22-year-old guy teamed up with friends to steal $245M in BTC

[greysonz]

Malone Lam, a 22-year-old from Singapore, pleaded guilty to stealing $245 million worth of Bitcoin from a Washington resident. The incident occurred two years ago: his accomplices, posing as employees of Google and Gemini, tricked the victim into granting access to their Google Drive and stole 4,100 Bitcoin.
Lam then laundered the stolen funds, spending millions in a single month on thirty sports cars, mansions, and nightclubs.
Today he pleaded guilty, and now he faces up to twenty years in prison.

[Hatchy]

I'm kind of confused about why he had his Bitcoin stored on Google Drive. How and why would anyone store the keys to such a large amount of Bitcoin on Google Drive? Honestly, I feel the victim was partly responsible for what happened because it was unreasonable to keep such sensitive information that way.I don't understand why it's so difficult for people to simply write down their keys on paper and store them somewhere safe. He could have also bought a hardware wallet and kept his coins completely offline. Instead, he left the keys on his Google Drive, on a PC that he regularly uses online. It's really unfortunate, but I can't feel too sorry for him. Sometimes, people have to learn the hard way so they don't make the same mistakes again.

[SatoPrincess]

I'm kind of confused about why he had his Bitcoin stored on Google Drive. How and why would anyone store the keys to such a large amount of Bitcoin on Google Drive? Honestly, I feel the victim was partly responsible for what happened because it was unreasonable to keep such sensitive information that way.I don't understand why it's so difficult for people to simply write down their keys on paper and store them somewhere safe. He could have also bought a hardware wallet and kept his coins completely offline. Instead, he left the keys on his Google Drive, on a PC that he regularly uses online. It's really unfortunate, but I can't feel too sorry for him. Sometimes, people have to learn the hard way so they don't make the same mistakes again.

I really don’t like victim blaming, but when you have that much bitcoin in your wallets you have to be extremely cautious. It beats me how someone accumulated so much money and yet isn’t bothered to learn how to protect their assets. While it’s true that people shouldn’t store their seed pages online, I don’t think storing their seed phase offline wouldn’t have stopped the scammers. They would have found some way to trick him into exposing his seed phrase - probably tell him his wallet has been compromised and they want him to connect his wallet to a website.

[Livingleged]

I'm kind of confused about why he had his Bitcoin stored on Google Drive. How and why would anyone store the keys to such a large amount of Bitcoin on Google Drive? Honestly, I feel the victim was partly responsible for what happened because it was unreasonable to keep such sensitive information that way.I don't understand why it's so difficult for people to simply write down their keys on paper and store them somewhere safe. He could have also bought a hardware wallet and kept his coins completely offline. Instead, he left the keys on his Google Drive, on a PC that he regularly uses online. It's really unfortunate, but I can't feel too sorry for him. Sometimes, people have to learn the hard way so they don't make the same mistakes again.

Of course the victims of this scam should be blamed to an extent, I mean for someone in possession of that huge amount of bitcoin should definitely try to atleast know more about privacy and security, I sometimes wonder how people are a bit careless with their privacy regardless of how they were able to earn huge amounts of bitcoin. Even if you inherited your bitcoin from your someone, I think learning how to keep them not exposed to this kind of scam is a primary responsibility that you have to take on.

However, if you have bitcoin and you do not learn how to keep them safe, then you should be ready to face scandals like this and you should have you’re self to be blamed, in my opinion there is no excuse for being this careless. It’s not ignorance its simply irresponsible.

[greysonz]

I'm kind of confused about why he had his Bitcoin stored on Google Drive. How and why would anyone store the keys to such a large amount of Bitcoin on Google Drive? Honestly, I feel the victim was partly responsible for what happened because it was unreasonable to keep such sensitive information that way.I don't understand why it's so difficult for people to simply write down their keys on paper and store them somewhere safe. He could have also bought a hardware wallet and kept his coins completely offline. Instead, he left the keys on his Google Drive, on a PC that he regularly uses online. It's really unfortunate, but I can't feel too sorry for him. Sometimes, people have to learn the hard way so they don't make the same mistakes again.

In the past, many wallets and web services offered to store your phrase on Google Drive: Blockchain.com, Jaxx... I remember very well how Trust Wallet used to do this. As you know, none of them do that anymore.

