Armed robbers steal $450K from Hong Kong crypto trader

[Charles-Tim]

People need to be very careful and never trust who they are making bitcoin or any crypto deals with, some can be scammers while some can be hackers, some can even be real robbers. This is about a woman that robbers won her trust after making two transactions with them.

Robbers posing as cryptocurrency buyers have stolen about 3.5 million Hong Kong dollars ($450,000) from a woman in Hong Kong. According to a report by the South China Morning Post on Tuesday, the Hong Kong police are currently conducting a manhunt for the gang. A spokesperson for the police revealed that the group operated by having one member complete multiple transactions with the victim, presumably to win the target’s trust. Indeed, an investigation into the matter showed three previous deals ranging between $77,000 and $90,000.

On the day of the robbery, the other members of the gang rushed to the scene as soon as their colleague received the Tether tokens in exchange for the $450,000 payment. Armed with knives, they proceeded to lock the woman in the office where the deal took place but not before snatching her iPhone and the $450,000.

According to the report, the woman was able to use her second phone to inform her husband who subsequently contacted the police. The police said that the woman’s uncle who chaperoned her to the meeting place reportedly saw four men fleeing the scene. Luckily, the woman was unhurt in the attack, unlike other victims that have suffered physical injuries and even death at the hand of bandits looking to steal cryptocurrencies.

Copied from, and for more details about some other related attacks.
https://cointelegraph.com/news/armed-robbers-steal-450k-from-hong-kong-crypto-trader

This is not the first case of the attack, there are some that have happened before.  We need to be very careful while making bitcoin deals or other crypto deals with people because they can be theives.

[Mighty_crypt]

Thanks for sharing this warning, I always shake my head when I see few people talking about how much bitcoin they own, it's wrong

1. It's so wrong to boost about how much crypto assets you own, you never know who is listening

2. Don't reveal your real home address online to anyone, now that crypto is getting more popular smartphones will be banks that robbers will start rushing to, infact pretend you know nothing about crypto is more safer

3. Do not make deals with anyone that knows you physically, money is devil's tool on its own, sell your coins on exchanges, don't sell to people around you

[akirasendo17]

this is why you don't post and meeting personally with unknown people pretending to buyers, you should only transact with people who you knew personally not those, who you meet online, not only you urge this person to rob you but, you put your life in danger, I think this is the reason why we really don't know the identity of a satoshi, people will go after him, imagine what will happen,

[Upgrade00]

Physical meet ups for trades is very risky and highly not advisable, this exposes you to a lot of risk, not only for amounts involved in the transaction, but also amounts which would be linked to it.
If for example you made a trade involving a certain amount of bitcoin, but hold a much larger amount, thieves could force you to give up the entire amount as the blockchain is transparent, and someone who meets up with strangers would probably not bother with mixing or coinjoining.

[Lucius]

Hong Kong seems to have become a very dangerous place for all those who own cryptocurrencies, because given the number of attacks, it is no longer something that happens occasionally - but it is organized crime that has discovered a new source of income. If I were to trade such a large amount, then I would first make sure to hire armed guards and keep the whole process under video surveillance. That would probably deter most thieves from any attempt at robbery - and those who did try would risk their lives or imprisonment.

I'm just wondering if the thieves will be caught, because they took the victim's mobile phone, and if they are not smart enough, such a device can be found very easily.

[ranochigo]

Physical meet ups for trades is very risky and highly not advisable, this exposes you to a lot of risk, not only for amounts involved in the transaction, but also amounts which would be linked to it.
If for example you made a trade involving a certain amount of bitcoin, but hold a much larger amount, thieves could force you to give up the entire amount as the blockchain is transparent, and someone who meets up with strangers would probably not bother with mixing or coinjoining.

You really can't get more privacy than doing face to face fiat transaction. If you were to put the specific amount in a multisig wallet or pre-sign a raw transaction, the robbers would have a slightly harder time trying to rob you since no one really memorizes seeds or keys. If you have to do a meet up, I would often suggest a more public place with high human traffic. There are obvious risks associated with physical transactions but you can also chargeback bank transactions. Meeting up for large transactions at a secluded place is very shady to say the least. I wouldn't have continued with the transaction.

