Bitcoin Forum

While digital currencies are slowly making themselves known to the world starting with Bitcoin followed by Ethereum, carrying digital currencies with you pose the same threat as having traditional fiat. Such is the case of a 28-year-old New Yorker who fell victim to a Bitcoin theft.

According to a report, the victim was to meet with a Bitcoin seller whom he contacted through Craigslist in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. Upon meeting the “seller”, a gun was pointed at him and the “seller” demanded $1,100 worth of Bitcoin to be transferred to his Bitcoin wallet.

The case is still under investigation as there wasn’t any CCTV footage of the crime.

Bitcoin thefts as early as 2015

This is not the first case of Bitcoin theft. Even as early as January 2015, there were already some cases of Bitcoin holdups such as the case of Dean Katz who also was a victim of a similar case. He was also supposed to meet a Bitcoin seller and ended up being robbed of his Bitcoins.

Increasing Bitcoin-related crimes

With the rise of the Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, various criminals both online and offline have already appeared to take advantage of the new digital currencies.

It’s not just holduppers and thieves that are taking Bitcoins away from people on the streets, but similar activities are being carried out by hackers and cybercriminals as well. On August 2016, there was massive case of a Bitcoin hacking wherein a hacker used phone numbers of random people in order to steal Bitcoins from the market as reported on Forbes. Such cases alerted the cryptocurrency platforms to boost up their security.

What’s behind all these?

Just this year, Bitcoin, along with other well known cryptocurrencies, have been rising to their all time highs. In line with this, more and more people are taking interest in Bitcoin and so are the crime related to cryptocurrencies.

In light of these cases, the best way to prevent any theft would be to be very cautious with your personal information as well as being vigilant when conducting transactions that involve the exchange of money and currencies with similar value.

https://cointelegraph.com/news/man-robbed-at-gunpoint-for-1100-worth-of-bitcoins-in-brooklyn

It's actually more risking then if he robbed cash, since now he has a chance to make a mistake having the trail on the blockchain and the cops can catch him. To me this is a stupid robber to risk 10 years in jail for such little amount of currency!

Some people are beyond stupid. When dealing with craigslist, ALWAYS deal at a police station fucking DUH!

If you're going to sell bitcoins, at least do so in a crowed area with surveillance, like a coffee shop or something, damn.

There are actually spots around the USA with the sign "Safe Craigslist Trade Area" with 24/7 Audio/Video Surveillance. It all comes down to the person's knowledge, I guess. That's the right word.

Thanks for the advice. But its still safer if you keep your crypto currency,you judt gotta tighten up your security on your private informations.

That is why I do not trust meetups, especially when people have armed weapons.


Yup, these are what buyers/sellers should look out for to prevent such incidents from happening. :( That was indeed a hard lesson to learn (quite a terrifying one too), and hopefully people will be more aware from now on.. :P

Well while this case could have been avoided others might not be. I think we will see increasing physical bitcoin crimes take place because its a lot easier to threaten someone for money than it is to hack them.

and yet they get robbed again!
the New York robbery was so funny too. the thief asked the seller to come with him to the dark alley where the car is parked so they can do the trade there (probably told him i've got candy in my van)

I've no doubt the robber's arm got extremely sore waiting for the theft transaction to confirm.  lol

So people get robbed at gunpoint for fiat all the time...what's so special about this particular instance?  That it was bitcoin that was taken?  That leaves me with an enormous MEH.  This is like people who get jacked for fake Craigslist stuff.  Don't see it as news, really.

I wish there was an app wallet that after entering with a stress password any transactions sent afterwards could be somehow flagged then miners would never confirm such transactions, lol the thief wont wait for more than a few minutes to receive confirmation then you could blame the Bitcoin network.
In my country if we insert our credit card pin number in reverse it will notify the police of robbery in progress with the exact location.

This person a bitcoin user should have been a bit smarter. I tend to believe bitcoin user should be smarter and not go and meet face to face when selling bitcoins in an area without surveillance. The other person , the robber did a big mistake as the transaction is stored in the blockchain but so were the transactions of many scammers like Hashocean and nothing have happened to them, so catching him will be difficult too.

