced his facial recognition to unlock his phone and wallet app, converting his holdings into 4.1 million USDT (about 28 million yuan) and transferring the funds before fleeing. The primary sources report no police confirmation, no victim identity and no arrests.
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2 men knock on door, threaten victim with knife, leave after he sends cryptocurrency.
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A cryptocurrency wallet manager was lured by a 22-year-old client, Lin, who threatened him into a car and held him captive in a Zhonghe hotel, demanding he raise money before release. Alerted by the victim's partner, the Zhonghe investigation squad assaulted the location the next day, freeing Wang and arresting Lin and two accomplices, and seizing ketamine, an aluminum bat, a Rambo knife and four machetes.
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Armed gang invades home, torture victims for 3 hours, take jewelry, fail to find hardware wallet with $1.4m.
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A masked man armed with a sawn-off shotgun burst into an Amsterdam restaurant, ordered the owner and his girlfriend to lie down and beat and kicked the owner while shouting at him to transfer cryptocurrency. The owner showed he no longer held any crypto, and the attacker fled with a cash box, a watch and a phone after threatening the girlfriend.
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Chinese businessman kidnapped and held for six days in the Philippines
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2 men who work on a cryptocurrency were kidnapped and robbed.
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Man responds to ad to sell his bitcoin, is attacked by several men & forced to transfer 30K EUR worth of BTC & ETH.
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46 mining machines, damage of nearly 44 million tenge — Three friends, one of whom had previously come to repair the electrical system of the mining farm and had scouted the premises on that occasion, broke into a private property in Shymkent at night by climbing over the fence and took 46 mining machines installed in an outbuilding of the house, causing damage of nearly 44 million tenge. Identified through video surveillance and their vehicle, they were arrested in town, confessed, fully compensated the victim, and were sentenced to five years of restriction of liberty for theft (article 188 of the Kazakh criminal code); the sentence was made public on June 14, 2022.
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"Crypto king" abducted, tortured, and beaten for days as his kidnappers sought millions in ransom
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Man kidnapped from his Bentley by 4 men, forced to give access to bitcoin wallet.
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Two masked men broke into a home demanding 'crypto and watches': they struck the victim in the face with a club and with their fists, held him in a chokehold and ordered him to lie face down with his hands behind his back so they could bind him with cable ties. The court established that the occupant of the home, where the victim was staying, was the mastermind who had staged this home invasion to extort a large sum of cryptocurrency from him; the victim resisted, managed to flee and was injured.
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A resident of Herzliya who had come to buy bitcoins for cash in Tel Mond was attacked in his vehicle by the seller, who had posed on WhatsApp as a certain 'Adva': the assailants sprayed him with pepper gas, chased him on foot when he fled with his bag, then left with the 77,550 shekels he was carrying. Two suspects (26 and 19 years old, from Kadima-Tzoran) were arrested within hours; on December 11, 2022, the Central District public prosecutor's office charged four people (Ilan Sobolov, 27, Yarin, 19, Moshe Jerbi, 21, and a 16-year-old minor) with aggravated group robbery and criminal conspiracy.
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'Amir', 35, was lured by his business partner 'Saeed' on the pretext of buying crypto-assets and settling a dispute, then forced at gunpoint to hand over his e-wallet code, transferring crypto worth 8 billion tomans; the two men then shot him dead and buried his body in the desert to eliminate the witness. Saeed was arrested after the victim's father filed a complaint and confessed after three days in custody.
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A Bnei Brak resident arranging a cash-for-crypto exchange in Rishon LeZion was threatened with a weapon, sprayed with gas and robbed of more than ILS 100,000 in cash. Two East Jerusalem residents in their twenties were arrested after a substantial sum was found at their home, and their detention was extended by the court.
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A 52-year-old American tourist was drugged and robbed by a woman nicknamed 'Liz' he had met on a dating app and welcomed into his Puerto Madero rental, losing his Ledger Nano X hardware wallet, phone, laptop, driver's license and a wallet containing 80,000 pesos. Three people, including the driver who transported them, were arrested on December 2 2022 during raids in Barracas.
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A woman was kidnapped, tied to a chair, stripped naked, hit in the legs with a hammer, and burned while attackers demanded $1 million in bitcoin. She escaped and the attackers were caught.
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A young man was lured to a fake meeting in Valencia, held at gunpoint and forced to call his brother; both brothers were then held in an apartment over an alleged EUR 25,000 debt tied to a cryptocurrency fraud network, released only after partial payments totaling about EUR 1,000. On October 7 2025 the Valencia Provincial Court sentenced three of the four defendants, who had admitted the facts, to suspended prison terms of 2.5 to 4 years and a EUR 2,400 fine.
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Directed via Telegram by a ringleader nicknamed 'Huoshan Baofa,' a five-person team staged a fake sale of 60,000 USDT for TWD 1,912,800 at Taichung HSR station; after counting the cash and showing a fake transfer screenshot, one man snatched the bag of bills and an accomplice shoved the pursuing buyer. The buyer overpowered the accomplice and handed her to police; several convictions for group snatch-theft were handed down on appeal.
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At around 2 a.m., perpetrators used a Hummer as a battering ram to smash through the storefront of the G&E Wine and Spirits store in Aurora, a suburb of Denver. They left with the cash from the ATM, a bitcoin ATM, and a cash register containing a handgun; about three hours later, a second group attempted to burgle the same store while the owner and his wife were still on the premises.
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Two men, one armed with a knife, broke into the penthouse of a trader in Necochea and held him and his partner hostage for about four hours, beating them and forcing crypto transfers, then took cash in three currencies, encrypted USB drives, a computer and phones. Three suspects, recipients of the Binance transfers plus a neighbor who provided information, were arrested in July 2023 and the case was referred to trial in 2024 for doubly aggravated robbery.
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A man from Canoas was abducted in Jurere Internacional by four heavily armed men seeking him over cryptocurrency they had lost because of him; the getaway turned into a shootout with Highway Military Police in which an officer was wounded, and the victim used the moment to jump free. Three suspects fled on foot while the driver was captured by BOPE in possession of a grenade launcher.
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Three men took a Limassol resident known for his hacking skills into the Cyprus buffer zone under the pretext of a hunting trip and staged his 'capture' by fake police officers of the pseudo-state, who demanded EUR 150,000 drawn from his cryptocurrency; he cancelled the transfer and fled, later robbed of EUR 1,000 by one suspect. All three were arrested and referred on November 10 2022 to the Permanent Assize Court of Nicosia for conspiracy, kidnapping, attempted extortion and related charges.
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Russian couple extorted by gang of foreign men at coffee shop.
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Armed gang invades home, takes jewelry, electronics. Kidnapped & tortured victim, failed to find his bitcoin.
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Man held at gunpoint, assaulted and tied up during Bitcoin trade.
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Armed gang invades home, takes jewelry, electronics, cash. Tried but failed to drain Gemini account.
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3 men, 1 posing as a cop, arrested while attempting home invasion.
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A teenager lured to Digbeth in Birmingham to buy nitrous oxide was knocked unconscious and dragged into a car by four young men, who held him for about two hours in Oldbury with a fake sawn-off shotgun and a machete while posting Snapchat videos demanding a GBP 30,000 ransom. They took GBP 377, his phone and his trainers and forced him to convert over GBP 800 in cryptocurrency; four men were sentenced in August 2023 to nearly 40 years in prison combined.
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Multiple suspects posing as police invade home, tie up residents, steal $10M in crypto.
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A man who had arranged on Snapchat to buy bitcoins drove with a woman to the agreed spot in Amstelveen, where two young men got into the car. Threatening them with a firearm, the robbers took EUR 32,000 in cash, an iPhone 13 Pro and a car key.
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A crypto promoter from Brasília was held for about twelve hours in São Paulo after a nightclub outing, beaten and stripped of about BRL 59,000 (BRL 58,000 in cryptocurrency + BRL 1,000 via PIX) plus his phone, wallet, clothes and shoes, before being abandoned in Guaianases. His friend remained unaccounted for and two suspects were questioned at the police station.
