Sad News: Kidnappers now requesting bitcoin as ransom in Nigeria {Gov might ban}

[Oceat]

Wow, I never thought that bad people would come across to this kind of idea. The government should do something about this before it starts to be a norm for bad people. We never know it might happen in another country. Supposedly, Bitcoin is used for transactions anonymously as an alternative payment for any services or products. Although using it in the black market is nothing new to us but this is the first time that I encounter such news.

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[Reid]

Shouldn't this be positive news? Even halfwits from poor African countries who can't find a job and have to kidnap people to bring food to the table are using Bitcoin.

This goes against all those who say Bitcoin is only for tech geeks and an average person won't know how to use it or won't spend time to learn.

Have the same freaking idea once I saw the thread title.
I dont know what is wrong with me but something felt right out of it.

I mean like WOW. Kidnappers using bitcoin? That is some sick idea from sick people who just want the money.
I guess anything goes by now. They are really thinking about it as a currency.

[rodel caling]

Awst that is so much sad news and hurt from the crypto community, but we need to accept that if that kidnapping incident is true bad element take advantage to ask bitcoin as payment because of the anonymity and using bitcoin as ransom is quick and fast transaction wothout any requesting identity transfer the funds, we bitcoin is good same from fiat that can help for the people needs but the bad is the people make weong way how to earn bitcoin or money.

[jake zyrus]

It's just the same with usual kidnapping. It's just the kidnappers are into bitcoin. It's just bad to see this kind of news knowing that it could affect the image of cryptocurrency and bitcoin to other people. It could give a bad image to it and some would probably think that bitcoin is something bad or for illegal purposes which is really not. It's a pity that they're using bitcoin to do bad things and for their own benefits.

[mitchr4]

It's just the same with usual kidnapping. It's just the kidnappers are into bitcoin. It's just bad to see this kind of news knowing that it could affect the image of cryptocurrency and bitcoin to other people. It could give a bad image to it and some would probably think that bitcoin is something bad or for illegal purposes which is really not. It's a pity that they're using bitcoin to do bad things and for their own benefits.

No wonder criminals use Bitcoin as their transaction because it is anonymous. Even though we can track where the coin went but we don't know who is behind it. We have to think that Bitcoin isn't wrong. The criminals could have used other currencies only those who do not yet know very well about Bitcoin, related this currency to crime.

[bryant.coleman]

Some of these criminals have a false assumption that Bitcoin transaction can't be traced back to the users. They will find out the truth once they try to cash out their ransom amount. As long as they transfer the coins from one wallet to the other, it is going to be fine. But the moment they try to convert the Bitcoin to fiat currency, the anonymity will be lost. I don't know how efficient are the law enforcement authorities in Nigeria. But it should be easy for them to track the criminals and arrest them, in case they are trying to cash out the amount sometime soon. They should have demanded the ransom in either Monero or some other anonymous cryptocurrency. Anyway, they can think about it while serving the prison time.

[michellee]

I am wondering where the kidnappers know about bitcoin? So that means they are accepting the new transfer system and they don't want to get trace by the police. I think that is big news to us, bitcoin community because even the kidnappers now already know about bitcoin and they want to hide their identity by using bitcoin. But that's not mean that bitcoin could only be used for negative things like what the kidnappers did, but bitcoin could be used for positive things, and we should spread about the positive of using bitcoin.

[yazher]

In my opinion, this is bad thing for the bitcoin, because it will give bitcoin a bad image for the people.
when it links to some unlawful behavior like kidnapping bitcoin will get a bad image and will stay on that way for long.
until someone who is popular enough to tell them that bitcoin is not used that way they only think about what they saw on the TV.

[btc_angela]

Yeah, this is really sad news specially involving bitcoin as the "supposedly" ransom money. But it is hard to stop it from happening because they know they can hide themselves from authorities specially if this kidnappers know a thing or two about using mixers to hide their tracks and footprints. And it will take a lot of effort from the Nigerian government to hunt them down.

