Bitcoin Forum

If crypto becomes common to spend, wouldnt it be volnourable to robbery? Like in: Ok send me ur crypto to my adress or ur dead.

In case of when people can handle their whole account mobile.

With cash, robbers know people dont have their whole bank with them. However with mobile telephone that is the case.. Or could be.

Well if you are smart enough, you won't keep your stash of bitcoins on your phone. So you won't get into that scenario if you are careful enough. Plus there are multiple ways to hide apps in android, don't know about the ios, but in any case if you are dumb enough to tell everybody you own X amounts of btc and they are on your phone, Then you may say goodbye to them, unless you can warn major coin-mixers out there and they agree to help you. Also if you are an android user then Keep a tap open on your phone, if you know how to get around kali, it will be really helpful for you to track the robber down. So be Smart and you won't lose a lot if you get robbed.

Well i guess it holds more truth to home then. I also said when almost everyone uses it. So people will have much money in their homes... I see a future ICO on this subject  :D :D

And you think cash/fiat isn't? "Give me your debit card and pin or you're dead". Or "give me all your cash", or "give me your whole wallet". Although people don't carry a lot of cash on them, they are still carrying tons of money. A credit card can be worth thousands of dollars and people generally have more than one credit card on hand. Furthermore people also carry debit cards which give direct access to their bank accounts. And they don't need you alive to take and spend your money. They can kill you and just take your credit cards and debit cards from your wallet, no need to keep you alive to get a password like you need to with Bitcoin on a phone.

What you are telling is correct but in credit card and debit card the transaction can be tracked but in bitcoin it can not be tracked

I think we are a lot of years far from crypto to become common currency. Anyway if that day comes early and crypto really becomes common soon it is advisable to not keep a mobile wallet with you. You can have some coins in an exchange if you want to do trading or buy a few things so even if the aggressor tells you "give me all your crypto" you hand him your phone and tell "I don't use cryptos, only cash". Meanwhile in such time keep the majority of your bitcoins in a hardware wallet in a very safe place of yours.

that was my indirect point...

If we're talking robbery rather than carding, cards can be blocked. If people use them in physical stores then they're filmed. They also need physical access to them and you in the first place.

With crypto none of that is necessary. It does make nefarious and anonymous demands much easier.

You can be tootling along in your self driving car and then suddenly receive an email threatening to chuck you off the next bridge unless you cough up.

It's rather strange how much more effort is given to physical crime when the online variety must be on its way to far outgrossing it these days.

As a bitcoin holder if you are not dumb enough you would really do the things which you would really ensure the safety of your coins.As you suggested we can do hide up some apps in our phone which if someone who stole it wont easily recognize since its being hidden and also no one would robbed you out if you would not share on how much bitcoin holding you do have as  simple as that.

Yeah this is probably the number one issue with crypto right now.

It's not a bad argument, really. It makes sense that there might come a point when robbers can hold people up for their money and they won't necessarily be able to do much about it. As for what can be done then, I don't really know. This is partially why I'm pro-armed-society, but it's not like a ton could be done about it either. You're mostly screwed at that point, but only if you have your entire wallet with you. If you have only a small portion of your Bitcoin in a wallet you carry around, you can mitigate your losses.

Come on! The thieves don't use the stolen cards to shop online or to buy cigarettes. They go to the first ATM machine they find and get as much money as they can. How do you trach this money so? Who is damn stupid to steal a card and shop with it.... and why not get delivered at home

There iq no diference if you go out with a card or with a BTC wallet on your smartphone with some bucks into

Where I'm at these days every bank ATM has a camera in it, dunno about the ones in stores, so whatever idiot goes straight to cash out winds up leaving a nice record of it.

Dont you think mobile banking and wallets are already in use by major population. That already makes us vulnerable to such threats. But yes the only problem with bitcoin is you just cannot trace to whom you have sent your money. So there is no way ti search the burglar.

Exactly, criminals will continue to rob people of anything that stores any value whatsoever. Regardless of it being crypto or fiat. But honestly I think crypto is less practical to steal because how are you going to type a full address?

That's completely not true. Bitcoin transactions can be fairly easily tracked, especially if the robber is planning on spending the coins. There are companies that specialize in this sort of stuff. With all transactions being public, it is actually very easy to track Bitcoin transactions.

This whole thread is based on the premise that they have physical access to you and can physically rob you. If a card is stolen, as soon as the money is spent and the robber has the goods that they want, blocking the card is just as good as letting them steal the amount of money from you as they spent on the card. Furthermore, they don't need to use the card in a physical store, they can go online and buy things with the card online. And with debit cards, they just need to go to an ATM and withdraw as much money as possible.