[taufik123]

This is the importance of privacy when having a large number of cryptocurrency assets. Making transactions face-to-face or in person is very risky. If I have to choose it's better to sell it on a popular exchange like Binance and never publish Bitcoin asset holdings and addresses used. Wanoita hongkong's mistake was fatal, it only endangered himself.
The robbers will also not be able to escape from police observation, because the transaction will still be traceable anywhere and eventually they will be arrested. Just waiting for an investigation by the police.

[DdmrDdmr]

That seems to be at least two in a row in Hong Kong just this month. On the 7th of January, this case made it to the media:
https://news.bitcoin.com/bitcoin-trader-robbed-during-an-in-person-transaction-kicked-out-of-car-in-hong-kong/

Again Hong Kong. Again a large sum (15 BTCs – 3M HKD at the time). Again a face to face meeting. Again more gang members appearing out of the blue.

Seems pretty risky business performing p2p transactions, especially if the amounts are decent. As quoted in the above link on this post:

Don't engage in six figure face to face bitcoin trades without an armed escort, folks.

(Jameson Lopp) https://twitter.com/lopp/status/1346432279833358336

[Savagecodes]

Dam, that's very dangerous thing to happen in the real world. It's better that people should learn to trade online and the very safe place to do this is from your house, from your own desktop and private network.
This is clear result of OTC trades which many times done in the physical way. Crypto is something that does not leave the trails of crime so it adds up to the risk.

I will never in my lifetime would do such shit thing and go out there to trade face to face.

Satoshi made this world to create your own bank and not the other way round.

[passwordnow]

This is dangerous, a woman with a huge amount of crypto dealing personally. I wouldn't do that even if I have my buddy or buddies beside me. The actual thing that happened is like the $5 wrench attack which the robber can do harm to you and take your cryptos with you. We online exchanges and there's no need to go outside and have deals with such a massive amount in crypto. P2P can be good and done online but in personal transactions, I'll go into trusted and registered OTC markets.

[Karah]

Sometimes, complacency is the issue we have, Bitcoin is as hot as the money being paid to workers by government. My general advise is that any application  that stores btc should guide it jealously.

[Lucius]

"Don't engage in six figure face to face bitcoin trades without an armed escort, folks."

If I were to trade such a large amount, then I would first make sure to hire armed guards and keep the whole process under video surveillance.

His advice is logical, but anyone who works with large amounts of money should realize for themselves that money gets the worst out of people. It may sound cruel, but everyone who behaves so irresponsibly towards their property and their lives deserves to learn a lesson the hard way. After all these cases that have already happened in the same city, people are still ignoring security measures - what can I say but that there is no end to human stupidity...

[cheezcarls]

I have never made any P2P deals with strangers before, but thanks for the heads up. There are some people who reached out to me about dealing with strangers for buying BTC, binary trading scams, etc., and they ended up losing a lot.

When I was an independent for most of 2019 in Makati, my colleague invited me to join him in various casinos. I asked him why, and he said this is where most of the P2P Bitcoin transaction meetups are made, until they were discovered by the personnel and banning them from doing that inside the casino. He only introduced me to them, but I just didn’t learn from them because I wasn’t comfortable doing P2Ps to strangers.

It’s better not to disclose huge amount of crypto to strangers in P2P transactions, even if they did build you trust temporarily like what these armed robbers did to the woman. 

[SquirrelJulietGarden]

The armed case is a good example and warning for people who have big love with social media and share their images, habits, trading records: big wins, big balance on their tweets, status. They boast about his wealth from crypto currency and put themselves at risks.

If you are silent, don't share your life, don't share what you are doing, what you own in your crypto accounts, robbers don't consider you as their main targets. I used to join groups and saw many people shared publicly those vulnerable information.