Anyway, I don’t want to blame the victim for his naivety, because if this happened two years ago, he shouldn’t have been so careless about Bitcoin - he already knew how much the price had grown and Bitcoin was showing strong economic results. But still, he didn’t take his BTC seriously, and it turned out to be so easy to fool him.

[cryptoaddictchie]

I'm kind of confused about why he had his Bitcoin stored on Google Drive. How and why would anyone store the keys to such a large amount of Bitcoin on Google Drive? Honestly, I feel the victim was partly responsible for what happened because it was unreasonable to keep such sensitive information that way.I don't understand why it's so difficult for people to simply write down their keys on paper and store them somewhere safe. He could have also bought a hardware wallet and kept his coins completely offline.

What I more curious about is how those guys able to know that their victim have a huge crypto assets. Wondering if they study or monitor him somewhere or online? Also I kinda agreed that the victim shouldnt store his asset on a google drive especially when the amount you have was quite huge.

But I dont agreed that he should be the one to blame cause his only a victim and the fault should solely went to the criminals who stole his asset.

Imagine those amount of bitcoin being stolen does the victim able to get some of those money back? Any reference for this story OP?

[lovesmayfamilis]

I'm kind of confused about why he had his Bitcoin stored on Google Drive. How and why would anyone store the keys to such a large amount of Bitcoin on Google Drive? Honestly, I feel the victim was partly responsible for what happened because it was unreasonable to keep such sensitive information that way.I don't understand why it's so difficult for people to simply write down their keys on paper and store them somewhere safe. He could have also bought a hardware wallet and kept his coins completely offline. Instead, he left the keys on his Google Drive, on a PC that he regularly uses online. It's really unfortunate, but I can't feel too sorry for him. Sometimes, people have to learn the hard way so they don't make the same mistakes again.

Why doesn’t it bother you that he gave access to his storage? Especially since the request itself seemed to come from a "Google" representative. Why is he so naive, anyway? For example, I always have other questions. How can someone be so dumb yet still have such a large sum in their wallet? It’s baffling. Clearly, whoever decides who gets to be rich has overlooked something here. No wonder they say that being rich is a test in itself. One guy just gave it all away, while another simply blew through all his cash because he couldn’t rein in his desires and opportunities. 😛

Any reference for this story OP?[/i]

https://apnews.com/article/cryptocurrency-scam-malone-lam-guilty-58db2e40ba8b20bff8c70eb5d9d6b537

[abel1337]

spending millions in a single month on thirty sports cars, mansions, and nightclubs.

I think this is how he got noticed by the authorities. This kind of spending would easily be noticed as there is no 22 year old with a normal background will spend that kind of money in a month. Having no source of income to prove authorities will certainly hit him back when an investigation happened.

Sure you can somehow escape blockchain investigation by running the hacked funds on mixers and privacy coins but how you spending that kind of money in a very short amount of time would certainly flag you under investigation. It's crazy how do they didn't think that authorities will not suspect them with those kind of action after getting that kind of illegal money.

One question on my mind is how did they cash-in those hacked bitcoin that they would be able to spend millions. My one guess is having a p2p cash transaction in real life but there are other ways I'm sure.

[Hatchy]

In the past, many wallets and web services offered to store your phrase on Google Drive: Blockchain.com, Jaxx... I remember very well how Trust Wallet used to do this. As you know, none of them do that anymore.

Anyway, I don’t want to blame the victim for his naivety, because if this happened two years ago, he shouldn’t have been so careless about Bitcoin - he already knew how much the price had grown and Bitcoin was showing strong economic results. But still, he didn’t take his BTC seriously, and it turned out to be so easy to fool him.

Every wallet that offers cloud storage for users puts it's there as an option and it's a choice most investors make on their own, that's why I'm still going to blame anyone who choses to use cloud storage or Google to keep their keys, which are meant to be stored completely offline. And then fyi, trust wallet still offers that feature and i don't even consider trust wallet a good wallet for anyone to use. This is what happens when you don't take the security of your coins seriously, you end up being victims of scam or hacks.

Clearly, whoever decides who gets to be rich has overlooked something here.

Lol, you never know how valuable something is until you lose it..  