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After a first failed attempt, a commando of Colombians posing as victims of the Daily crypto pyramid abducted the ex-partner of Juan Jose Benavides Velasquez — alleged founder of a cryptocurrency that collapsed in February 2022 — then held the couple, their baby and the ex-mother-in-law captive for over a week under torture while demanding a USD 10 million ransom, also raiding Benavides's home for cash, valuables and notebooks of wallet passwords. In 2025 eight Colombians were sentenced to 11 years, the driver to 5 years, and a former police officer to 3 years.
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3 men trick, abduct, torture realtor for 8 BTC.
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3 men follow a man home, hold him at knifepoint for BTC.
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approximately BRL 100,000 paid in cryptocurrency — In August 2022, an elderly couple was the victim of a 'sequestro relâmpago' (aggravated extortion with restriction of liberty) on the Rodovia Ayrton Senna, in the State of São Paulo: about 100,000 reais were paid to the kidnappers in cryptocurrency. On March 14, 2023, the Goiás Civil Police, at the request of the São Paulo police, arrested a suspect who had received the cryptocurrency in Cidade de Goiás; he tried to destroy his phone and flush 256 g of skunk cannabis down the toilet, and was additionally charged with drug trafficking and money laundering.
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Attacker learned victim was a crypto trader, lured him and his friend to a motel in Taichung where he and three accomplices, carrying two realistic-looking pistols, held them at gunpoint, ordering him to hand over his cryptocurrency and banking passwords, and beating him when a wrong password locked the account; he gave up only TWD 900. Attackers were later arrested and convicted.
Report: judgment.judicial.gov.tw Report: judgment.judicial.gov.tw
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A man from Venray was lured to Molengatweg in Horst by an arranged drug sale; when he arrived his car was blocked and his windscreen smashed, then several men in balaclavas pulled him out at gunpoint, hit him on the head and locked him in a car boot. Taken blindfolded to a hut in a forest, he was forced to reveal his drug stash, and the kidnappers tried to extort money from him and make him unlock his cryptocurrency wallet, threatening him with guns and with pruning shears held against his toes.
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A buyer nicknamed "Xiao Dingdang" arranged to buy 30,000 USDT from trader 丁○○ for TWD 861,000, meeting in front of a Cathay United Bank branch in Taichung; after counting the cash in a rental car, one attacker sprayed him with tear gas as the driver accelerated. The victim grabbed his bag back and jumped from the moving vehicle, fracturing his kneecap and heel bone; both men were convicted of attempted aggravated robbery with a weapon.
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Man suffers home invasion, loses ~$50,000 after attempting a face-to-face cash trade to buy bitcoin.
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4 armed mask men rob warehouse, steal 100 GPUs.
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A businessman was pulled from his Audi and forced into another vehicle, his phones seized at knifepoint, and the kidnappers transferred 3.27 units of cryptocurrency (about INR 1 crore) from his Binance accounts, never recovered. The case was registered against eight accused, and alleged mastermind Deelip Bhalchandra Dongre was arrested months later.
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The wife of a Russian crypto-asset manager was abducted and transported gagged in a car trunk toward El Campello, her kidnappers seeking access keys to cryptocurrencies her husband had refused to surrender. Alerted by the couple's lawyer, local police intercepted the vehicle, freed the victim unharmed and arrested two of the three kidnappers; an Alicante judge later linked the abduction to a large crypto scam allegedly ordered by Carlos Garrido.
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Men posing as C.B.I. officers abducted businessman Dipak Vaghasiya and a friend, threatening prosecution over 'blockchain' schemes to extort money in a bitcoin business dispute; Vaghasiya promised to pay, was released, and filed a complaint. The crime branch arrested four suspects in Mumbai and seized fake CBI paraphernalia; the instigator, the victim's brother-in-law and bitcoin business partner Vijay Ramjibhai Sabhadiya, had his bail rejected by the Gujarat High Court on August 8 2025.
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Son of Mitsubishi Electric CEO + 7 men kidnap, torture gym member for crypto assets. Attackers were later arrested but funds were not recovered.
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315 mining machines (306 model A1 + 9 model S9), unit value USD 300 to 600 — On May 30, 2022 around 10:45 a.m., three individuals traveling in a Toyota Caldina intercepted a white JMC pickup truck near the former Km 7 marker in Ciudad del Este: two of them, armed with pistols, forced the driver out at gunpoint, took him with them and then released him in the Santa Clara neighborhood, before driving off with the vehicle and its 315 ASIC miners (306 A1 units and 9 S9 units, worth USD 300 to 600 each). The same article reports a second theft of mining machines less than ten hours earlier in Hernandarias (Puerta del Sol neighborhood), which led to a chase and an exchange of gunfire with police, with no arrest.
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Rapper AnishaGF was lured to a Duivendrecht recording studio by rapper Mensa, who let in two men with objects resembling firearms; they took her jewellery and phone, demanded her phone code, and reportedly fired a shot that hit her head. The Amsterdam court found the aim was to access her Bitcoin account through her phone; Mensa later called demanding her crypto wallet codes and threatened to blow up her house.
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12 men rob aluminum factory, steal 180 Bitcoin ASICs.
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Costin Miu, a businessman grown wealthy in cryptocurrency, was attacked in a Mamaia parking lot by drug trafficker Alexandru Ioan Dorobanțu and three Nigerians sent from London, then held captive, bound, hooded and stabbed in the abdomen while ordered to surrender his crypto wallet passwords over an alleged EUR 3 million debt. Alerted by neighbors, police foiled the plot: Miu was released after promising EUR 200,000–300,000, Dorobanțu was arrested and sentenced to 7 years 4 months, and the three Nigerians remain at large.
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Multiple incidents of crypto muggings around London.
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Crypto expert assaulted & robbed by investors for losing money.
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A friend of the couple tipped off a gang about roughly BRL 2.5 million in crypto held on a Trezor; the wife was abducted and held in a hideout while other members forced the husband to hand over the private key, then transferred 15.08322957 BTC split across about 120 addresses. Police executed 5 of 6 arrest warrants across four states, and 14 of the 15 bitcoins were frozen and returned to the couple.
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Five men including two active-duty police officers staged a fake official search at a villa in Küçükçekmece where wealthy Chinese tourists were staying, taking a cold wallet holding USD 65,000 in crypto with its password, plus TRY 45,000 in cash. Identified via CCTV, all five were arrested and jailed in Istanbul on May 13 2022; neither wallet nor cash was recovered.
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Zhang lured USDT seller Chen into a car with accomplices under the pretext of "verifying the tokens," then overpowered him in an isolated mountainous area and forced him to hand over passwords to transfer 53,008 tokens; most were squandered on gambling, with 7,148 returned to the victim by police. The Zhangzhou Intermediate People's Court upheld the armed robbery conviction on appeal and ordered restitution of RMB 259,629.86.
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Armed men attacked the house of Tengiz Ratsba to steal cryptocurrency mining machines. In the exchange of fire that followed, the owner's brother Tamaz Ratsba and one of the attackers were fatally wounded.
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Indebted Zhou recruited Li via a foreign messaging app to abduct Mr. Ruan and extort his large USDT holdings; after a first abandoned attempt in late December 2021, the second expedition traveled to Ningde on April 26 2022 equipped with cable ties, tape and a stun baton, planning to pose as anti-COVID officials. Two recruits tipped off the victim and police; Li and Zhou were arrested the next day and each sentenced to 1 year 10 months for armed robbery at the preparatory stage.
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Couple tied up and beaten, forced to transfer cryptocurrency.
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15 to 20 men — some in National Police uniforms — raided a bitcoin mining site announcing a police and prosecutor's operation, then overpowered and disarmed the two guards. They loaded mining machines from a shed into three vehicles and fled, and police linked the gang to other similar attacks in the region.
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A 19-year-old stole a cryptocurrency ATM from a Timișoara shopping center and abandoned it in a field near Vinga, causing RON 286,000 in damages (RON 236,000 cash + RON 50,000 equipment). Arrested the following Saturday, he was held 24 hours; RON 180,200 was recovered, including RON 8,500 buried in his home garden.