And if you don't cough up, you can die. And if you do, you will probably also die. But if you are dead, no one will be able to touch your money with crypto. With fiat the attacker can go over to your dead body and retrieve your credit and debit cards from your wallet.

That's a good point. If you physically rob someone and can get the password to their phone, you probably do have access to their bank accounts as many people access their bank accounts from their phones too.

Personally, I would never keep enough Bitcoin on me that if I got robbed it would affect me in any way. I'd be more annoyed that my phone was stolen than the cryptocurrencies on that phone. You need to keep your cold storage of the radar and your hot storage very limited. That's just the nature of cryptocurrencies. It's smarter to be cautious rather than sorry in the end if you lose thousands due to a simple robbery.

Lol!! What an imagination. But could also be. I guess before you finished the transaction the cops are already there to rescue. If someone called for rescue.

Yes this is an interesting idea. Some people could do this in the future. But for now too many poeple has too little bitcoin, so it would be a waste of time to try and find all people having sufficient bitcoin. Otherwise, what you say could happen in the next 10 years, if the bitcoin price continue to increase as before. I've got a good laught reading this thread. :)

With crypto they can't take your coins. They would need access to your wallet which is (hopefully) behind 3 factor authentication. With cash they will just take it.

You can always be threatened to give the coins, as well as with cash as well as with money in the bank. There is no difference.

It can only be possible if you are posting or a lot of people knows you are a big holder of Bitcoin, and of course, you should not use  Mobile phone to store your bitcoin, use a lot of kinds of wallet and do not put all your eggs in one basket and the most inportant is always keep your private keys in a safe place.

I've been using Bitcoin for years, and have never had access to any funds on my phone. Don't plan to, either. I guess this could happen if mobile BTC usage gets several magnitudes more prevalent, but even if so, it's a big gamble for robbers to simply assume that anyone and everyone has immediate access to crypto funds.

But while we're on the subject, this is definitely a good reason to remember this sage advice: Don't tell people about your bitcoins. I don't even like to tell people IRL that I'm into Bitcoin. Paranoid about people wanting my coins. :)

The cryptocurrencies wallet have security and most of the wallets of cryptocurrencies right now requires its users to have a strong password where the robbers will not be able to unlock or bypass the account fast and there is also 2fa in almost of the wallets and that enables the user to have a comfortable usage of his secured account.

That's why it's not advisable to keep all your bitcoins in one device only. Keep them where bad guys can't eaeily see them. As other were saying, if you have a lot of bitcoins. You can backup you private keys so they can't able to spend your bitcoin if ever they stole your bitcoins. Paper wallet and hardware wallet are the best option to store your bitcoins. But if you own small amounts only. I think web wallet is enough since that's it's small amount only. Also you can retrieve your bitcoin since the bitcoin is holding by the site.

Anyway, i have not seen or heard about this before. Bitcoin is not that popular in my country. I would be surprised if someone point a gun to me and say "give me your bitcoins". Anyway, bitcoin is money. Of course they.will find a way to get the bitcoins from the victim. So be careful always. Store your bitcoins in a safe place.

This can be done even worse than with crypto on mobile.
Just imagine that the robber knows that this and that wallet is yours. Robbery, ransom, everything is possible.

This is one of the reasons why I don't like the fact Bitcoin ledger is so public, this is one of the reasons I like cryptonote coins.
Of course, with some knowledge and care (or with mixers), even in Bitcoin world anyone can make it hard enough for 3rd party to know his wallets.

However it's an interesting topic to open people's eyes.

If you have serious money in bitcoin

1. Buy a hardware wallet.
2. Load it up with your coins
3. Buy a second hardware wallet
4. Initialize the second hardware wallet with the 12 word wallet recovery phrase from the first
5. Put them in separate safe deposits with the 12 word lists.
6. Don't keep any additional copy of the 12 list and don't memorize it.
7. Use a mobile wallet with different private keys if you need small change.'

This way its harder for the robber to use a $12 wrench as a cryptanalyst tool.

*you really only need one wallet+list in one box and list in the other but if you have enough coin to worry about this then why not have 2 wallets

it's hard to overcome if we are robbed and robbers ask for Bitcoin, maybe in the future something like this will happen, and hopefully Bitcoin wallet in the future more secure and can be tracked ..

It's not a problem bigger than real robbery we have today on the streets. People who have too many Bitcoins on an address won't tell others: "Hey, this is my address, I have 1000 Bitcoins!", these people will be discreet. Other people have too many addresses and split their money among these address for several reasons, like to have some money on different sites, especially gamblers... If you discreet there isn't much to worry about it.

Who in the world would like to carry all his bitcoins in his pocket?? Store your private keys and wallets at different places. Moreover how is someone going to know that you have a huge reserves of bitcoins?