That is why I never, through 3 years in bitcoin ever done a face-to-face exchange, even though fraud is so much less and nobody brings counterfeits (and even those can be scanned at a bank), but the risk of direct robbery is high, you practically meet a stranger while holding a bag of money.
Of course cases like these are a minority, but there are few bad apples and it's better to avoid being at that situation.

Wish they gave the robber's description. Probably some kid who took his father's gun and went on hunting for idiots to rob.
It wasn't smart of him as f caught he'd be facing armed robbery charges. That's usually 10 years for a mere $1000...

Exactly.
Never meet face to face to trade bitcoins with someone unless it is a well secured area like a police station where they have an area designated for such online deals and sales now because of so many getting mugged a robbed of their items.
Or meet a convention of the bitcoin community.
There are alot of them in your area.
Just have to look and find out where these places are where there are alot of people around so you can call for help if a trade of bitcoin goes bad.

New technologies will create new ways to rob, steal and exploit people. Bitcoin is nothing more that digital money.
Gunpoint bitcoin robbery still shocks people because it is 'bitcoin' that has been stolen, no one would bat an eye when it was simply $2k paper money robbery.
Just remember folks, if you carry around a smartphone with a large amount of BTC, you can be targeted in a similar way.

These types of articles have been doing the rounds for years. I have seen similar articles when I started out a few years ago. Why would you not

go to some public place with your friends and meet the contact there? I usually meet my contacts at McDonalds and I never go there without

some backup. These places have CCTV everywhere, so they will not take chances. Best place to arrange this, is at a Bitcoin meetup, where people

are familiar with the trusted traders.  ;)

Have yet to spot one of these signs, but surveillance cameras are a great start.

Seems some police stations offer/recommend this as as well:
http://www.safetradestations.com

Well as long as something as any amount of significant value there will be thefts. But everything is logged on the blockchain so it can be traced. But then what they will only have his address and as for as I know you can't trace the owner.
I'm also wondering if the thief spelled out his address xD his arm should've been really sore.

The only thing this proves is the value of bitcoin. The more valuable it becomes the more people will be ready to take the risk and rob, steal, scam, in order to get some.
Also, I'm pretty sure this guy will try again. $1000 is not enough to satisfy your needs, he'll party for a while and come looking for another victim.
There's over 150,000 armed robberies in the USA each year. Nothing to dwell upon here.

Soon thieves will prefer pickpocketing your smart phones rather than taking your wallets because you might have more virtual than real cash with you  ;D

You wanna do a face to face exchange in a secluded area? This is not even about exchange of bitcoin. Could be anything, Gold, valuable goods etc. I think the seller wasn't just smart and he should be more careful next time. Can happen to anyone if careless, so lessons learnt. Also, I detest the fact that bitcoin is always used as an excuse for the increase in crime like crime has not been existing even before bitcoin came into existence. Please! Gimme a break!!

Sad to hear for that person, but this article doesn't state anything about what device has been used to transfer the funds to the robber. It's a pretty empty article to be honest.

This is important because the victim in question could attempt to double spend his coins (obviously assuming the outgoing transaction wasn't yet confirmed).

Important lesson ~ if you go face to face to settle deals, do it in a McDonald's building, or any other crowded place.

I'll bet any time now if we were to make some study on data, Bitcoin-related crime would still be the lowest percentage of all currency crimes. Hope the Brooklyn guy knows how to track his stolen coin (yes, isn't that wonderful, unlike fiat you can track it from your computer at home).

Threads like this don't really interest me much in a sense that it's going to effect me using bitcoin. People get robbed for items of value every day, it's no worse with bitcoin. Search any local newspaper or crime records & you'll see stories about phones, cash, cars, watches getting stolen.

This is no big deal & certainly nothing to scare bitcoin'ers.

The strange thing in this story is that the seller was who stole the buyer´s bitcoins. The most logical thing had been to steal his cash money, which he was going to use to buy the bitcoins.

