Bitcoin as Ransom

[emberbekas]

What if you had, let's say....5000 Bitcoins in your custody and suddenly someone demanded it as a ransom in exchange for someone very important to you, would you make the exchange?

Do not make a deal with criminals! They're greedy. Even if you already send money as a ransom, they will continue to blackmail you. The best way is to leave it to the authorities to thoroughly investigate the case we are facing!

[valentin68]

I would do this, give the 5000 bitcoins for my beloved person, but I would keep 1 bitcoin for me to invest it in mining. In 5-10 years I will recover from this loss. But in my opinion few people have 5000 bitcoins.
 Another possibility is that I would give 0.1 bitcoins to 10000 people to bring my beloved person back to me.

[SonOfNorth]

Do not make a deal with criminals! They're greedy. Even if you already send money as a ransom, they will continue to blackmail you. The best way is to leave it to the authorities to thoroughly investigate the case we are facing!

This would be the correct way to deal with the situation. It's never a good idea to actually reveal your financial status or net worth to anyone else, because people will always just use you if they can, and someone blackmailing you would most definitely not stop after that. Some might release the hostage, only to make the situation happen again in the future because they know you are ready to pay, and when you would "know" you're getting your loved one back it would be an easy way for them to make money in the future as well.

[hubballi]

What if you had, let's say....5000 Bitcoins in your custody and suddenly someone demanded it as a ransom in exchange for someone very important to you, would you make the exchange?

What you are saying same thing can happen in fiat currency also when anyone knows about your wealth then same they will do with it. So it is not that bitcoin is bad but its users choice of how is he using it. Only if the users who is holding high bitcoins if disclose to some one let it be near one also is harmfull. Even if you are rich in fiat currency you should be carefull by giving your details. and never keep high bitcoins in one wallet always keeps them in split so that no one can know that which wallet have high bitcoins so that they can try to hack it.

[speem28]

What if you had, let's say....5000 Bitcoins in your custody and suddenly someone demanded it as a ransom in exchange for someone very important to you, would you make the exchange?

That is a very big ransom money they are asking, and I think that it is impossible to happen that someone will ask for that kind of money. Besides, how will they know that you had that amount of bitcoin? Answering your question, I will be willing to give a part of my bitcoin as a ransom but not all of it. 5000 bitcoin 'is a lot dude, I'll just give enough money to them since they can't possibly know the exact money I have.

[DavidBrown]

money and people. For me people are more important than money. Money can be earned again. The person who lost it is permanent

[AwpDragonPoor]

Of course i would, bitcoin is used as a currency, and if it comes to it i would use it to pay off the ransom. Of course after i get my family or dear ones back, i will contact authorities to get btc back

[mondobitcoin]

What if you had, let's say....5000 Bitcoins in your custody and suddenly someone demanded it as a ransom in exchange for someone very important to you, would you make the exchange?

5000 Bitcoins is a big sum, maybe with 50 BTC you can pay the police or FBI, and they can find the people who are redeeming you
I think is for stupid, make any exchange for 5000 BTC, if you have this sum it mean that you are rich and you can do all what do you want

[MiF]

What if you had, let's say....5000 Bitcoins in your custody and suddenly someone demanded it as a ransom in exchange for someone very important to you, would you make the exchange?

If my family will be the concern of course i will choose my family over the bitcoin. I was investing and earning bitcoin to support my family in order for them to live so what is bitcoin if i lost my family. Everthing we work hard and gained for will be useless if we lost them.

[Diablesfunis]

What if you had, let's say....5000 Bitcoins in your custody and suddenly someone demanded it as a ransom in exchange for someone very important to you, would you make the exchange?

That is a hard question to be honest. I will pay the ransom if the hostage is my wife or sister,other than that, i won't pay the ransom  .

[rumex]

Ah, What a question and what a decision to make ? You said it all the person being important to me. Nothing will be spared to free such person. But i will still fight till the source of such crime is known and justice met.

[aleksej996]

Let them have them
20 millions we are talking about here mate.

How could I trust the criminal will go with his end of the deal? Does he have a high trust rating on bitcointalk? Can we use an escrow?

I really wouldn't want to feed the shark. I am sorry, but I will keep my millions for the good of mankind.

[Allan Ramanda]

if it happens to my wife and child, then I will try to negotiate first and find a way out like report it to the police, and if there is no way out again, anything I will do to protect the people I care about. because affection can not be replaced with bitcoin,

[Dudeperfect]

It all depends on what is on the other side, If something has that level of utility value then I would definitely pay 5000 BTC against that thing.

Example: Suppose, you are lost in the desert for a week and you have no food or water left and someone is offering you a water bottle and 6 Apples OR extremely valuable diamond against your money (say 5,000 BTC) then what would you choose? The answer is simple, anyone would prefer something that would help him to survive even if, on the other hand, the diamond is worth 5000,000 BTC because the utility value of food and water will be worth much much much more than that diamond.

[teilwalL05]

I think it is a common sense if and ever if you have a love ones that has been kidnapped by someone then I think it is really indeed normal to give all what is in demand by the kidnappers, and I think it is only money because money is not really important for me and the lives of my relative are the ones that I need, well I don't know if someone here would actually pick bitcoin over their relatives.

[Monnt]

What if you had, let's say....5000 Bitcoins in your custody and suddenly someone demanded it as a ransom in exchange for someone very important to you, would you make the exchange?

Do not make a deal with criminals! They're greedy. Even if you already send money as a ransom, they will continue to blackmail you. The best way is to leave it to the authorities to thoroughly investigate the case we are facing!

I am a cold heart person. If someone is this lazy that he or she can become a hostage, I will simply leave that person like as it was destined to happen. Most of the time, it will confuse the criminals.
However, if it was really to save a person, I would contact a security specialist, ask him to track the transaction and tell me the details. Obviously, I would do it after making sure that the guy is saved.

[Vishnu.Reang]

What if you had, let's say....5000 Bitcoins in your custody and suddenly someone demanded it as a ransom in exchange for someone very important to you, would you make the exchange?

Yes. Definitely. For me, the life of some of my dear ones are more important than money. But some of the kidnappers kill their hostages even after the ransom is paid. I don't want incidents such as that.

[BitcoinSupremo]

Life is priceless. However I would play a trick on the kidnapper and tell him I only have 2500 bitcoins and not 5000 , I will tell him, I lost them gambling during these last days. I would divide these amount of bitcoins in different wallets and only show him a few wallets which have 2500, surely I would do some mixing so he doesn't know who is my original wallet. Beside that I would tell him that I will land him the bitcoin when I meet him but before I would have called the police, or private investigators paid in big amount from my bitcoin and surely the kidnapper would have nowhere to go.

Good that this is fiction only and not reality.

[Soutogu]

This is kinda pointless to think about in my opinion. First, if you have 5k bitcoins...don't go around telling everyone, unless you were prepared to pay for your safety like known rich people do (guards and whatnot)

[xFiber]

In a lot of kidnap situations the criminals never get their ransom amount and either get arrested of killed if a police force attempts to free the kidnapped people. I'd rather let the police handle it than paying the ransom amount because you are never sure they will release the beloved person.