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9 robbers invaded the office of a bitcoin trader and took over $1,000,000 in cash.
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In April 2022, three men violently robbed employees guarding a mining facility in Udomlya (Tver Oblast) and fled with company funds and mining servers worth over RUB 5.7 million in vehicles fitted with fake license plates. The court sentenced them to 8 years 6 months to 9 years 6 months in strict- and special-regime penal colonies (ruling reported March 2025).
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Osun State police officers stopped Ifeoluwa Lawal, a Nigeria-based student returning from Cyprus, found a Binance screenshot on his phone, and after hours of intimidation extorted USD 504 from his Binance account via a QR code, having threatened him with the EFCC. His brother photographed the police vehicle's plate, and the Osun police spokesperson announced an investigation.
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Attempted home invasion by 3 armed men; victim fired gun at attackers, who fled.
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A woman named Zhuo lured her ex-boyfriend Yu to a Taichung motel, letting in about ten men sent by Xu, who suspected Yu of misappropriating his 140,000 USDT (~TWD 4 million); Yu was beaten, dipped in cold and boiling water, stripped of his wallet and bank balances, and forced to sign ten TWD 500,000 promissory notes and take out over TWD 2 million in loans. On appeal the aggravated robbery charge was downgraded to unlawful deprivation of liberty: 2 years 10 months for Huang and 1 year 6 months suspended for Zhuo.
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Crypto expert shot 5 times by robber seeking Richard Mille watch.
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A man in a ski mask and goggles broke into a woman's Bernal Heights home, threatened her with a knife and taped her, then forced her to transfer about USD 3 million in crypto from CoolWallet hardware wallets, typing orders on an iPad to avoid being identified by voice. The suspect, her former personal assistant Tianze Zhang, fled to Taiwan, was arrested in Kaohsiung in May 2022 and extradited; charged with aggravated kidnapping among six counts, he was still awaiting his preliminary hearing as of January 2026.
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Abuja-based musician was intercepted on the Okene road by officers of the SWAT unit traveling in an unmarked Hilux; having refused to comply, he was slapped and forced into their vehicle, then taken to a bushy area near Nagazi. The police searched his phone, opened his Binance app showing a balance of USD 23, labeled him a 'Yahoo boy,' demanded NGN 250,000, and prevented him from freely making calls before extorting NGN 100,000 from him via a POS terminal and releasing him.
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On March 12 2022, on the orders of Adam Iza ('Crypto Godfather'), the brother of an LA sheriff's deputy physically grabbed an associate of victim 'E.Z.' to steal a laptop containing cryptocurrency that Iza claimed as his own; a private investigator employed by Iza kept watch and drove the attacker away. These facts are detailed in paragraph 10 of the federal complaint filed September 23 2024.
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Sylwester Suszek, founder of Polish exchange BitBay (later Zonda, then Zondacrypto), disappeared on March 10 2022 after going to a meeting at a fuel depot with an associate linked to organized crime; his family later received messages claiming he had been kidnapped and demanding a ransom in bitcoin. Former associate Marian Wszolek was charged with kidnapping and money laundering, but no body has been found and about 4,500 BTC under his exclusive control remain inaccessible.
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Woman cop suspended for bid to extort crypto from trader
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Businessman ambushed by armed robber, has $1M watch & crypto wallet taken.
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4 men invade home, tie up man, steal $450K from safe. Attackers were arrested and convicted months later.
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After arranging to meet her via social media under the pretext of a business deal, Jairo Medina Vega asphyxiated Liliana Segovia Navarro (36) in her vehicle to steal her more than USD 10,000 in cryptocurrency and concealed her body, later dumping it near Tubara. Sentenced on February 14 2023 to 223 months (18.5 years) for aggravated homicide and theft; an alleged accomplice was captured in June 2026, four years after the events.
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Five men who went to a rented Hung Hom flat to buy USDT for HK$3 million in cash were beaten by knife- and stick-wielding South Asian men who fled with the rucksack of cash, injuring two who resisted; nine suspects were arrested three days later.
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4.485 BTC (nearly BRL 1,000,000) — On February 5, 2022, around noon, a businessman (in the overseas casino sector) on a tourist stay in the São Jorge district was approached as he left his guesthouse by three men armed with a pistol, an assault rifle and a submachine gun who identified themselves as police officers; taken back to the guesthouse with a gun to his head, he was forced to transfer 4.485 BTC (nearly BRL 1 million), the attackers showing him photos of his relatives and then giving him 24 hours to pay more under threat of death to his family. The investigation established that they were three civil police officers from the Coordenadoria de Operações e Recursos Especiais of Goiânia and a civil guard from Cristalina; one of them, Willian da Silva Ribeiro (40), was arrested at his home in Cristalina (a luxury car, a weapon and ammunition were seized), and all four were charged with extortion by kidnapping on February 25, 2022.
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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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Crypto consultant hog-tied, beaten during home invasion.
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Pune: 8 including cop arrested for kidnapping man to extort Bitcoin worth Rs 300 crore ($50 million USD)
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Crypto founder kidnapped, zip-tied, threatened to be thrown off bridge.
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Thiago Asmar, a Jovem Pan host, was robbed inside an Uber in Sao Paulo; the perpetrators forced him to unlock his phone, then emptied his bank accounts (BRL 200,000) and his Binance account, even opening an account in his name at another bank to funnel the funds. The bank reimbursed him but the exchange refused, and no arrest is mentioned.
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Six armed members of an organized group from Yaroslavl oblast stormed a cryptocurrency mining farm set up in a railway wagon at a disused sawmill, threatening the guard and taking mining hardware worth more than RUB 4 million. All six were found guilty of robbery with violence and sentenced to 5, 6 and 10 years in a strict-regime penal colony.
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Fake insurance adjustor attempts armed home invasion, gets pushed and locked out by victim.
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A member of a Medellin criminal network posing on Bumble as a cryptocurrency expert lured an American citizen to a Bogota hotel, administered an incapacitating substance, and the group emptied his Coinbase account of 298 ETH (~COP 3,213 million). The network was dismantled in May 2025 with arrests in Medellin and Brazil.
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3 men invade home, fail to force owner to hand over 3M Euros of BTC
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Four men wearing clown masks forced their way into a Laval residence, severely beat the occupant, fired a shot, and abducted a 26-year-old pregnant woman, who was found with two abductors less than an hour later after calling 911. The case was linked to a CAD 300,000 bitcoin transaction gone wrong; two men were arrested and charged with kidnapping and related offenses.
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Suspects smash gas station with truck, steal Bitcoin ATM
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Traffic officer jailed for robbing 20 million rubles in BTC from multiple detainees
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The former private driver of a cryptocurrency investor lured her to a meeting with accomplices posing as police officers, drove her for two hours with a plastic bag over her head, extracted her phone password, and transferred 8,000 units of cryptocurrency (AED 30,000) plus stole AED 8,000 in cash and other belongings, before photographing her with threats against filing a complaint. Her memorization of the license plate enabled the four men's arrest; they received prison terms of two to three years, fines and deportation.
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A gang lured a Casablanca money changer active in bitcoin with a fake transfer deal, then abducted him posing as police officers and conducted a fake search of his home to seize his money. Seven people were arrested and about MAD 15 million in cash seized; five defendants, including a police officer, received a total of 41 years in prison.
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11 Inmates take 2 inmates hostage, force them to transfer cryptocurrency
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Three masked individuals armed with stun guns broke into a Moscow house targeting a wealthy bitcoin miner for more than BRL 7.23 million in BTC, but mistook his brother-in-law for the target and tortured him for bitcoins he did not hold; the victim escaped by jumping out of a window. One suspect was arrested and two remained at large, with the trial held behind closed doors.
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Armed home invaders threaten TV personality during livestream
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Robbers take $400K in cash & bitcoin at knifepoint
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Marek W., a Krakow bar employee who had made about PLN 1 million investing in cryptocurrencies, was overpowered at his door by two brothers — one a former boxer — who taped him, forced him to open his safe, and beat him to death after a botched attempt to make him transfer his cryptocurrencies locked his account.
