A 20-year-old Canadian stole 185 BTC. He is in prison now.

[Hypnotizer]

Biggest lesson: Never share your seed phrase or private keys with anyone, no matter who they claim to be. And if you’re out here flexing stolen money online, the internet keeps receipts. Those posts, screenshots, and car photos don’t disappear. They just sit there waiting for someone to connect the dots.

This is a general knowledge and I still wonder why people still fall for social engineering scams like this.. like how do this scammers manage to trick someone with that much stash to give access to his wallet.

As for the scammer, according to the article turns out he has been scamming cryptocurrency holders since when he was 17 before moving to Miami to spend the proceeds..

I wonder how he managed to cash out 185 Bitcoins without raising any suspicions, and how he succeeded in depositing that sum into his bank account without it being frozen given that it is generally difficult to use Bitcoin to fund a luxurious lifestyle?
Stories like these are hard to believe, unless they are part of a money-laundering network.

He didn’t directly cashout the 185 bitcoins to his bank account.. he laundered the money by using some other means like mixers then he partnered with a Miami-based car dealer to launder the proceeds into luxury stuffs like the Lamborghini and the other things he bought..

Read more here: https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/trenton-johnston-crypto-fraud-9.7229075

[Japinat]

I am surprised that he was sentenced to only 25 months in prison.

He was sentenced in the US, and under US law (18 U.S.C. § 1956), money laundering conspiracy can carry up to 20 years in prison. So probably the reason his sentence was reduced is because he was cooperative, he surrendered approximately $3.8 million worth of stolen cryptocurrency, including Bitcoin and Ethereum, after his arrest.and the wire fraud charges were reportedly dropped.

[Dunamisx]

He lived lavishly after stealing these Bitcoins, but was caught and sentenced to 25 months in prison.
Trenton Johnston posed as a Google support employee, tricked people into accessing crypto wallets, and spent the proceeds on Lamborghinis, private jets, and parties in Miami, jewelry.

What a hilarious story, that is young age is controlling millions and yet couldn't afford to lay hold on doing any legit thing despite his experience and acquire skills that makes him to perform illegal activities, what disorganized personality and this is so pathetic that he was wrongly oriented, people like this should have strong desire to working with their hands to earn a living and not to be scamming others with their abilities, the society need people like this to grow up the technology industries and not for police to be reading over them to arrest them, obviously this is the end of any one that does not yielded to living a positive lifestyle than to scam.

[cryptomaniac_xxx]

I am surprised that he was sentenced to only 25 months in prison.

He was sentenced in the US, and under US law (18 U.S.C. § 1956), money laundering conspiracy can carry up to 20 years in prison. So probably the reason his sentence was reduced is because he was cooperative, he surrendered approximately $3.8 million worth of stolen cryptocurrency, including Bitcoin and Ethereum, after his arrest.and the wire fraud charges were reportedly dropped.

And that's what US Justice system for you. But if this is in some other countries, regardless if he is 20 years old or 60 years old, he will get the max sentence even if you cooperate with the prosecution and give back some money.

For sure some of us are thinking that after this sentence, this kid might go back to his old self of doing crimes but this time, he might be careful and could be looking for more money. Maybe it's just me, but he might be thinking as well that he can go back to it and not go to the jail for a long time. And if chances are that he is not caught, then he can live lavishly with occasionally purchase here and there to be under the radar.

[Shadiq]

A story came to mind, "The position of the mouse that steals diamonds is always on the hill, so it is very easy for the hunter to identify him even in a herd of mice."

This stupid fraudster was like a mouse sitting on the hill, who stole 185 BTC and separated himself from ordinary people, started living a luxurious life and started attracting the attention of the administration. If that mouse and this fraudster could have thought themselves ordinary and mixed with ordinary people, then it would have been very difficult for the hunter or the administration to identify him.

I think that stupid fraudster should have been punished more severely, a person who can commit such a big fraud at a young age is very risky for people if he continues to roam under the open sky. Maybe in the future he will get involved in bigger frauds.

[Japinat]

I am surprised that he was sentenced to only 25 months in prison.