[hatshepsut93]

This is the reality of p2p crypto trades - you're always at risk of getting scammed or robbed. The woman is lucky to be alive and unharmed, there were cases in the past were crypto traders got murdered for their money. Centralized exchanges have many flaws, but at least they allow us to exchange currency safely. I personally don't think I would ever want to trade any amount of crypto for cash in person, even $100 - it's just not worth the risk.

[blckhawk]

Well, that is very alarming. That is why I don't like P2P trade, especially if it's done by a physical transaction that would be much risk. P2P is great especially if you did it online like in Binance cause if some ditch you, you have a way to retrieve it by asking for support on the platform at least. I felt bad for the woman, I hope she can still retrieve it back though we know it will be tough. Both physical and virtual transactions can be risky and there's nothing we can do with that but be more careful, I guess.

[Asuspawer09]

It is already discussed here in the forum I think it is this story.

Physical meet ups for trades is very risky and highly not advisable, this exposes you to a lot of risk, not only for amounts involved in the transaction, but also amounts which would be linked to it.
If for example you made a trade involving a certain amount of bitcoin, but hold a much larger amount, thieves could force you to give up the entire amount as the blockchain is transparent, and someone who meets up with strangers would probably not bother with mixing or coinjoining.

Personally, I would not risk it and don't tell the social media or the of how much I am earning in cryptocurrency or in the stock market.

In some cases, this is because she is already targeted by the thieves,  maybe because she posted some of her earnings online for sure that's why people know that this woman has an investment.

If you think about it it's easy to get robbed especially if they already know about your investment and cryptocurrency, they just need to threaten you and force you to get your funds or open your wallet, but since bitcoin or cryptocurrency is at some point anonymous there's no way they will know if you have a big amount of money as long as you keep it as confidential.

[figmentofmyass]

jumping from $80k to $450k---huge red flag. that is a case of greed clouding judgment.

This is the reality of p2p crypto trades - you're always at risk of getting scammed or robbed. The woman is lucky to be alive and unharmed, there were cases in the past were crypto traders got murdered for their money. Centralized exchanges have many flaws, but at least they allow us to exchange currency safely. I personally don't think I would ever want to trade any amount of crypto for cash in person, even $100 - it's just not worth the risk.

there is some reasonable middle ground between $100 and $450k.

if you've ever worked in cash businesses, you might not feel that way. dealing with and handing off tens of thousands USD cash is just another day in the life for many business owners. there are safe ways to do this, with strong deterrents against robbery. the victim should not have been exchanging for cash in a private office---public highly trafficked areas with cameras only, during daytime hours.

Don't engage in six figure face to face bitcoin trades without an armed escort, folks.

(Jameson Lopp) https://twitter.com/lopp/status/1346432279833358336

this. 6 figures, or even high 5 figures, is where i'd draw the line---even with traders you consider trusted.

[Smartvirus]

At first site of the topic I wondered how armed men could steal what is rather on line in a software formate and perhaps, how they could know that you've got BTC anywhere or any other cryptocurency I
this case, the Tether token but, it's obvious haven't done business with the wrong people and advertising your business name as it should be or is with some people on their social media and all can attract you this sorry of attention along with the legit ones too.

This is one of the reasons cryptocurrency was made to be anonymous and a P2P initiative was introduced with an escrow to come in as a third party. Where the meetings aren't necessarily, no physical cash involved and everything is based on the trust in the third party  to be the go on both transactions. Disclosing your anonymity comes with a risk and trusting just anyone because of previous transactions don't say .much of a persons character especially in this case where it seems to be that, they stepped up the volume after each transaction as though, you are being scaled. I think once you notice this, like your being scaled for value on how much you can deliver, you've got to be more skeptical.
When money is involved, as well as you are business minded, apply a lot of knowledge and caution. Don't be the story someone else would tell and get some merit. 

[Husires]

Why was she carrying 450 thousand dollars when she wanted to make small deals? It is better not to make big deals with people because it may lead to tax evasion and some legal problems.
Thieves are developing, and the same thieves who steal jewelry at home may want to steal your coins. There is no difference.
Avoid make payment in private places and do it in public.