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2 masked men break into home, hold family at gunpoint before escaping with three servers and $2,040 in cash.
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Abdi Hassan lured a man to a London recreation ground by offering to sell him cryptocurrency, then slashed him with a Rambo-style knife, threw him into a body of water and robbed him. Hassan was sentenced on October 30 2023 to 14 years in prison plus an extended 4-year license period.
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French crypto influencer Michael Monteverde ('mickalamasse') was lured to a chalet in Sainte-Anne-des-Lacs, where three masked armed men beat him, tied him up and waterboarded him to force facial recognition unlock of his phone, leaving with luxury watches, jewelry and 7.70 ETH (~USD 30,000). The funds were redirected to an account of Michael-Elie Moussalem, who fled to the United States in 2022 and has been under arrest warrant since 2024 without ever being tried.
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Four men in their twenties posing as electricity meter readers knocked out a man at his Falkoping home, tied him to his bed and threatened him with a knife to force him to hand over his cryptocurrency. They left with more than SEK 135,000 in cryptocurrency, SEK 12,000 in cash and a stack of Pokemon cards.
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A gang of twelve Chechen nationals robbed two foreigners living in a villa in Alanya, taking 10 BTC (~USD 500,000), USD 150,000 in cash and a luxury 4x4 for a haul valued at about USD 650,000. Police recovered the vehicle, identified the network and raided five addresses; six suspects were arrested while four others had already left Turkey.
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Song Yu-yang and accomplices staged a fake sale of 340,000 USDT, and when the buyer arrived at a Taichung office with TWD 8,700,000 in cash, four men sprayed him with tear gas, knocked him down and grabbed the suitcase, injuring the victim who had clung to the getaway car. Seven defendants were sentenced on appeal to terms of 7 years 2 months to 7 years 10 months for armed group robbery.
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Attempted robbery & kidnapping at gunpoint by business associate
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Amony Robillard, a Brevard County Sheriff's corrections officer, held a man at gunpoint naked for about three hours in an Orlando Airbnb, forcing him to sign a USD 30,000 contract — restitution for a crypto deal he blamed on the victim — while stealing USD 650 in cash and via an app, and threatening to release compromising videos. Robillard and accomplice Jerise Richer were charged with armed robbery, extortion and unlawful confinement.
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Thieves rip bitcoin ATM from crypto store
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Varela set up a fake bitcoin purchase through a broker, luring cryptocurrency holders to a ranch in La Fortuna de Bagaces, where five armed accomplices bound, beat and threatened the victims; Zhang was forced to transfer about CRC 200 million (~USD 310,000). Two victims escaped from a car trunk en route to being burned, but a third, Jimenez, was burned alive to destroy evidence; Varela was sentenced to 50 years in prison.
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Wang Sheng-hung gained victims' trust through a Facebook USDT-selling ad and genuine transactions, then, with an accomplice who disguised their license plate, robbed two buyers of TWD 9,990,000 at gunpoint after they handed over the cash. The pair forced their way past a police checkpoint and fled, and were sentenced to 10 years and 8 years 2 months for armed robbery, upheld on appeal.
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NGN 1,700,000 in total (NGN 1,000,000 on October 19, 2021, NGN 700,000 on November 10, 2021) — Emeka Okoro, a cryptocurrency trader in Calabar, was extorted twice in three weeks by police officers from the Akim station: on October 19, 2021, he was stopped in the street in Effio Ette with his brother, had a gun pointed at him and their phones seized, and was ordered to pay 2 million naira or be handed over to the EFCC, ending up paying 1 million; on November 10, armed police officers broke into his apartment, called him a fraudster, demanded 10 million naira and extorted 700,000 naira from him, with the officer holding him at gunpoint being drunk. Subsequently harassed by threatening calls and texts from the gang leader known as "Sir Lion," he fled Calabar with his brother, abandoning his belongings; a spokesperson for the Cross River police promised FIJ full reimbursement.
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Su, traveling back from selling USDT for TWD 2.6 million in cash, was intercepted by four or five men who beat him with a baseball bat and stun gun while filming; at dawn they used his phone to lure his partner Zhao and beat him until a friend brought the money. Both victims suffered fractures but did not file complaints; police opened an investigation after the video leaked, with no suspect identified.
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Crypto trader kidnapped by Triad gang, beaten with hammers
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Home invaders torture social media founder, take tens of millions of euros in bitcoin
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Victim met with Karim Hassan to trade crypto, in the back of his black Audi A6, where he was threatened with a knife and forced to transfer GBP 20,000. Hassan was caught and sentenced to 5 years in prison.
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Victim met with Karim Hassan to trade crypto, in the back of his black Audi A6, where he was threatened with a knife and forced to transfer GBP 10,000. Hassan was caught and sentenced to 5 years in prison.
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Victim met with Karim Hassan to trade crypto, in the back of his black Audi A6, where she was threatened with a knife and forced to transfer GBP 2,500. Hassan was caught and sentenced to 5 years in prison.
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In November 2021 the same foreign criminal group behind a 2020 raid carried out a second violent, "paramilitary-style" action in the Castelo Branco / Idanha-a-Nova area, holding five people captive but failing to complete the planned bitcoin transfer. The case was prosecuted for aggravated robbery and unlawful confinement, joined with the 2020 Operation "Miragem" charges.
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Between summer and November 2021, a gang used Telegram to contact people looking to buy cryptocurrency for cash below market price in northern Israel, then robbed them with fake pistols, injuring several victims; total damages were estimated at about ILS 680,000 (up to 1 million according to police). An undercover operation trapped the gang — which even attempted to steal ILS 145,000 from the officers — and seven defendants were indicted for aggravated robbery and criminal conspiracy.
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Five Asian nationals attacked an investor parking near his Dubai home, tortured him with needles under his fingernails until he made five transfers totaling 243 units of cryptocurrency valued at AED 2.5 million, the motive being a financial dispute with one of them. All five were sentenced to three years in prison, an AED 2.5 million fine and deportation, upheld on appeal.
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Two masked men broke onto the grounds of a former livestock farm near Shakhovskaya that had been converted into a cryptocurrency mining farm and tied up the guard. They took 100 Antminer S9 mining machines.
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Man Shot Dead in Hail of Gunfire Over Crypto Mining Rigs
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32 year old victim was lured into an ambush in Gerli by three individuals posing as buyers of cryptocurrency mining racks, was shot twice in the face at nearly point-blank range as he tried to flee in his car, crashing and dying on the spot. The attackers fled without taking the loot; several suspects were arrested in the following days.
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Thieves Break Into Liquor Store to Steal Bitcoin ATM
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A Texas tourist on Bourbon Street believes he was drugged with GHB before two women posing as Uber drivers offered him a ride; during the 25-minute trip to a hotel 1.2 miles away they took his phone and used his apps to drain about USD 16,000 from his cryptocurrency account, two-factor authentication being useless once the phone was taken from an incapacitated person. The case is known only from the victim's own account and no arrests have been reported.
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Armed Robbers attack Miner at his Home, Steal 86 BTC
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Two 19-year-olds from Netanya, wearing helmets and gloves and riding a motorcycle without a licence plate, targeted the "Bitcoin Change" virtual-currency shop, one entering with a kitchen knife and threatening the seller to make him open the safe. The seller broke free and ran away, and the attackers took three mobile phones before escaping on the motorcycle.
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A man approached in a Hoorn parking lot was forced at gunpoint into his own car and driven for an hour while made to hand over his phones and the access codes to his crypto wallet app; abandoned without a phone, he discovered that almost EUR 190,000 in cryptocurrency had been stolen. The mastermind, a work colleague who knew of his holdings, was sentenced to 4 years in prison and his two accomplices to 42 months each, plus joint damages.
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Two residents of Sovetsk who learned an acquaintance held a large sum in cryptocurrencies surveilled the victim for two months, kidnapped him outside his Kaliningrad home, and under death threats extracted his passwords, stealing crypto worth RUB 39.8 million plus RUB 403,000 of equipment. After drugging and strangling him and leaving him for dead in a forest, they were caught; the victim regained consciousness and escaped naked to a neighboring house.