He was sentenced in the US, and under US law (18 U.S.C. § 1956), money laundering conspiracy can carry up to 20 years in prison. So probably the reason his sentence was reduced is because he was cooperative, he surrendered approximately $3.8 million worth of stolen cryptocurrency, including Bitcoin and Ethereum, after his arrest.and the wire fraud charges were reportedly dropped.

And that's what US Justice system for you. But if this is in some other countries, regardless if he is 20 years old or 60 years old, he will get the max sentence even if you cooperate with the prosecution and give back some money.

For sure some of us are thinking that after this sentence, this kid might go back to his old self of doing crimes but this time, he might be careful and could be looking for more money. Maybe it's just me, but he might be thinking as well that he can go back to it and not go to the jail for a long time. And if chances are that he is not caught, then he can live lavishly with occasionally purchase here and there to be under the radar.

I think his sentence will still likely be reduced since he cooperated but we don't know if it will be as short as 25 months. In this case, he started when he was still 17 if I'm not mistaken, so it's probably one factor the judge considered since he was not really a professional criminal, but I believe the main reason for the reduced sentence is his cooperation.

[Lontor]

These are tips of the iceberg because there are so many youths in the world today that are doing the same thing and they are not caught yet, there is also a chance that they might never get caught too.

I said they might never get caught because there are just too many of them, living on the money they stole from someone who worked so hard for it, if I have to become a criminal I would rather target other criminals like me and steal from them.

Or steal from people who can never know what it hit because they just have too much money, instead these bastards decide to hunt people who have decided to store their life savings in Bitcoin.

[Dr.Bitcoin_Strange]

Trenton Johnston posed as a Google support employee, tricked people into accessing crypto wallets, and spent the proceeds

According to the report, he did not only pretend to be a Google support agent but also pretended to be a Trezor representative and he called this victim that lost 185 Bitcoin on phone. For the phone call to be possible, it means the victims private information must have leaked through any of the platforms that he is using. That's the danger of KYC, you might think that because a company is reputable, that your information is safe with them meanwhile it's possible that your information could still leak through them.

Stories like these are hard to believe, unless they are part of a money-laundering network.

You are right, based on what I read, he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering and the prosecutors said he also assisted in the investigation that involved other people, which I think could be other people in the laundring network.

[knowngunman]

Is this a joke? 25 months for stealing 185 BTC? 

Something that worth almost $15m at today's price and they serve him just 2 years? No wonder we continue to see things like this very often because the punishment is not severe at all. If the punishment is not severe, then they will be encouraged to steal because tell me how you expect people to stop stealing when they know they can get millions in profit and few years in punishment. Seriously, the law needs to be strict for crypto crimes otherwise, this will continue for a long time.

Hopefully his victims get their coins back.

I wish he was just keeping the coin before being caught but from the story, he'd spent a large part of it if not all. No way they're getting those coins back.

[Supreme Donvic]

One thing about this scammers especially the young ones whenever the steal huge amount of money they spend it anyhow they want without thinking that they may actually blow their cover, they usually bring attention to themselves and make it very easy for the authorities to arrest them. I love the fact that they are making things very easy for the police, and thank God they are not smart to hide themselves.

[Maslate]

One thing about this scammers especially the young ones whenever the steal huge amount of money they spend it anyhow they want without thinking that they may actually blow their cover, they usually bring attention to themselves and make it very easy for the authorities to arrest them. I love the fact that they are making things very easy for the police, and thank God they are not smart to hide themselves.

He is an immature scammer, he only know one thing, how to steal but they don't know how to hide their identity.

Good thing he was caught and some cryptocurrencies and other properties were recovered, somehow these will help compensate the victims even if they are not enough to cover all the losses, so he is lucky to get only 2 years and 1 month in jail, hopefully he will reflect on his mistakes and change his life. Also that gives the government another problem to solve as he is not the only one doing this kind of scam, and the number of victims of similar scams continues to increase despite crypto becoming more popular and already being regulated.