Sadly enough, this sort of stuff is going to become more and more expected with people who own bitcoin (if people know that is) if the price continues to rise and rise or to simply just stick at what it is. This is one of the main reasons I would never do any sort of Bitcoin currency exchange in person, unless of course you're going to be doing the Transaction in a Police Office, or one of those desginated safe places for trading in your town.

Fucking crazy though, the worlds a changing and it doesn't seem to be changing for the better.

That's very unlucky and feel sorry for the victim.

Meetups is actively present here in my country. As of now, no such thing as reported a case like that. To ensure safety, meetups must be on public places with lots of people around. CCTV is not necessary as long as you are prepared. Also never go alone and try to be accompanied by at least couple of friends (obviously be accompanied with a guy that can adopt the situation when there is an emergency).


Maybe after it was send, the robber just assumed that it should be confirmed later even it hasn't established yet on the network. So walk out quickly after it was being send. lol

Just when people thought that F2F transactions are safer than online transactions, such incidents prove that those who deal with bitcoins are far more dangerous. We can't really rely on who and when will turn out to be a scammer and craigslist is always targetted by scammers/hackers. Even earlier a man was robbed in a car when he went to meet the buyer in a known place. He was caught behind and asked to transfer all the coins. The police also doesn't help in such cases which is sick. No CCTV but IP addresses can be tracked. Their phone locations, some proof can be got?

This is definitely not the first case of this happening. Trading on localbitcoins has been extremely risky when you are doing local trades because for some reason you are dealing with someone that does not have a bank account, doesn't want to use other safer and less expensive payment methods, only wants to deal with cash which is untraceable and wants to apparently only deal locally when he's not even a local.

If you decide to trade with one locally, make sure that he has 100+ feedback. Make sure that all his docs are verified and make sure you trade near a bank or shopping mall. And don't do large amounts either, bring a weapon of some sort jsut in case.


Your point is valid but practically no one is going to track down IP addresses. They prove absolutely nothing because I addresses can change over time by themselves, others can fake your IP and you can connect to a VPN yourself. The biggest concern for online dealings is fraud whilst offline it's your life.

That is exactly what I was referring to in my response to this post.
There are designated places now monitored by the police when doing these "online sales" of your items.
It is a closed area usually within the police station or an office at the side of the station where there are cctv cameras located so everything is caught on tape and you are secure in knowing you have this so called "backup" if any funny business goes a rye.
The police are right there and will go in hard if they have a gun or a knife trying to rob you.
Those offenders will be arrested right then and there while your possession you are trying to obtain or sell are kept safe on your person.

Sad for this guy but it was not exactly a smart move!

Greets Hank

Yes me too  ;)

Well, this is quite expected as the value of Bitcoin is now rising greatly there would be people online who can be planning to victimized us. The point here is that meeting someone somewhere can be risky it does not matter if you have Bitcoin or just cash. Now, if there is a need to someone for the first time you must do it in a public place like a crowded restaurant so the other side can think twice before pointing any gun at you. Better yet, avoid selling your Bitcoin offline.

Another scenario could be the bankers/governments and their hitmen trying to scare people from dealing face to face to reduce the tax evasion as much as possible, because you know when people read these kind of trades could become dangerous and guns could be involved like drug dealers and stuff like that we see in movies. lol twice. I'd recommend not to pay attention to these propaganda stunts and psychological games and do all the trades like this and make sure to use a mixer as always and avoid paying taxes as much as possible, I believe governments and their people are too fat by now and there are already a lot of guns and weapons, tanks and bombs all made by your taxes money.

Very unfortunate for the guy. Knowing that there will be a good number of bitcoin to be transacted, he should have probably brought some friends maybe? for extra security; or maybe choose a public location (near banks, or anywhere with security). Like hell, that's almost half a bitcoin. huge amount.

People should keep their bitcoin like how they keep their FIAT. If you don't need to bring out that big of an amount, then don't; just like how we leave our bigger sums of money at home or at the bank.

Unfortunately we have nothing to stop bitcoin physical theft. Thieves have been around forever, and they ain't going anywhere. People just need to take care of their assets carefully.