Bitcoins are one of the most safest currencies that are on this world, cash is safe too, but they can robber to you anyways. Gold is more risky, since if you have a very large amount of gold, where the f*ck are you going to store 1kg bar? I think that bitcoins are the most safest currency, you can store them online, and thiefs are never going to know your real btc address, because it is almost impossible.

right, I agree with what you say. too risky in case of robbery. but in fact they will not do that, because everything the OP says does not happen to his life.

He said if bitcoin becomes common to spend, which means all or most people would have some bitcoins in their wallet, and if you want to use it in a physical store, you'd have to use your phone. So yeah, but hiding apps is a good idea though, but if the robber is smart enough, he'll probably figure it out. I haven't had or known ayone that has met a mugger.

Classic robbery on the crypto currency will definitely not work. Here the main thing is to put a digital key to your currency purse, or even better - the information that you have it. Crypto currency is, therefore, an additional guarantee against robbery.

This is not necessarily true...a few months ago my mother managed to lose her credit/debit card while shopping at our local supermarket, then later that night went back to the store to try finding it and to see if someone else had turned it in to the cashiers. This was unsuccessful, but then a couple of days later when checking her bank account she noticed that the person who took the card had used it for a movie rental at Redbox for a whopping $2 charge (and yes, that was the only unauthorized charge on the card). Of course she immediately notified the bank and got a new card.

Criminals can be unbelievably silly and foolish. On our local news stations here it is actually fairly common to hear about someone getting arrested for bank robbery, or perhaps for robbing a local convenience store and initially getting away with only small amounts of money like $20, $30, or maybe a few hundred at most. They also do not even bother to use any type of disguise to conceal their identity, so they end up being displayed on television/Internet with full, clear views of their faces from the surveillance cameras. Many of them are also foolish enough to almost immediately begin spending their small robbery proceeds at local stores, where they can again be identified by cameras and their purchases often tracked. It is actually quite rare for a local bank robber to stay on the loose for more than two weeks before being caught.

That is why you dont put your money in one wallet, it has been my concerned also when we put all of our funds in one place, I think this can be solved in the future where maybe a wallet can be put limit to withdraw in one day

Yeah ofcourse there is no secure thing in this world,anything can be break into and everything is expose of robbery even a company or compound with what they called "maximum security" can be rob

Well anything can happen when it comes to money. But I dont think it would be that easy robbing your bitcoins from you lol. Robbers be like "hands up, send your eth to this eth address!", and it would be hilarious .If robbers would really rob you from your cryptos you have to be a hostage or kidnapped, which is so much more difficult than robbing real money.

I think that is not possible, for that whether robbers know if we have bitcoin or not, and to send bitcoin we also need tool and internet device and also need time delivery process, I think bitcoin is safe in crime robbery. need to be wary and guarded is from hacker attacks

Sorry but this is quite stupid i guess, i think if a person carries any type of valuable or cash while outside is vulnerable to robbery not just only bitcoins or other cryptcocurrencies. BTW carrying bitcoins is much safer than carrying credit and debit cards.

yes i think there are some chances for bitcoin to be vulnerable to robbery because Conventional currency do not work that way in Real Cash or Online transactions.  Banks,Fund houses and brokerages have offsite business continuity backups.  Securities exchanges and central banks maintain thirdparty records and statements.  These mechanism lacks in Bitcoin’s anonymity but make up for that in resiliency and trustworthiness. Ands that's why i can imagine the chances of robbery.

Yes, it's possible to do that but until now no one is doing it. WHY? The offender can easily be caught by way of entrapment by law enforcers.

you are making yourself too difficult with unimportant thoughts.
in this world, there will always be evil everywhere. so forget about what you think, now all we have to do is increase knowledge and profit.

Hands up robbery because the bitcoin is not an a ordinary currency and it's a digital currency so if currency in hand only they can make a robbery .so this all are in systematic all are in mobile and bank system etc so only hands up to robbery.Bitcoin has very secured currency as compared to other.

I think it would be common in unsafe places. People will probably use their biometrics (iris, fingerprint or face scanner) when using Bitcoin for daily transaction becomes mainstream. It will be easy to rob them at night. I wouldn't keep my savings with me all the time. I would keep my wallet with saving at home or in a much safer place. Ordinary people prefer convenience to security.

Really?
I can't believe that after 4 years this comic is still spot on for discussions like this:

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_IBVPgalgRAk/TGhAoROCW4I/AAAAAAAACD0/PSIkidaQ_8c/s400/Crypto+nerd+comic.jpg

If someone is that anxious to rob you at any cost he's going to rob you no matter what you have , gold, cash, digital money, platinum piercings or whatever.
I doubt there is somebody around here who after taking a bullet in the leg won't start screaming passwords faster than an s9 does hashes.