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An operation by Gaeco and the Military Police arrested six people at a rented farmhouse in Monte Mor and thwarted the planned kidnapping of a cryptocurrency investor; the group, including four military police officers and an Army reserve officer, planned to pose as São Paulo civil police and access the victim's crypto wallet, hoping to obtain up to BRL 3 million. Three stolen vehicles, weapons, handcuffs, police badges and other equipment were seized, and two accomplices remained at large.
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22 y/o victim was offering bitcoin mining machines on social media, met a supposed buyer. While the buyer inspected the machines, two armed men arrived in a white Toyota Hilux and the three robbers overpowered the seller and his companion and made off with 15 mining machines.
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Safe containing $4M of cryptocurrency ripped from house
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Thieves break into garage, steal 20 mining servers worth $10,000.
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Rio's civil police raided a Copacabana apartment where a gang was holding two men bound and tortured — one with part of his ear cut off, the other with fingers severed — demanding BRL 350,000 for their release. Eight people were arrested; the victims turned out to be former members of the same scam group, and the courts refused to release one suspect, citing extortion aimed at obtaining pyramid scheme proceeds and cryptocurrencies.
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Computer engineering student drugged, tortured, and killed by 5 men for €200,000 in cryptocurrency
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Crypto Trader's Murder Blamed On Social Media Bragging
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A business associate and three other men tortured an entrepreneur at his company premises for two to three hours, threatening to pull out his toenails, break his bones and set him on fire. Forced to log into his exchange account, he transferred 175 Binance Coins (about EUR 50,000) to the attacker's account.
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4 Africans rob three women of $100,000 in a fake Bitcoin deal
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3 Moscow residents traveled to Omsk fake police ID cards, rented cars and apartments to cover their tracks and studied the routine of a 34-year-old programmer for an international financial organization; posing as police officers they intercepted him at the entrance to his building, drove him to an isolated location and, under psychological pressure and threats of violence, made him transfer 3 million rubles and 25 bitcoins. The three were arrested on their way back to Moscow and prosecuted for large-scale organized theft and document forgery.
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A cryptocurrency trader meeting a familiar seller at an Amsterdam hotel to buy bitcoins for cash was ambushed by two armed accomplices who burst from the bathroom; the three attackers beat and restrained him and left with EUR 40,000 and his phone, photographing his passport while threatening him against alerting police. The four disguised men were filmed by hotel CCTV but had not been identified at the time of the public witness appeal.
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A man in his twenties who spotted a YouTube streamer showing an account with KRW 8 billion in bitcoin disguised himself as a delivery man, sprayed the victim with pepper spray, shocked him with a stun gun, and demanded KRW 100 million in cash. The victim overpowered him and threw him out; the attacker was sentenced to 5 years in prison.
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Victim agreed to withdraw HKD 3.28 million from a crypto exchange company for a commission; in the building's service stairwell four masked South Asian men surrounded him, one brandishing a 5-inch knife that cut his right palm, then tied him up and took his bag containing the HKD 3.28 million plus HKD 10,000 of his own money.
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Two men from Rio in a car with a cloned license plate were intercepted by a military police operation and admitted they were heading to Araruama to kidnap a bitcoin entrepreneur; their vehicle contained fake civil police uniforms and replica weapons. Both suspects were taken into custody.
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A businesswoman of Chinese origin was forcibly dragged from a McDonald's in Carapicuíba into an armored car; the motive recorded was a 'business disagreement' and the disappearance of USD 300,000 in virtual currencies. Military police intercepted the two vehicles and arrested six people carrying firearms, all charged with criminal association and kidnapping for extortion.
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A 34-year-old Iranian businessman was set up by a woman who informed a gang about his wealth and transmitted his real-time location; men posing as police officers forced him into a minibus, beat him, and threatened to kill him to obtain his crypto passwords, taking USD 30,000 in cryptocurrency, TL 5,000 in cash, and a promissory note for USD 200,000 signed under duress. After a two-month investigation nine suspects were arrested, with two jailed and seven placed under judicial supervision.
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Law Enforcement Officers rob 2 men of $50K USD in bitcoin at gunpoint
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3 men kidnap and extort over $1M in crypto from victim
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A resident of Yekaterinburg who had answered an Avito ad for a 'mining farm' traveled to Yuzhnouralsk with about RUB 300,000 in cash; at the meeting, three previously convicted men attacked him and took the money. All three attackers were arrested and prosecuted for robbery involving a large amount.
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An Asian businessman who answered a flyer advertising bitcoin below market price brought AED 3 million in cash to a villa in Dubai's Al Barsha, where accomplices in protective suits posing as police officers tied, blindfolded and robbed him, then held him captive in Fujairah, tearing off his luxury watch. Two defendants were sentenced to three years in prison, a AED 3.75 million joint fine and deportation, with several accomplices still at large.
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Bitcoin holder drugged and robbed by Tinder date
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During a partners' meeting on the crypto platform 'Rocket Project' in Taipei, Chiang Ting-chou fired an air pistol and four men beat developer Wu Ming-han, demanding TWD 10,000,000 and holding him captive for nearly eleven hours until a friend transferred USDT 200,000 and TWD 100,000 was taken from his bank account by forced facial unlock. He was released only when the friend, having geolocated his car, arrived announcing she had alerted the police.
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A 28-year-old software engineer in Mersin was forced into a vehicle at gunpoint by individuals posing as police officers, who sought — unsuccessfully — to seize the funds in his bitcoin account, even with the help of a hacker, before releasing him. Four suspects identified via surveillance cameras were arrested and jailed for armed robbery and unlawful confinement.
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3 men posing as service technicians beat password out of Bitcoin owner
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Trader temporarily blinded, HK$2 million stolen
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Woman drugs man she met on chat app, steals $87K from his phone.
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"All my crypto" (testimony) / "most of his crypto" (Bloomberg); his share of the March 2021 theft was about $1.6 million, split with an accomplice and partly already spent (BMW M8) — amount stolen unknown — A few months after cashing in about $1.6 million in cryptocurrency stolen by SIM swap in March 2021 (a share split with an accomplice), Jarod Seemungal, then about 20, was the victim of a home invasion: according to his mother, quoted by Bloomberg Businessweek, two men kicked in the door of his Biscayne Boulevard condo one evening and forced him at gunpoint to transfer most of his crypto to them. Testifying at the federal trial of Remy Ra St Felix (North Carolina, 2024), Seemungal confirmed under oath that he had been "home invaded" and robbed of all his crypto at gunpoint; he said that this robbery, and one suffered by his accomplice "Tidy"/"Neb", led him in summer 2022 to set up the crypto home-invasion network he ran with St Felix.
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Four teenagers threatened passers-by with a knife, forced them to unlock their phones and siphoned their cryptocurrency into hot wallets across 19 London robberies, stealing more than GBP 115,000; the four received sentences totaling 23 years in July 2023.
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Two businessmen held captive for three days a 22-year-old they had recruited for sports betting who had diverted funds into cryptocurrency, guarding him in a rented luxury penthouse and demanding BRL 1 million for his release; his brother paid only BRL 50,000. The victim alerted his family during a lapse by the guard, and police freed him and arrested the three captors.
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Chen Sheng-lin (陳聖霖), already sentenced for robbing a USDT buyer in 2020 but not yet in prison, posed on Telegram as a USDT seller to three buyers and met them in a rented meeting room on the 20th floor of a tower on Wenxin Road in Taichung; once the cash was counted, he returned with two accomplices and all three pepper-sprayed the buyers in the face, taking TWD 1,773,700 from the table, a backpack with TWD 100,000 and a phone before fleeing. All three were convicted on April 21 2022 by the Taichung District Court (110年度訴字第1390號) of armed group robbery.
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Four Lagos State Police Command officers stopped businessman Babatunde Williams under the pretext of a document check, handcuffed and beat him, and after he gave up his phone passcode transferred USD 5,500 (NGN 2.2 million) from his Bitcoin wallet to an accomplice's address. He filed a robbery complaint and the case was referred to the SCIID.
