Swedish Bitcoiners targeted by armed criminals

[_act_]

We are warning people to be careful of KYC but many did not answer, see armed criminals targeting bitcoin and other crypto users in Sweden.

Criminals in Sweden are specifically targeting prominent local Bitcoin figures, which appears to be the result of the ease of access to personal information and residential addresses in the country.

Reports from Swedish media outlets LT and Aftonbladet have linked separate robberies in Rönninge and Södertälje that appear to have occurred under the same modus operandi. Victims were tied up and physically abused to steal physical and virtual Bitcoin
BTC

I will not say more than this, read more from https://cointelegraph.com/news/swedish-bitcoiners-targeted-by-armed-criminals

If you like, continue to submit your KYC or giving it out. Just know that this will begin from somewhere and you may be the next target.

You need privacy and anonymity. Also avoid social media which armed crimals can use to target people that know about cryptocurrencies.

[Lucius]

The old saying goes "what you sow, you will reap", and Sweden unfortunately sowed bad seeds for a very long time, and now imported criminals are slowly taking over the country. In addition, the easy availability of information on income and taxes paid, which is a consequence of the fight against corruption for a very long time in that country, makes the work of thieves even easier.

Those who live in that country should seriously consider increasing personal security, which means installing security cameras, alarms and hidden panic buttons, as well as acquiring firearms.

[348Judah]

We are warning people to be careful of KYC but many did not answer, see armed criminals targeting bitcoin and other crypto users in Sweden.

Criminals in Sweden are specifically targeting prominent local Bitcoin figures, which appears to be the result of the ease of access to personal information and residential addresses in the country.

Reports from Swedish media outlets LT and Aftonbladet have linked separate robberies in Rönninge and Södertälje that appear to have occurred under the same modus operandi. Victims were tied up and physically abused to steal physical and virtual Bitcoin
BTC

I will not say more than this, read more from https://cointelegraph.com/news/swedish-bitcoiners-targeted-by-armed-criminals

If you like, continue to submit your KYC or giving it out. Just know that this will begin from somewhere and you may be the next target.

You need privacy and anonymity.

If you're a bitcoiner, then it's time to value your privacy, i believe that this should be one of the tiring challenges we had with the use of fiat before thinking of an alternative,

Now that we have the opportunity to use bitcoin, then we should make every possible efforts to get the best from the varieties of opportunities bitcoin has brought to served us with, using a centralized exchange is nothing than using a commercial bank to safe your cryptocurrency, this means all your information is with them and they can use any against us, but if we are very intended to go on with privacy.

It's something easy to achieve because hackers wouldn't have access to be able to attack us when they know nothing about us, neither would the government regulate where our asset is, the least one can do is to afford making the use of mixers for these or use some of the privacy secured wallet types or run a full node.

Not your keys, not your coins.

[Dave1]

We are warning people to be careful of KYC but many did not answer, see armed criminals targeting bitcoin and other crypto users in Sweden.

Criminals in Sweden are specifically targeting prominent local Bitcoin figures, which appears to be the result of the ease of access to personal information and residential addresses in the country.

Reports from Swedish media outlets LT and Aftonbladet have linked separate robberies in Rönninge and Södertälje that appear to have occurred under the same modus operandi. Victims were tied up and physically abused to steal physical and virtual Bitcoin
BTC

I will not say more than this, read more from https://cointelegraph.com/news/swedish-bitcoiners-targeted-by-armed-criminals

If you like, continue to submit your KYC or giving it out. Just know that this will begin from somewhere and you may be the next target.

You need privacy and anonymity.

If you're a bitcoiner, then it's time to value your privacy, i believe that this should be one of the tiring challenges we had with the use of fiat before thinking of an alternative,

Now that we have the opportunity to use bitcoin, then we should make every possible efforts to get the best from the varieties of opportunities bitcoin has brought to served us with, using a centralized exchange is nothing than using a commercial bank to safe your cryptocurrency, this means all your information is with them and they can use any against us, but if we are very intended to go on with privacy.

It's something easy to achieve because hackers wouldn't have access to be able to attack us when they know nothing about us, neither would the government regulate where our asset is, the least one can do is to afford making the use of mixers for these or use some of the privacy secured wallet types or run a full node.

Not your keys, not your coins.