Yes.  As Bitcoin becomes more popular it will become a bigger target for thieves.  What happens when robbery increases?  More law enforcement get involved.

unless amateur robber who doesn't aware from among situations before rob someone and usually they will failure to get money from the victims but bad guys or criminal acts always be smarter than us so they will manage the situations before rob someone and they will force their victim to gave the password to get full access to their wallet so i think this is not so different robbed with cash or crypto

Just keep a minimal worth of Bitcoins in your cellphone then. You could keep your high amount of Bitcoin somewhere safe and secure.

I think a much greater risk of losing your cash if they are in cash in your pocket purse. Electronic money is much safer if you keep it right. You just need to find a good purse with a reliable security system that has in its arsenal double passwords, two-factor authentication, alerts about all actions on the wallet, etc.

Looks like its allready happening ...  :-\

 http://www.thebay.co.uk/news/videos/police-appeal-for-witnesses-after-trader-forced-at-gunpoint-to-transfer-bitcoin/ (http://www.thebay.co.uk/news/videos/police-appeal-for-witnesses-after-trader-forced-at-gunpoint-to-transfer-bitcoin/)

Apparently this trader was well known and he made public his wealth which is not a clever thing to do. I have done such error myself by posting different success stories on facebook and Instagram and this is where maybe the attackers found that this trader was successful and had a lot of crypto currency. Keeping it on his computer was not smart as he could have fooled the attackers by keeping only a small to medium amount in his desktop wallet while keeping his fortune in a hardware wallet. There is a lot to be learned from this story. Thanks for sharing with us.

If he was a trading pro then perhaps the robbers either set up some type of deal to probe his holdings, or simply had a look on localbitcoins to see how many were available to buy from him. There's a lot of publicly identifiable information if you're trading P2P, let alone having some of crypto link on your social media.

Horrible thing to happen.

You are right, of course, but so is the OP. In fact , such a thing has just happened a few days ago.
Pavel Lerner, an employee of a United Kingdom-registered cryptocurrency exchange, has been kidnapped in Ukraine and then released only after more than $1 million in bitcoins as ransom had been paid.
Here you can read the whole story;

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ukraine-kidnapping/ukraine-kidnappers-free-bitcoin-analyst-after-1-mln-ransom-paid-idUSKBN1EN1QB

I would say that they would be much safe with this system when totally cryptocurrencies are used.Even credit cards or debit cards which were mostly used nowadays are also vulnerable to robbery. Using cryptocurrencies for payments has no difference when compared to using credit or debit cards for payments.Both are digital transactions and no extra threat could be encountered.

Should you tell the robbers all your wallets' private keys or account information for them to access it? This is the way how the future would look like in a cashless society and much better if you put your cryptos separately from other wallets. Don't put it all in a single wallet and in case, just tell the (robbers) the wallet that have least value.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/01/28/britains-first-bitcoin-heist-trader-forced-gunpoint-transfer/

Sooo...

This just happened in England and kinda proves the topic correct, I thought initially the topic had been bumped because of this but it seems not.

4 guys ran into the house with guns and forced a Bitcoin trader to send all his coins to external addresses. He seems to be an Altcoin trader, so perhaps they only took his BTC. Maybe they left his TRX and XVG :P

Seriously though, this is possible and easily done. Anyone selling on Localbitcoins is at risk of this.

His name has come out. I won't link to it, but the name of his company is 'name' digital currencies limited. In the UK you can search the register of companies and his home address is on there.

Maybe all the robbers did is trawl through linkedin for 'bitcoin' and he turned up.

Probably also have a multisig wallet and store the private keys in two places and the thieves can’t do any thing to you

This is good advice, like do you go away and tell people how much fiat you have? No right? Then why tell em about your crypto

What isn't vulnerable because the case is the same with all the things. Lets assume I am a robber and you are the victim. I would first get you at a gun point and demand for all your cash if not you are a dead person. You would obviously give me all your cash. I would then get your credit and debit card as well and if an ATM is nearby I would tell you take all your cash out and then comes the crypto part where I ll check your smartphone . It actually depends on the robber and the victim on how smart they are to handle the given situation. If the robber is smart enough he might make you bank rupt and if the victim is smart he might loose nothing.

He means to say they’ll hold you at gun point and have you unlock your wallet with your own hands lol and not hacking

These criminals are just basically letting police to catch them easily. These robbers still need to encash their btc so if the authorities follow the transactions then it's easy for them to locate these criminals.

:D That's a valid point and one that people need to address if they want to use crypto in the daily market.See first of all were will those robbers put these coins as they can't put these coins in there wardrobe for that they will definitely need digital wallet and these wallets can be easily traced so why would they risk there life just to steal these coins when they can easily get there local currency and not be traced.