[pawanjain]

Malone Lam, a 22-year-old from Singapore, pleaded guilty to stealing $245 million worth of Bitcoin from a Washington resident. The incident occurred two years ago: his accomplices, posing as employees of Google and Gemini, tricked the victim into granting access to their Google Drive and stole 4,100 Bitcoin.
Lam then laundered the stolen funds, spending millions in a single month on thirty sports cars, mansions, and nightclubs.
Today he pleaded guilty, and now he faces up to twenty years in prison.
snip

What a foolish way to get arrested. Why would he spend millions of dollars in a single month ?
Looks like he knew all along that he will get arrested soon and thought to spend the money lavishly while it lasts.
So many watches and sports cars for what ? Not as if he was gonna drive all of them daily.

[ImGenius]

Why we always heard things like someone pretend to be google employee, someone pretend to be a Google customer service.. Why people trust google so much that they even store their seed phrase in Google cloud. Don't they know that hackers can access their data easily. Google is being used worldwide and billions of user use their products that doesn't mean we can blindly trust their system.

Or maybe they just didn't expect that someone would come after their money thats why they didn't practice or learn how to protect their fund. I saw some people who are so careful that they would buy a HW even if they don't have more that $1K in their balance.

[Dr.Bitcoin_Strange]

Is 20 years prison sentence even enough for someone that committed such a crime, maybe it's enough if he can also return all those stolen Bitcoin to the victim. I just have this suggestion that any time these set of scammers is being caught, they should be made to return all those stolen Bitcoin to the victim or risk serving a lifetime prison sentence.  I think this could make other scammers to be afraid when they think of being caught if they commit such crime.

[Awaklara]

Even if it is 20 years, what about the losses suffered by the victims? That is really a large amount. It's just that, how could people be so careless as to give account access to others? I mean, if it was a small investment, it still makes sense that the investor might not have much knowledge to secure their wallet. But it is a large investment, I just think that wealthy people like that would also have a better understanding.

[Renampun]

snip
Today he pleaded guilty, and now he faces up to twenty years in prison.

Twenty years in prison might actually be such a light sentence for this kid, because considering the huge damage he caused, I think he should have gotten more than that.

But yeah, this is another lesson for us not to trust anyone with our assets.. even though the victim was wrong for storing the passphrase in the cloud, the real mistake from the start was trusting other people with his assets and letting them access his cloud without any suspicion at all.. if only he didn't trust other people to access his cloud which has sensitive data, maybe this wouldn't have happened.

[uchegod-21]

I'm kind of confused about why he had his Bitcoin stored on Google Drive. How and why would anyone store the keys to such a large amount of Bitcoin on Google Drive? Honestly, I feel the victim was partly responsible for what happened because it was unreasonable to keep such sensitive information that way.I don't understand why it's so difficult for people to simply write down their keys on paper and store them somewhere safe. He could have also bought a hardware wallet and kept his coins completely offline. Instead, he left the keys on his Google Drive, on a PC that he regularly uses online. It's really unfortunate, but I can't feel too sorry for him. Sometimes, people have to learn the hard way so they don't make the same mistakes again.

I really don’t like victim blaming, but when you have that much bitcoin in your wallets you have to be extremely cautious. It beats me how someone accumulated so much money and yet isn’t bothered to learn how to protect their assets. While it’s true that people shouldn’t store their seed pages online, I don’t think storing their seed phase offline wouldn’t have stopped the scammers. They would have found some way to trick him into exposing his seed phrase - probably tell him his wallet has been compromised and they want him to connect his wallet to a website.

They would have still found other means to trick him into exposing his seedphrase..? If they could succeed in making him do such a thing, then it just goes further to prove how careless he is towards the security of his bitcoins. Having his seedphrase on his Google drive which can be easily accessed by anyone who gets hold of it tells alot about him already.

Using myself as an example, I can't think of any reason that will make me expose my seedphrase to anyone; no matter the urgency or emergency. I am very conscious of my activities online and  that will make it difficult for me to let my bitcoins get exposed.

It is good that the criminals were caught, but the victim should learn from this experience and make sure that he stores his seeds properly. He lacks proper knowledge of wallet security, he can do better in that aspect

[Faisal2202]

Malone Lam, a 22-year-old from Singapore, pleaded guilty to stealing $245 million worth of Bitcoin from a Washington resident. The incident occurred two years ago: his accomplices, posing as employees of Google and Gemini, tricked the victim into granting access to their Google Drive and stole 4,100 Bitcoin.
Lam then laundered the stolen funds, spending millions in a single month on thirty sports cars, mansions, and nightclubs.
Today he pleaded guilty, and now he faces up to twenty years in prison.