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After being introduced to three investors under the LINE alias "Lei Luo", the gang lured them to an "investment training" dinner in Taichung, where five masked armed men burst in, bound and blindfolded the victims, and drove them to a mountainous area of Miaoli, where beatings and gun threats forced them to hand over their access codes. The attackers took 37,800 USDT, two Rolex watches and TWD 85,000 before releasing the victims that night.
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About ten masked men armed with sticks hired by a fake bitcoin-selling gang ambushed two employees showing CNY 3 million in cash to supposed buyers near a Zhongshan county hotel, beating them and seizing the suitcase; the 12-member gang was arrested within 36 hours and sentenced to up to life imprisonment.
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Lai learned that a teacher nicknamed Peng held at least 5 bitcoins and posted a call for accomplices on Baidu Tieba to rob him; with Xiang he planned to lure the victim to an isolated location, restrain him, and extort his accounts and passwords, but police arrested the pair before any act was carried out. Sentenced to 3 years and 1 year for robbery at first instance, their terms were reduced on appeal, the court finding the offense had only reached the preparatory stage.
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Teen bitcoin trader kidnapped & ransomed
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Son drugs father, steals $400K in BTC
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Armed men force their way into Canyon Meadows home, steal cryptocurrency keys
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Mining farm owner shoots at looters
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Two men — one disguised as a Thuisbezorgd.nl delivery rider — forced their way into a man's home and demanded bitcoins. When the victim said he had none, they punched him several times in the face, held a gun to his head and tied his hands with cable ties before fleeing with cash from a cupboard.
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Suspecting Chi Yen-ming of embezzling funds from a joint virtual currency investment, Yang Tung-hsiang gathered eight accomplices who abducted him from outside his New Taipei home at 2:12 a.m., bound and blindfolded him, and held him captive in a metal shed. Alerted police intercepted the kidnappers and freed the victim at 4:08 a.m., arresting all nine men.
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Armed robbers steal iPhone, $5k at gunpoint
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Victim showed his "business partners" his unlocked phone displaying a Bitcoin wallet with nearly EUR 100,000; they grabbed it and fled. Police arrested three suspects aged 21 to 29 from Waldkraiburg, with a fourth arrested in Munich on March 31.
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Man 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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After L.A. invested USD 200,000 in cryptocurrencies on S.A.'s advice, S.A. demanded USD 30,000 more than the USD 7,000 already repaid and had an accomplice force him at gunpoint into a vehicle, where under threat L.A. transferred an additional USD 10,000; the attackers later returned to threaten him at his home. Five suspects were arrested after his complaint and referred for unlawful confinement, aggravated robbery and firearms offenses.
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A gang operating in Manhattan bars approached patrons and had them ingest drugs before taking their unlocked phones to empty their accounts: at least 40 victims and 7 deaths, including one victim who had USD 30,000 in cryptocurrency transferred from a mobile app while unconscious. 5 men were later arrested and convicted.
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Armed robbers invade home and force owners to hand over 1M+ SEK in BTC
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Mr. Luo exchanged more than 172,000 USDT for CNY 1.1 million in cash at a Xiamen tea house; once the crypto was transferred, the buyer claimed a network delay and seized the bag of cash while about twenty accomplices blocked the victim's escape. Police identified the organized gang and arrested fifteen suspects, including the ringleader, within five days in a simultaneous operation across seven cities.
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Armed robbers take $93k in BTC at gunpoint
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Two employees shot at physical Bitcoin exchange FlyingAtom
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Gang snatches HK$3.5 million from trader at knifepoint
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Robbers take US$387,000 in cash, 15BTC from man after in-person trade
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Victim describes his disbelief as $700,000 stolen in front of him
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"Ko Wei-chih" paid Yang Kai-hsiang to abduct the victim who collected cash from USDT trades, who was lured into a designated car near Taipei's THSR Nangang station with TWD 12,600,000; threatened inside the locked vehicle, he lost his suitcase, backpack and two phones before being abandoned in the mountains, walking to a police station two hours later. Yang was convicted of extortion and deprivation of liberty.
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Mr. Li arranged to sell 105,980 USDT for CNY 670,000 in cash to buyer Chen, but after counting the money in Chen's car and transferring the USDT, Chen pulled out a telescopic baton, ejected Li, and fled with both the crypto and the cash. Chen and his three accomplices were arrested within days and all four were placed in detention.
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Man kidnapped and tortured for $800k
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Eight-year-old Anubhav was abducted from in front of his family home in Ujire, after which his grandfather's wife received calls demanding a ransom of 100 bitcoins (~INR 17 crore). The child was found and released by police the following day and seven accused were arrested on the spot; alleged mastermind Pradeepa, a former bitcoin business operator who knew the family's transactions, is being prosecuted under Section 364A IPC.
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A man who had sold cryptocurrency to a stranger met online was attacked by armed individuals in the restroom of the John Bull Pub in Moscow just after collecting RUB 12 million in proceeds; the attackers took the money and fled in a taxi. No arrests had been announced as of the publication date.
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4 Ukrainian men attack Bitcoin buyer with deoderant
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COP 1,800 million in cryptocurrency — In December 2020, in Medellín, women contacted Dominican tourists through dating apps, seduced them and then administered a sedative substance to incapacitate their will, before accessing their accounts and transferring COP 1,800 million in cryptocurrency. The case is cited by El Colombiano as one of the emblematic cases that prompted the creation of the first judicial wallet by the Colombian Fiscalía to recover stolen crypto assets.
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Three men lured the wife of a friend out with a fake fresh-food delivery, dragged her into an SUV and forced her at a wasteland to log into her Huobi account, stealing 29 BTC and ~1,258 ETH (~CNY 6 million); all three were convicted of robbery and sentenced to 8.5 to 10 years.
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Man arrested for planning kidnapping and killing owners of cryptocurrencies
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Two masked men pulled a man from a car outside his studio on a Weesp industrial estate, threatening him with a pistol and demanding EUR 50,000. Police wiretaps showed the kidnappers had mistaken him for a young Eritrean man they believed held bitcoin, gold and Rolex watches; he was released after being photographed and threatened.
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Javier Moscuzza, a Quilmes shopkeeper, was held captive for five days while kidnappers initially demanded the equivalent of USD 650,000; after negotiation his brother transferred a bitcoin ransom (USD 65,000 according to the ruling), and the victim was released — the first Argentine kidnapping with a cryptocurrency ransom. Four defendants were sentenced to 8 to 11 years in November 2024, the gang leader was convicted in Venezuela after fleeing, and an accomplice remains at large in Brazil.
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Botched Bitcoin theft destroys deli
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After several days of scouting, a woman visited the home of a friend known to hold bitcoins with a bottle of wine, and a hooded man armed with a taser burst in, demanding the victim hand over his bitcoins; when he refused, the attacker tortured him with taser shocks and beat him. The attacker fled empty-handed when the victim's ex-wife arrived, the motive being a drug-related debt.
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Police kidnap a businessman, torture him, and force his wife to send them 7 bitcoin.
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A Romanian man who had posted an online ad to buy and sell bitcoins arranged via WhatsApp to meet two fake sellers in Paullo; seeing his wad of banknotes, the two 17-year-olds beat him and tore away his backpack containing a laptop and EUR 2,000 in cash. The two minors were arrested thanks to CCTV footage, as was a third 17-year-old considered the mastermind.
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8 men invaded dorm room of Canterbury Christ Church University fresher at about 1:30 a.m., threatened him with a knife; they made off with GBP 6,000 in bitcoin and GBP 3,000. 3 men were arrested but no one was prosecuted, no funds recovered.
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A woman was abducted in Ceará outside a dental clinic by two men working for mastermind Calebe Barbosa do Carmo, who claimed to have been wronged by her sons in a cryptocurrency investment and demanded a BRL 1 million ransom in bitcoin. Police located the kidnappers' rented car within twelve hours; Calebe was arrested in the act, the victim was released unharmed, and the three kidnappers fled and remain wanted.