I don't know if you have read the article, of course we want our privacy, but Sweden has this very lax law, As per article:

He also believes that Sweden’s Offentlighetsprincipen (Principle of Public Access to Information) laws, which give the public the right to request information, including residential addresses and tax records from the government, are becoming a means for criminals to prey on ecosystem participants.

So this criminals take advantage of this law and most likely used it to target their specific victims and then use the 5 dollar wrench attack,

https://chainsec.io/wrench-attack/

[_act_]

I don't know if you have read the article, of course we want our privacy, but Sweden has this very lax law, As per article:

What are you saying? Know that people do not care about their privacy is the reason for what is happening to them that robbers are attacking them. If people like that have total privacy are in Sweden, this can not affect them because he cares about his privacy. Know that the privacy we are talking about is not total privacy in all aspect of life, but about total privacy in what are related to bitcoin and other crypto. Also know that social media like Facebook can be used to get their targets.

[Broadanbig]

If this could be happening at Sweden, then it means a data breach has occurred which grants criminals information and details about their victims. All  these possibly happened as a result of data leakage from third party exchanges which I believe are mostly the only source where such information could be gotten accurately. The government should be able to come up with measures to protect her citizens from these criminal minded individuals perpetrating such act of wickedness on her citizens. Just like a member has already said, that measures of self defence should be taken as quickly as possible to forestall unforseen circumstances in the nearest future. Individuals should secure their perimeters with security cameras, alarms etc to protect themselves from being attacked. Being on the safe side by taking such steps would be okay. 

[mk4]

Saw this Tweet by Eric Wall (a bitcoin personality). Based on his description, Sweden looks to be an awful place to live in if you're into bitcoin/crypto.

there's now officially a situation in sweden

this monday, a middle-aged swedish couple was tied up in their home and robbed by 4 masked men. they were physically abused and threatened with their own kitchen knives. they were tied up for hours and one had to be escorted to the hospital via helicopter.

the purpose of the assault was to steal the couple's bitcoin

unfortunately, this is not a new occurence in sweden now. only last month, two well-known bitcoin/crypto profiles were targeted in their homes by masked, armed men

one of them had no physical bitcoin, but was physically abused for 3 hours. the other got away because only their spouse was home at the time.

the first time this happened was last year, one of sweden's most well-known bitcoiners had criminals break into their apartment

even though that person gave up a significant amount of bitcoin/crypto, they were physically beaten and abused for hours infront of their partner. that person was scarred for months and largely withdrew from public life after the assault

what appears to be common for each of these cases is that the victims had livestreamed a podcast about bitcoin/crypto days before their assault, or mentioned bitcoin in a public context

this situation is occurring because in sweden, you can easily search for any person's residential address and drive straight to their house. if you're curious, you can also search for their tax records, and find out exactly how much they paid in income or capital gains tax, and size them up from that

sweden is probably one of the least safe countries to be active in the cryptocurrency sector in at the moment. i've personally left sweden and i don't expect to return until the laws around personal privacy change.

"The Principle of Public Access to Information", known in swedish as "Offentlighetsprincipen" (the law that makes residential addresses and tax records public) is the main culprit behind this strangeness relative to other countries. while the intentions behind this legislation was to reduce corruption, it is not fit for modern society.

https://twitter.com/ercwl/status/1722371132026712143

[Mpamaegbu]

You need privacy and anonymity. Also avoid social media which armed crimals can use to target people that know about cryptocurrencies.

I think this type of breach is even far beyond the KYC thing. It's more likely a social media exposure some people like to indulge. I've often asked myself why those who expose themselves on social media to flaunt their so called riches do that. Will they die if they've made it through cryptos and don't display it on SM? For me, it's childish to flaunt what one as got in public. Modesty should be everyone's watchword but sadly it's not. Don't be loud on your achievements, especially financial improvement.

[Helena Yu]

I don't know if you have read the article, of course we want our privacy, but Sweden has this very lax law, As per article:

What are you saying? Know that people do not care about their privacy is the reason for what is happening to them that robbers are attacking them.

I think he might trying to say if the Sweden’s Offentlighetsprincipen is easily to share about someone location and his tax records (which you will know how much money he have). Although this is not discussing about Bitcoin, it's fall to privacy and legal discussions.

Since I'm not a Swedish, I can't verify if the government is really easy to share someone else data or not when it's requested by a stranger.