[noorman0]

I wonder how he managed to cash out 185 Bitcoins without raising any suspicions, and how he succeeded in depositing that sum into his bank account without it being frozen given that it is generally difficult to use Bitcoin to fund a luxurious lifestyle?
Stories like these are hard to believe, unless they are part of a money-laundering network.

This case involves other actors who are said to be accomplices. In other news, this young man's accomplice owns an exotic car dealership that I think is a big enough business to launder millions of dollars. Collectible and expensive items as they often serve that purpose.

[Nothingtodo]

It is very surprising that he did not understand how he spent this money by selling so many bitcoins at a young age. He thought he was very clever but in reality he is not that clever because those who steal bitcoins like this will never come out in public and reveal themselves. But this young man is so stupid that he comes to Discord and tells everyone about the stolen money and the methods of stealing. And he boasts about his diverse lifestyle. That is why the police came to his attention and the police arrested him and revealed the real story to the public so that no one can do such stupid things like him in the future.

[Taskford]

I wonder how he managed to cash out 185 Bitcoins without raising any suspicions, and how he succeeded in depositing that sum into his bank account without it being frozen given that it is generally difficult to use Bitcoin to fund a luxurious lifestyle?
Stories like these are hard to believe, unless they are part of a money-laundering network.

I've read lots of articles about this topic and it seems, there's someone helping them to set up their p2p transaction and their purchase of those luxury items.

According to a statement (new window) issued last month by the U.S. Attorney's Office in Miami, Johnston's co-conspirator Brandon Michael Tardibone provided him with lodging at a luxury Miami-area residence in an effort to evade immigration authorities.

What's more, Tardibone, a local exotic car dealer, also assisted Johnston in buying a high-powered Lamborghini Aventador SVJ, two BMWs and jewelry, and even renting a private jet.

A page-long list of transactions facilitated by Tardibone are included in Johnston's plea agreement, ranging from car rentals in Los Angeles to plane tickets for two girls from New York. The expenses totaled $1.19 million US over a three-month span this year.

I read this information in this site https://ici.radio-canada.ca/rci/en/news/2260592/canadian-who-stole-13m-us-in-crypto-bought-lamborghini-bmws-plea-deal

But I also believe, they split those funds on multiple wallets to safekeep their stolen funds and maybe to avoid possible detection to.

[Sobz]

He lived lavishly after stealing these Bitcoins, but was caught and sentenced to 25 months in prison.
Trenton Johnston posed as a Google support employee, tricked people into accessing crypto wallets, and spent the proceeds on Lamborghinis, private jets, and parties in Miami, jewelry.
The scammer became so emboldened that he openly bragged about his schemes on Discord and came to the attention of the police after his luxury Rolls-Royce was pulled over.

What has him being a Google support employee has to do with people allowing him to have access to their wallet? I dont blame him but I blame the victim who are so ignorant imposing himself as Google support employee, maybe he might have lure this victim to get their Google account which contains some important information or he may have had access to the device of the victims but no matter how he managed to gained access,  people needs to undefeated privacy and never to let anyone to have access to their wallet or even their devices. People will always take advantage no matter who they claim to be.

[Yamifoud]

One thing about this scammers especially the young ones whenever the steal huge amount of money they spend it anyhow they want without thinking that they may actually blow their cover, they usually bring attention to themselves and make it very easy for the authorities to arrest them. I love the fact that they are making things very easy for the police, and thank God they are not smart to hide themselves.

He is an immature scammer, he only know one thing, how to steal but they don't know how to hide their identity.

Good thing he was caught and some cryptocurrencies and other properties were recovered, somehow these will help compensate the victims even if they are not enough to cover all the losses, so he is lucky to get only 2 years and 1 month in jail, hopefully he will reflect on his mistakes and change his life. Also that gives the government another problem to solve as he is not the only one doing this kind of scam, and the number of victims of similar scams continues to increase despite crypto becoming more popular and already being regulated.

That is because nobody taught him to hide and keep secrets. What is in his mind is to enjoy the BTC and have a luxurious experience. But if this guy, accompanied by veterans and experienced scammers, even after spending years searching, authorities can't find him.