[Jating]

I guess bitcoin is really global then, just imagine kidnappers demanding bitcoin as ransom payment in Nigeria? Or they could be kidnappings all over the world today that we don't know yet that uses this method in order to conceal their criminal acts.

https://thenextweb.com/hardfork/2019/07/15/police-rescued-bitcoin-traders/

https://www.ccn.com/80-bitcoin-ransom-demanded-for-alleged-down-under-kidnapping-of-chinese-student/

I don't want to say it, but it looks like kidnappers are going to exploit bitcoin's supposedly (psuedo)anonymity.

[rahmatullah9305]

It turns out that bitcoin is a criminal payment tool in Negeria, this is very sad, more and more are craving for digital currency Bitcoin, including criminals. Like the kidnappers in this country who took the victim hostage and asked for a ransom of Bitcoin. maybe This is the first case in the country, which is related to Bitcoin.

[Kakmakr]

Unfortunately Nigeria has a long history of scams and they are even called the scamming capital of the world.    They became famous for the "Advanced Fee Scam" and that stigma will stay with them forever. 

The Nigerian government are part of the problem, because there are a lot of corruption in their government too. Just look how people are still impoverished with all the oil and gas that was found there. <High unemployment and corruption push people to crime and scams to survive.> 

The Nigerian government should look in the mirror, before they want to point a finger at Bitcoin.

[EdenHazard]

This isn't the only incident where bitcoin is used for the bad, it has come across several such incidents. Here it is kidnap, I've come across a website where we can just pay bitcoin in advance and submit the address of the person who needs to be killed or beaten badly. Once things gets completed the pending amount needs to be transacted.

Bitcoin stays strong, which is all because of the majority using it for the good compared to the very few who always have a mind to use things in the negative way.

This is nothing to do with bitcoin afterall ... these abusive behavior have been exist since long long time ago , just because they mention bitcoin / misuse it doesn't mean bitcoin is evil entirely.

We might could admit at some point that there's a vulnerable feature in cryptocurrency such as the transaction process is anonymous for several cryptocurrencies they are even offering a completely anonymous untraceable transaction but at this point bitcoin itself well known as a pseudonymous... you can still trace the transaction through the blockchain.

We have heard a lot of similar cases like this and they are ended up arrested, you know what? IT'S TRACEABLE.
Bitcoin ecosystem is getting more and more mature as time goes by , this kind issues would dissapeared slowly.

[jostorres]

Sorry about that in your country mate, I have heard of this issue of kidnapping really becoming rampant in Nigeria, but don’t know what you government is doing about it. Bitcoin is a tool for payment which anyone could use even the devil himself, if you kill the tool, you have still not killed the devil.

Kidnapping has always been an issue in Nigeria which occurs frequently in the remote area of Nigeria literally every day, which many of those people don’t even know what bitcoin is all about, the one that has used bitcoin are the ones that are educated which it is not only crypto they use but other technological ideas, attaching it to cryptocurrency will only end up making your country to go again cryptocurrency, what needs to really be tackled in your country is the kidnapping and let justices reign.

[stompix]

Well they are being fools. Bitcoin is easier to trace, and at some point the world is going to have some sort of blacklist address database so every time this happens, money involved will likely be frozen the moment it hits some exchange or mixer.

The moment this will happen it is going to be the end of bitcoin, fortunately, it's impossible.

Do you realize the implications of what you said? It means that the "world" will be able to basically freeze any funds just like the banks are doing now. Who will this centralized coin? We could all migrate to ripple if this happens, there will be no difference at that point anymore.

Some of these criminals have a false assumption that Bitcoin transaction can't be traced back to the users. They will find out the truth once they try to cash out their ransom amount. As long as they transfer the coins from one wallet to the other, it is going to be fine. But the moment they try to convert the Bitcoin to fiat currency, the anonymity will be lost.