Saw the news on another forum. I just have one question. How can these people sleep at night? After causing so much trouble to someone who has trust issues. Yes, I will say trust issues because he trusted these two people who were impersonating, but it is also not only the victim's mistake. Anyone could fall for it. Just be careful when you are holding a fortune like this.

A victim had stored data on Google Drive, which they accessed first. Then they found out that the target was holding a huge sum of coins on the Gemini exchange, so one of the scammers impersonated a Gemini representative, and they fooled him into installing AnyDesk. This is exactly where an idiot would understand something is phishing if the previous signals were not enough. But it was their day and not a good day for the victim. He installed AnyDesk. These scammers did not hack or anything. They took the keys right in front of the holder and he was just watching?

This is the stupidest thing. The victim had no sense of survival, but I won't blame him alone. He got justice, though.

[Marykeller]

Malone Lam, a 22-year-old from Singapore, pleaded guilty to stealing $245 million worth of Bitcoin from a Washington resident. The incident occurred two years ago: his accomplices, posing as employees of Google and Gemini, tricked the victim into granting access to their Google Drive and stole 4,100 Bitcoin.
Lam then laundered the stolen funds, spending millions in a single month on thirty sports cars, mansions, and nightclubs.
Today he pleaded guilty, and now he faces up to twenty years in prison.
snip

What a foolish way to get arrested. Why would he spend millions of dollars in a single month ?
Looks like he knew all along that he will get arrested soon and thought to spend the money lavishly while it lasts.
So many watches and sports cars for what ? Not as if he was gonna drive all of them daily.

Any money someone didn't work hard for, expect them to spend it lavishly within a short time. That's a habit you will find in many people: they don't make good use of the huge funds in their hands.

For his arrest, he brought it on himself by spending lavishly when you are a young guy and not many people know your source of income. That alone can draw attention for the government to put an eye on you, to know your source of income, what makes you spend the money you spend all the time

[Die_empty]

What a foolish way to get arrested. Why would he spend millions of dollars in a single month ?
Looks like he knew all along that he will get arrested soon and thought to spend the money lavishly while it lasts.
So many watches and sports cars for what ? Not as if he was gonna drive all of them daily.

Buying a $2 million watch and more than 30 cars, including expensive brands such as Lamborghinis, Porsches, and Ferraris, might be an indication that he wanted to enjoy the money before he is caught. Some of these criminals might also be dumb enough not to know that a spending spree could easily implicate them

Is 20 years prison sentence even enough for someone that committed such a crime, maybe it's enough if he can also return all those stolen Bitcoin to the victim. I just have this suggestion that any time these set of scammers is being caught, they should be made to return all those stolen Bitcoin to the victim or risk serving a lifetime prison sentence.  I think this could make other scammers to be afraid when they think of being caught if they commit such crime.

Some amount can be recovered if some of the items or assets they buy are traced, confiscated, and sold. In most cases, it is not possible for these criminals to refund the amount they have wasted on luxury. In this case, the scammer spent $569,000 in one evening at one Los Angeles club. Even if he works all through his life, he might not be able to repay what he spent.

[Hazink]

$245M was stolen only to end up being spent on night and luxury cars, with $500k+ spent in a night in one nightclub, these dudes are insane, and the sentence is too lenient for the crime they have committed, good thing he purchased and acquired expensive properties which can be exchanged for cash and some money recovered for the victim.

In the past, many wallets and web services offered to store your phrase on Google Drive: Blockchain.com, Jaxx... I remember very well how Trust Wallet used to do this. As you know, none of them do that anymore.

I don't know about Jaxx wallet, but I can tell you for free that both trust wallet and blockchain.com wallet still allow the cloud storage backup with the blockchain option even being the worst, as it enables the backup by default once you download and create your wallet with the app.

[boyptc]

spending millions in a single month on thirty sports cars, mansions, and nightclubs.

I think this is how he got noticed by the authorities.

I remember that fraud guy also who has stole a lot of bitcoins, spent the same thing in parties, girls, luxuries, etc.

The authorities are keeping an eye for those who have became active all of a sudden into doing these things.

There's still also those people who keeps on keeping their important things on a google drive even if they shouldn't.

$245 was stolen only to end up being spent on night and luxury cars, with $500k+ spent in a night in one nightclub, these dudes are insane, and the sentence is too lenient for the crime they have committed, good thing he purchased and acquired expensive properties which can be exchanged for cash and some money recovered for the victim.

You forgot the M.