They'd be lucky that is the only thing he got. But the punishment is light enough for him to change. After finding that it was easy to scam people, he will do it again once free.

One thing we can do to secure our BTC is not to give trust easily to other people.

[davis196]

Trenton Johnston posed as a Google support employee, tricked people into accessing crypto wallets, and spent the proceeds on Lamborghinis, private jets, and parties in Miami, jewelry.

1.Does Google even have customer support? I have never in my life contacted Google's customer support(and I never will).
2.Who the hell would allow a customer support representative to access his/her cryptocurrency wallet? The OG crypto users must have gathered enough experience throughout the last 10 years, when in comes to dealing with various crypto scams. This case reminds me of the Indian "tech support" scammers, who are scamming elderly people in the US. Perhaps this guy had manipulated and scammed a bunch of elderly people, who got recently into crypto. He is too young and dumb. He should've known that easy money(obtained via scamming and stealing) usually come at a very high cost.

[SeriouslyGiveaway]

1.Does Google even have customer support? I have never in my life contacted Google's customer support(and I never will).

They have as if you have an old email account that is going to be deleted by Google, they will announce you, and have information for support. I guess they actually have customer support but honestly I have never contacted them.

2.Who the hell would allow a customer support representative to access his/her cryptocurrency wallet? The OG crypto users must have gathered enough experience throughout the last 10 years, when in comes to dealing with various crypto scams. This case reminds me of the Indian "tech support" scammers, who are scamming elderly people in the US.

It's very basic scam and if people prepare their knowledge well, they won't be scammed.

Cryptocurrency scam book.

fake customer support: this is mostly happening on Reddit and Twitter, but it could happen on all social media sites. Scammers would target people who had made a post concerning issue(s) with certain services(Binance, Ledger Nano S/X hardware wallet, etc) by messaging them and sending them a link to a phishing site or a download link of fraudulent software.

[FirmWars]

It is very surprising that he did not understand how he spent this money by selling so many bitcoins at a young age. He thought he was very clever but in reality he is not that clever because those who steal bitcoins like this will never come out in public and reveal themselves.

He disclosed on Discord the method he was using to scam people, he was living a luxury lifestyle, investigators found a message on his phone where he said “We actually smacked a 185btc target today,”  whether he was clever or not, one of those things I mention would have still set him up but in this case, it was the luxury lifestyle he was showcasing that dragged attention to him.

it's not everyone that stole Bitcoin like that, that are able to hide without showing off luxury lifestyle to intermediate others. An example is James Zhong  who stole more than 50,000 Bitcoin from Silk Road, although he was not suspected until 10 years later, but his luxury lifestyle display was what still sold him out and brought attention to him. So, some of the people that steals huge amount of money are not usually clever to stay unnoticed without wanting to show off.
The case of this 20 years old teenager, he started scamming when he was 17 and have stolen a lot of money since then till now, this 185 BTC is not just the only huge amount he stole, maybe he have stayed calm for 2 years and cold not hold himself down from showing off.

[PVequalNRT]

And that's what US Justice system for you. But if this is in some other countries, regardless if he is 20 years old or 60 years old, he will get the max sentence even if you cooperate with the prosecution and give back some money.

For sure some of us are thinking that after this sentence, this kid might go back to his old self of doing crimes but this time, he might be careful and could be looking for more money. Maybe it's just me, but he might be thinking as well that he can go back to it and not go to the jail for a long time. And if chances are that he is not caught, then he can live lavishly with occasionally purchase here and there to be under the radar.

I think that even if you are in the US and you don't have good lawyer that will fight for you, there is high chance of you going to jail and you will do more years. If you are in any country, there is a constitutional law that guide everyone and as far as lawyers are concerned, they are going to do that Job accurately and make sure that you get light sentence as possible or even avoid going to jail.

Do you know why criminals don't do jail and sometimes get lesser times, it's because they have money to hire lawyers with win track records. It's the people that do less crime that doesn't even have money to higher experienced lawyers and the ones that has won case that often do more time in jail.