Man Robbed at Gunpoint for $1,100 Worth of Bitcoins in Brooklyn

[Mia Wallace]

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.

[Theb]

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.

[deadsilent]

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.

[BillyBobZorton]

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.

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.

[Netnox]

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).

[hatshepsut93]

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.

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.

[Tyrantt]

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.

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.

[Wind_FURY]

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.

[richardsNY]

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).

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.