[suzanne5223]

I don't know if you have read the article, of course we want our privacy, but Sweden has this very lax law, As per article:

What are you saying? Know that people do not care about their privacy is the reason for what is happening to them that robbers are attacking them.

I think he might trying to say if the Sweden’s Offentlighetsprincipen is easily to share about someone location and his tax records (which you will know how much money he have). Although this is not discussing about Bitcoin, it's fall to privacy and legal discussions.

Since I'm not a Swedish, I can't verify if the government is really easy to share someone else data or not when it's requested by a stranger.

There's a chance that someone who's working with Sweden’s Offentlighetsprincipen who is also in charge of handling cryptocurrency taxpayer privacy information will sell the information or provide it to criminals.
This is why I never totally trust an organization that's centralized. I hope a solution and security is provided there to prevent further attack on Bitcoin holder.

[Renampun]

We are warning people to be careful of KYC but many did not answer, see armed criminals targeting bitcoin and other crypto users in Sweden.

Criminals in Sweden are specifically targeting prominent local Bitcoin figures, which appears to be the result of the ease of access to personal information and residential addresses in the country.

Reports from Swedish media outlets LT and Aftonbladet have linked separate robberies in Rönninge and Södertälje that appear to have occurred under the same modus operandi. Victims were tied up and physically abused to steal physical and virtual Bitcoin
BTC

I will not say more than this, read more from https://cointelegraph.com/news/swedish-bitcoiners-targeted-by-armed-criminals

If you like, continue to submit your KYC or giving it out. Just know that this will begin from somewhere and you may be the next target.

You need privacy and anonymity. Also avoid social media which armed crimals can use to target people that know about cryptocurrencies.

My condolences to the victim, currently criminals are targeting crypto holders and that is very worrying, I'm not so sure that the victim was detected by the perpetrator via KYC, maybe the victim posted something on his social media or had flexed with his friends, so anonymously and not haphazardly carrying out KYC on all types of crypto platforms is a must now, don't let us lose our valuable assets just because of carelessness (want to show off, want to be said to be smart, want to be called a crypto investor).

[Charles-Tim]

Now that we have the opportunity to use bitcoin, then we should make every possible efforts to get the best from the varieties of opportunities bitcoin has brought to served us with, using a centralized exchange is nothing than using a commercial bank to safe your cryptocurrency, this means all your information is with them and they can use any against us, but if we are very intended to go on with privacy.

Banks are even better than exchanges because money sent from the bank can still be traced. This will make the thieves to think otherwise. But there is nothing impossible as thieves will look for ways to mask themselves online. But exchanges are worse, if attackers send coins from a victim account, it is easy to transfer the coin to noncustodial wallets and mix the coin.

Data breach can also be beyond exchanges. Just like in Sweden Offentlighetsprincipen, which gives the public to request/search for information regarding residential addresses and tax records of citizens from the government, this can also be the source of data breach. In such country, the best would be to just trade your coins on a decentralized exchange and avoid ways your privacy can be breached, like not talking about cryptocurrencies on social media and online in a way it can be linked to your personal identity.

Saw this Tweet by Eric Wall (a bitcoin personality). Based on his description, Sweden looks to be an awful place to live in if you're into bitcoin/crypto.

I will accept this. But with the ways regulations are going on, and as more people are knowing about cryptocurrencies, we should expect this because there will be increasing in the numbers of people that are likely to carry out this type of physical attack. We should be careful online. But with Offentlighetsprincipen in Sweden, the country is not good for bitcoin and other cryptocurrency users, especially those that are average and rich.

There's a chance that someone who's working with Sweden’s Offentlighetsprincipen who is also in charge of handling cryptocurrency taxpayer privacy information will sell the information or provide it to criminals.

The data that is already available for people to see and said to have been abused for illegal activities:

The Offentlighetsprincipen law also reportedly makes it easy for citizens to search for Swedish residents’ addresses as well as scour their tax records. This is being abused, as criminals can ascertain how much an individual has paid in income or capital gains tax and “size them up” as a result.

Their government breached their citizens data publicly. What a shame.

[noorman0]

-snip-

Victims were tied up and physically abused to steal physical and virtual Bitcoin

It seems that vigilance is increasing because not all robbers understand what types of bitcoin are actually valuable. It's better not to talk about bitcoin at all in public because that means you are considered to have bitcoin in any form. Or if forced, you have to speak but "invisibly".