I feel very sorry for him. That's a good amount of BTC there.

But how did he get robbed so easily? did they choose like a dark alley at like 3am or something?

This incident shows that​ bitcoin popularity has been keep on increasing. Now thieves has known about it and trying to make use of it, because there won't be any trace of the transaction. Looking at the incident I feel the value is quite low compared to the scammers who doesn't even use guns, but transfer very huge volume of bitcoin cheating people.

This is why we have hidden passphrases and additional wallets.

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The lessons are:

1.  Trade in a public place where many people can see you and there is surveillance.
2.  Only transfer as much to your phone's wallet as you need for that specific trade.
3.  Start using hidden passphrases and other systems to avoid showing the robber more than you need to.

Of course criminals will target bitcoin holders now because the price is really growing. There is no difference from buying drugs with bitcoin or some terrorist organization using bitcoin to transfer funds. Its all criminally and illegal ways. I feel sorry for the person involved, it is a hard lessons as well. Next time trade in a crowded places so that you will feel safe.

I also believe this is going to happen and not only because of bitcoin wallets. Wallets are usually encrypted and people don't carry huge money in their mobile phones.
What makes the thieves target phones are their ridiculous prices. A new model can cost over $1000. That's more than a good PC or a bicycle, but much easier to steal.

Meeting people online is always a risky proposal ,i would never do so and it is really hard to trust anyone even when you are dealing with them in the public.These are all good lessons to know so that no one would do these sort of things and get into trouble and if i am in that situation i would give them the coins they ask without any struggle as i do not like to risk my life for a few dollars.

Well anything that has of value will always attract criminals to take advantage of them. Unfortunately Bitcoin has attracted a lot of them in because of its features like privacy and security leaving no trace but the wallet address. But don't get me wrong, Bitcoin as a currency is not bad at all the only thing making it look bad are the persons transacting with it.

Well, bitcoin is very valuable right now. What would criminals do? Ofcourse they will steal it. Because every valuable things could attract them. $1100 worth of bitcoin is very small tho. This criminal is a small time criminal i guess. I rather steal a phone than steal small amount of bitcoin.

Good point. It proves that people are willing to risk jail time for bitcoin. It seems it is increasingly dangerous to sell some BTC for cash. When I cash out (I hope years from now, and I hope it is worth a lot more than what I have now because i think it's not that much to bother) I will do it properly and pay any taxes, I want to be able to sleep at night so im not doing anything illegal. Also, cash will probably disappear in 10 year or so so it will not even an option.

Seems like a lot of conmen and criminals are getting attracted to Bitcoin, probably as a result of the rising exchange rates. The last time I heard about similar incidents was way back in 2014 January, when the prices were around $900 per coin (If I am not wrong, that incident also occurred in the state of New York, although I am not sure about the exact location).

Well there was nothing innovative in this robbery, it's not like they picked some random person and told him to take his smartphone and send them Bitcoins, they setup a meeting for the sake of exchanging Bitcoins and the victim must have chose the place pretty poorly. I think we are still very far from days when robbers will be assuming that their targets have cryptocurrency on their devices, and even if they would, it's very inconvenient for them, since they can't quickly check it. They might start stealing mobile devices and try to crack wallets, but if someone has backups, they can move funds faster than thieves can crack stolen device.

Yeah, I've sen a few of those.

That's why I was, kind of , always afraid of doing transactions like that in public/ in person, you can never know what's that person maybe planing on doing, like following you or hold at gun point like i this case.

It is always good to meet somewhere secure when making a Bitcoin transaction in person. Ironically a bank is the best place to meet up. There are CCTV cameras and security people are always around.

Criminals are likely being attracted due to the "anonymous" nature of Bitcoin. If these criminals are stupid enough to directly send these coins to an exchange they are fully verified at, it would actually turn out to be an effective way of finding out who these idiots are. I remember the same has happened with a few dealers selling drugs through the dark net, where they took Bitcoin's "anonymity" way too serious -- they ended up converting the coins to fiat through the exchange they were verified at, where after that they sent the money to their bank accounts. :D