Yeah, what happened to the mt gox stolen coins? Have they tracked the culprits?
Have they tracked the bitstamp hackers? Have they tracked the binance hackers?
Do you know how much they've recovered from the bitfinex hack? 23 BTC out of 100k.

I don't think there is any type of cases with less success rate in recovering funds than those related to cryptos.

[Chrystora123]

The recent development [Kidnappers free Abuja victim after ‘$15,000 ransom paid in bitcoin] will definite damage the image of the currency in the country and around the whole especially Africa, if it becomes a trend. What are the possible solution to avoid this trend becoming an easy way out for the kidnappers thereby spoiling the currency image. And what's your take on this issue.

people who don't understand how Bitcoin works and how to exchange it will definitely think that Bitcoin is the best way to expedite crime, to exchange the Bitcoin they get from the ransom, they need a bank... in my opinion, asking for a ransom with Bitcoin is the stupidest way, they will only be tracked by the Blockchain system and the Bank.

[gentlemand]

The recent development [Kidnappers free Abuja victim after ‘$15,000 ransom paid in bitcoin] will definite damage the image of the currency in the country and around the whole especially Africa, if it becomes a trend. What are the possible solution to avoid this trend becoming an easy way out for the kidnappers thereby spoiling the currency image. And what's your take on this issue.

It all depends on law enforcement.

In a developed country you'd have to be a madman to kidnap in the first place, it's effectively a dead crime, and even madder to use Bitcoin. The chances of being traced are extremely high.

If Nigerian law enforcement isn't up to scratch then I presume it'll flourish.

[putukin]

It's quite a sad time to be a bitcoin (cryptocurrency) enthusiast in Nigeria. While we're trying to spread the positive benefits of the currency across the country and Africa continent as a whole irrespective of the government showing negative signs towards the currency, we have recorded some set backs. Each time we take one step forward the bad eggs of the nation take advantage of the hype and leverage on the anonymousity of the currency. First it was the news of Nigerians using the currency to defraud foreigners, since it was easier and they can't be tracked easily. That development lead to a serious attack on account associated with bitcoin transaction irrespective of your source of income. Some accounts  were reportedly frozen while others were blocked for some days (can't confirm this though since I wasn't affected directly).



Recently, the kidnappers are using it to stay anonymous and avoid been traced. The first time such incident was recorded on the continent was when some Kidnappers requested a random of $120,000 to be paid in bitcoin to release a 13yrs old teenager in South Africa.{CNN reports} now the Nigerians (kidnappers) are buying into the idea of using the currency for their dirty operations. It worries me because what ever Nigerians are engaged in an activity be it good or bad they do it to the extend it becomes a trend which will definitely bring about more regulation and probably a ban on the usages or association with the cryptocurrencies in the country.

The recent development [Kidnappers free Abuja victim after ‘$15,000 ransom paid in bitcoin] will definite damage the image of the currency in the country and around the whole especially Africa, if it becomes a trend. What are the possible solution to avoid this trend becoming an easy way out for the kidnappers thereby spoiling the currency image. And what's your take on this issue.

I always said that scammers spoil the image of Bitcoin. Incidents in Nigeria are likely to lead to crypto regulation throughout Africa. How to exclude fraud manipulations using Bitcoin? It is necessary to connect the government and solve this problem

[Golftech]

Another event that will use the system of anonymity for their own benefits, I do remember watching Greys Anatomy, one of their episodes have this story line where the hospital system was hacked and the ransom that the hackers as is  bitcoin, they gave bad image but in the larger picture it's just the same with any currency which is used for transacting, for a short term issue it will affects those who don't have enough knowledge about this industry but to
those who already been here, it will not shake anything and will pass just like an ordinary situation.

[krb91]

I read the news and I was appalled to say the least.  The ransom was $15 k paid in BTC.  this serves to show that one should be careful with declaring ones cryptocurrency holdings.  I read the father paid with 'his' BTC. It's likely he is a hodler of some BTC and whoever kidnapped his daughter knew he had some crypt holdings.