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A nine-person foreign criminal group invaded a rural property in the Castelo Branco area, held five foreign residents captive, and forced one of them at gunpoint to transfer tens of bitcoins (approximately EUR 3 million at the time). Eight defendants were sentenced on March 25 2026 to prison terms ranging from 3 years 11 months to 9 years after an investigation involving Europol and arrests in Portugal and the United Kingdom.
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Two armed men overpowered the Brazilian wife of a German businessman in Anápolis and abducted the couple, forcing the victim under death threats to transfer his 555 bitcoins (~USD 5.9 million at the time) before abandoning them four hours later. Fifteen suspects were identified and 32 search warrants executed, but no arrests were made; the traumatized couple left Brazil for Europe.
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Lured to an office by a fake bitcoin sale and robbed of TRY 1,300,000. 6 suspected arrested in November.
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Mohammad, 32, leaving a pyramid scheme meeting in Mashhad, was surrounded by three masked men, taken to a rented villa, tortured, and forced under threat of death to give up his bitcoin account password, which mastermind 'Saeed' used to try to transfer the assets. The transfer failed due to a network malfunction, and Saeed's threatening e-mail to the victim allowed police to identify and arrest him and the gang leader.
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2 men commit home invasion of hacker, seeking tens of millions of dollars in bitcoin
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2 subjects pry open BTM in broad daylight
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HCMC cops charged with $1.6 mln bitcoin robbery.
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Chen Sheng-lin lured USDT buyer You Ke-hsun to a Taichung club with a fake offer of 130,000 USDT for TWD 3,848,000, then called in three accomplices who restrained and strangled the victim while Chen grabbed the bag of cash and fled, injuring You. The four men were sentenced to up to 6 years 10 months for gang armed robbery, with sentences adjusted on appeal.
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Marco Antônio Fagundes, a founding partner of the InDeal bitcoin pyramid scheme, was abducted by former investors who felt wronged and demanded a 50 BTC ransom (BRL 2,814,899.18 at the time) from his family; the ransom was never paid and he was released the same day after nine hours. Three participants, including an active-duty military police officer and a financial market trader, were later implicated and arrested in Operation 'Talião'.
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Home invader beats woman with Toblerone, forces victim to transfer $200,000 of BTC
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Five armed men tried to force a bitcoin investor to hand over his phone and authorize a bitcoin transfer, but the robbery failed due to circumstances beyond their control. The case only became known when the São Paulo Diário da Justiça published the summons of defendants who could not be found in October 2021.
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Five men led by the victim's roommate broke into his Taipei home posing as a police officer, abducted him to a mountainous area of Linkou, and beat him to force out his passwords, but the cryptocurrency had already been transferred, so they split the cash from his bag and abandoned him; all five were sentenced to 11 to 12.5 years.
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Home invaders force victims to create crypto exchange accounts
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2 men break into BTM, steal cash box
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Madho Singh was abducted at gunpoint, beaten and robbed of INR 4,500 by attackers who had tracked him for days with a GPS chip planted on his car, seeking his bitcoins. Four suspects were arrested in March 2020, with three accomplices still at large; the main accused was already facing prosecution in a similar 2017 case involving about 43 bitcoins.
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Blockchain advisor kidnapped, held at gunpoint, extorted for $60,000 in bitcoin
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Defendants lured a bitcoin holder to a physical meeting under the pretext of teaching him bitcoin trading, then threatened him with fake weapons to make him hand over 1,000 BTC; he refused and they obtained nothing. The court found attempted armed robbery, sentencing the principal offender to 4 years in prison and the accomplice to 2 years and 6 months.
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Man shot & killed by home invaders seeking $10,000 in bitcoin
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Trader lured to apartment, kidnapped, driven around in car trunk.
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Zhuang Menglun advertised 100,000 USDT for sale on Telegram to lure buyer Mr. Zhang, who arrived with TWD 2.78 million in cash; when Zhang tried to leave after seeing no USDT transferred, two minors held him, stabbed him, and drove off with the money, and he died at the hospital. The minors were sentenced to 15 years in prison; instigator Zhuang remains at large.
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The mother (68) and former sister-in-law (31) of Claudio Oliveira, founder of Grupo Bitcoin Banco nicknamed the "bitcoin king", were abducted in Anápolis. The kidnappers, reportedly a blocked client of the group, demanded by video call the equivalent of BRL 8 million in bitcoin. Both women were freed unharmed by police the next day, no ransom was paid.
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Fake sellers of 500,000 USDT lured a couple to Tainan high-speed rail station with TWD 15 million in cash, then drove off with the bags, dragging the husband about ten meters.
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Thieves break into BTM
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Gang kidnapped, tied the victim to a tree and beat him for hours, but got nothing because his phone couldn't access the funds; the attackers were arrested over the following years.
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Kingpin of Kerala bitcoin scam murdered in Dehradun
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Founder of a digital-currency brokerage was abducted at gunpoint by two armed businessmen who accused him of cheating them in a cryptocurrency deal. He was pistol-whipped, beaten in the basement of an Asa Norte business and forced to transfer the equivalent of BRL 152,000 in bitcoin to their wallets before being released.
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Man raided in office
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Masked raiders hold up Bitcoin Exchange in front of dozens of witnesses
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Criminal Gang Abducts & Tortures Cryptocurrency Traders, Demands 80 BTC Ransom
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Men claiming to be collecting a debt took RUB 200,000 in cash from an entrepreneur, forced transfers of RUB 147,000 from his bank cards and ~0.23 BTC (~RUB 120,000) in cryptocurrency; no arrest was reported.
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Bitcoin millionaire escapes armed home invader by jumping off balcony
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Three men who drove from London prized open a shopping centre bitcoin ATM with a screwdriver but ran off when a staff member shouted, leaving a cash box holding only £5; they were stopped on the M1 that evening and two were sentenced in August 2021.
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IT professor kidnapped by his student and police, his family paid 9 BTC ransom.
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Bitcoin machine stolen during robbery
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Three men, two of them masked, used crowbars to break into a gas station overnight and loaded its bitcoin ATM into a car with a plate covered in silver tape; two were arrested within 24 hours thanks to surveillance footage.
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Bitcoin trader tortured with drill in front of daughter.
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Bitcoin trader drugged, beaten, and tortured before transferring BTC to attackers
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Crypto trader stabbed, robbed by home invaders
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A man lured under the pretext of a bitcoin deal was kidnapped and released after a friend paid an INR 1.3 lakh ransom online.
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Owner of 5Dimes online sportbook, which accepted bitcoin, kidnapped by cops and ransomed for $1M in BTC. Ransom was paid but he was murdered anyway and body was found a year later in an unmarked grave.
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A buyer who flew in from Russia with EUR 127,600 in cash was picked up at Schiphol by his seller, then held at knifepoint in the car while the money was grabbed, and left behind.
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Friends accused of torturing pal to steal his cryptocurrency
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A man who advertised bitcoins for sale was lured to a house, held at gunpoint, tied up and tortured with electricity to reveal where his money was, before he stabbed one attacker and escaped.
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Armed home invasion of Localbitcoins trader
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$250,000 in cryptocurrency taken by robbers posing as postmen
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Home invasion of Skycoin architect resulted in theft of 18.88 BTC and 6,466 SKY
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Robbers attempt bitcoin purchase with counterfeit money, beat victims and fire gun, take 50,000 euros
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Fake special-services officers abducted and beat an acquaintance to obtain a miner's address, then threatened the miner with torture until he handed over ~99.7 BTC, 2 million DGB, ~198,700 BTS and RUB 5 million (~RUB 60 million total); the two organizers were sentenced to 9 and 7 years after appeal.
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A fake buyer lured two men selling mining rigs to woodland near Drozhzhino, where five men blocked their vehicle and, threatening the driver with a pistol-like object, took 22 machines, 16 power supplies and RUB 385,000 in cash; six accomplices were sentenced to up to 5 years 4 months in December 2019.
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Gang of 10 robbed two brothers of AED 7m ($1.9m) in cash who were looking to buy Bitcoin
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A man meeting two sellers in a McDonald's parking lot to buy 9 BTC was held at gunpoint in his car and robbed of EUR 65,000 in cash, his phone and his car key.