[Die_empty]

I think he might trying to say if the Sweden’s Offentlighetsprincipen is easily to share about someone location and his tax records (which you will know how much money he have). Although this is not discussing about Bitcoin, it's fall to privacy and legal discussions.

Since I'm not a Swedish, I can't verify if the government is really easy to share someone else data or not when it's requested by a stranger.

This is the right place to discuss it because based on the article the main targets of these criminals are well-known bitcoiners. Some became targets after discussing Bitcoin and other crypto-related matters on social media. But the Offentlighetsprincipen made it easy for these criminals to easily locate their target. Every good law also has a bad aspect of it. The principle of Public Access to Information was enacted to fight corruption but it is now a potent tool for criminality.

I will accept this. But with the ways regulations are going on, and as more people are knowing about cryptocurrencies, we should expect this because there will be increasing in the numbers of people that are likely to carry out this type of physical attack. We should be careful online. But with Offentlighetsprincipen in Sweden, the country is not good for bitcoin and other cryptocurrency users, especially those that are average and rich.

Social media is one of the main places where most crypto enthusiasts teach about the sector and promote their services. And from the information in the article, many of the people that have been attacked are well-known members of the bitcoin community. It will be difficult for this set of people to avoid social media because it is like thier office. The government should review the law and make some amendments. Another option will be to relocate from the country or avoid the social media if possible.

Their government breached their citizens data publicly. What a shame.

The law has good intentions but it is backfiring on the citizens. Giving out someone's address and phone number is an extreme breach of privacy.

[Dr.Bitcoin_Strange]

This is a serious case, and most of the time I usually imagine this kind of situation in other countries, like in my country too. This is the kind of situation that really makes KYC a bad thing for the Bitcoin space. As things like this happen, people learn. I will save this topic, and I am going to use it as an example for the topic I am preparing, which is not yet done. I did have a tiny strategy for acquiring Bitcoin, but not on the KYC exchange but still on CEX. Although I know that CEX has this requirement for KYC, the only one that I am using now is not for the purchase of bitcoin but to sell or trade. I just hope that with this incident, Swedish Bitcoin users will tighten up their security and protect their assets.

[acroman08]

I feel bad for the victim but damn the "The Offentlighetsprincipen" law must be one of the stupidest laws I've heard and their government are literally putting their citizen at risk with that law. From what I understand from the article, anyone in Sweden can ask for information about someone's residence and other personal information available.

any Swedish here? what do you guys think about Offentlighetsprincipen?

[nakamura12]

I feel bad for the victim but damn the "The Offentlighetsprincipen" law must be one of the stupidest laws I've heard and their government are literally putting their citizen at risk with that law. From what I understand from the article, anyone in Sweden can ask for information about someone's residence and other personal information available.

any Swedish here? what do you guys think about Offentlighetsprincipen?

I am not from sweden nor I am a Swedish but here's my opinion or what I think about that law, you don't have a privacy of your personal information and that may cause problem like a thief knowing where you live. I would also say that it is stupidest law as you have said. I also wondering what Swedish people are thinking of that law. I could say that this is more serious than identity theft since the data is publicly available to anyone who is asking for the data.

[boyptc]

I thought that it's safe there but it's not for crypto folks.

Much better those that are into crypto from that country should just keep themselves lowkey and unknown and keep their assets on a hardware wallet not touching any exchange.

And if it's possible for them to go elsewhere to sell or with their neighboring country, much better to do that.

[Obari]

Post like this, send more fear to my heart about kyc and it is really becoming  more fearful and really alarming bjt what ate the security agencies over there in  Sweden doing about the recent happenings as this is already sending a very wrong signal and message about them to the world which is absolutely very bad.
I hope this thread serves as a wake up call to most of us who easily submit kyc but on the long run, I think people hardly pay attention to stories like this as they're not directly affected until they are directly  affected. Humans will always be humans.

[CryptSafe]

This is the reason why I detest KYC. For safety reasons exchanges and casinos demand for customers KYC and for that same safety too customers decline KYC. Now this is what is happening at Sweden when Bitcoin holders details are been revealed who is safe then because that is why one needs to be careful with KYC as they can not guarantee the safety of your details from hackers.
If you can do without undergoing KYC, better for you  as it stands now KYC is no more safe again because of the rate at which details are stolen from third parties.