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Bitcoin buyer shoots robber in self defense
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Man seeking to buy BTC robbed of $365,000
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A man who had agreed to finish a bitcoin deal at his home in Costa del Silencio threatened his two visitors with a blank-firing pistol, tied up the woman and sent her partner out to transfer EUR 12,000 in bitcoin; no transfer was made and he was arrested the same day.
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Chinese traders who brought AED 800,000 in cash to buy 400 bitcoins advertised on Facebook were tied up with plastic handcuffs by three men posing as CID investigators who took the money and their phones; eight men were charged and three were sentenced in March 2019.
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Robbers douse clerks with pepper spray, steal from Bitcoin ATMs in Irving and Mesquite
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Five men posing as investors stormed a crypto mining warehouse, tied up the two owners and doused them with bleach, then loaded about $800,000 of graphics cards into a rented truck.
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2 women invaded 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.
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Miner kidnapped, extorted for $50,000. Kidnappers caught 8 months later.
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Men tipped off about a home mining rig broke in at night, beat the man looking after the house and tied his hands with cable ties, then took 60 graphics cards and 10 motherboards.
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Crypto Developer Beaten, Robbed Of 300 BTC
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Four men assault bitcoin seller & transfer 18 BTC
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Crypto investor has face mutilated, robbed of $1M in BTC
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Two fake Marktplaats buyers who came to inspect two Antminer S9 machines at a private seller's home held him at gunpoint, threatening his wife and child upstairs, and left with the miners, a laptop and a phone.
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Four men including a suspended head constable posing as a police officer kidnapped a trader tipped off by a former business associate, drove him to a construction site and demanded his bitcoins under threat of police action; he had none left and was released, and the constable was arrested in March.
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Police Officers Beat, Extorted 200 BTC from Businessman
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A gang posing as MVD economic-crimes officers met people selling bitcoins for cash, handcuffed one seller and drove him to a deserted spot where pistol threats and threats of imprisonment forced him to transfer his coins, paying other sellers in counterfeit banknotes; the four defendants received 6 to 7 years in April 2019.
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After the BitConnect collapse, men working for investor Shailesh Bhatt kidnapped a BitConnect-linked man at gunpoint and forced him to transfer 2,256 BTC plus 166 more, and INR 14.5 crore in cash was paid through couriers for his release; Bhatt was later prosecuted.
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Five men arrested for planning armed home invasion of bitcoin owner
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Armed home invasion of Bitcoin trading firm owner
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Failed armed robbery attempt of Canadian bitcoin exchange
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Two men buying 3 ETH face to face in a convenience store pepper-sprayed the seller to grab back their TWD 105,000 in cash once he had sent the coins.
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Bitcoin trader lured to bogus meeting and robbed of HK$1.4M
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Russian gang steals 100,000 Euros in BTC from young Russian couple
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Blogger Who Boasted About Crypto Wealth Beaten and Robbed For $425k
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A man who came to buy bitcoin-convertible tokens was taped to a chair in a basement storage unit, cut with a knife, tasered and threatened with guns until he unlocked his phone, and 1.16 BTC was transferred out of his account.
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Two masked men broke into a company site hosting a mining farm, beat the guard and bound him with tape, then took eight Antminer S9 machines; one of them worked at the site.
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Two armed men stormed a Copacabana currency exchange advertising bitcoin, tied up the manager and his brothers, held a gun to their father's head and emptied the safe (~BRL 100,000); their bitcoin demand failed because the wallet was not on the manager's phone.
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Convicted felon accused of firing gun inside downtown Milwaukee condo during Bitcoin sale
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Home invasion by FBI impersonator who demanded laptop passwords to access cryptocurrency.
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Several men pose as bitcoin sellers, beat and rob buyer of 1.5 Million UAH ($57,000 USD
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Criminals rented an apartment on General Petrov Street and arranged a crypto sale meeting there; when the buyer arrived to negotiate they beat him and took his phone, jewelry and money (~UAH 1.5 million), and a suspect was later sent to trial for robbery.
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Fake buyers rented an apartment for the sale of two Antminer S9 units, then three masked men threatened the seller with a pistol-like object, beat and choked him and took the equipment (~RUB 680,000); the instigator was sentenced to 6.5 years in a penal colony in September 2019.
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Bitcoin exchange owner kidnapped & ransomed
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A man who arranged to convert his cash to bitcoin was beaten and threatened with a knife in a Budapest stairwell by a 19-year-old who grabbed the money bag and fled by car with his father; all three were arrested on December 27.
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Two men burst into the home of a web designer paid in cryptocurrency and, holding a knife to his throat, forced him to transfer bitcoin (15 BTC demanded) before taking UAH 2,000 in cash and fleeing; a robbery investigation was opened with the perpetrators unidentified.
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Two cousins who came to buy bitcoins for USD 182,000 in cash were taken from the airport to a rented villa, where an Uzbek gang member threatened them with a pistol and seized the money before the group fled; one suspect surrendered, two were arrested, and the main perpetrator escaped abroad.
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Six or seven men forced a bitcoin office employee off his motorcycle into a car, drove him to fields near Rewari, beat him, fired a shot and held a gun to his temple while demanding 52 BTC; he entered wrong credentials, was released in Rewari, and an FIR was registered on December 4.
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600 Bitcoin ASICs stolen
Report: nbcnews.com Archive copy Report: vanityfair.com Archive copy
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Gang stole $2.83M in BTC from businessman
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Man robbed of $1.8M of ETH
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Fake bitcoin buyers lured a trading company employee to an Akasaka hotel room, where youths beat him and threatened him with a knife to make him transfer 109 BTC (~¥100 million); he escaped and five suspects plus the alleged mastermind were arrested.
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After a seller confirmed a bitcoin transfer against RUB 15 million in cash in an office rented under a false name, eight to ten men burst in claiming to be tracking the buyer as a "fraudster", led the buyer away and took the bag of cash; no arrest was reported.
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Bitcoin developer swatted & extorted
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4 bitcoin traders robbed at gunpoint
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"Discount Bitcoin Bandits" committed 5 robberies at gunpoint
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Man tortured for $50k in Bitcoins
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Woman strangled, attacker takes 100,000 yen worth of BTC
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A LocalBitcoins dealer answering an offer of 50 BTC was taken hostage in his car at the V3S Mall with INR 36 lakh in cash and driven to Ghaziabad, where the money was taken by a gang later tied to two similar robberies; six members were arrested in September 2017.
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A local criminal grabbed a bitcoin trader's phone during a demonstration, pointed a revolver at him and forced him to transfer all his bitcoin (~INR 25 lakh) plus his mother's holdings to a Zebpay account; he was arrested in July 2017.
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3 Emiratis pose as cops, kidnap victims and rob them of 25 BTC
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Wife of crypto exchange owner kidnapped and ransomed
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Description of robbery during Localbitcoins trade
Report: localbitcoins.com Archive copy Report: soundcloud.com Report: localbitcoins.com
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The "Los Hackers" gang used a woman as bait to lure merchants who worked with cryptocurrencies, then abducted and beat a young merchant and demanded he transfer the equivalent of COP 12 million in crypto-assets to a personal wallet, also stealing phones, cash and jewelry; two men were arrested in July 2019 and all five members accepted kidnapping charges.
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Dutch Bitcoin ATM Owner Laughs at Thieves Who Took His Machine
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Police arrest teens in string of bitcoin-related robberies
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Bitcoin trader robbed of $28,000 at gunpoint
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Cryptocurrency executive kidnapped at car wash
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Thieves steal bitcoin ATM containing 2,000 EUR
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Firefighter kidnapped, robbed of $1,100, & stabbed by crypto thieves
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Bitcoin trader robbed of $12,000 at gunpoint
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Thieves steal 2 bitcoin ATMs
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BTM thieves strike smoke shop, fire gun
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Bitcoin developer SWATted after months of harrassment & extortion
Source: Jameson Lopp, Known Physical Bitcoin Attacks, as of 24 October 2026. Descriptions as given in the collection; the linked reports are authoritative. Victims’ names are left out.