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

[HustleZ]

[…]

Well this shows that any mishap regarding our bitcoins will entirely be our fault and it cant be stolen or extracted from the system itself, if that person didn’t give credentials he wouldn’t have lost that bitcoins. Many people that aren’t educated about bitcoin will be mislead by FUD makers that this happened only because it was bitcoin and it has security flaws blah blah, but the real reason is that this was done because the person holding those coins was not well informed baout what was going to happen

[Cryptomultiplier]

This story stress on why most Bitcoin theft by scammers is majorly just a psychological game that the owners lost to or fell victim to.
These kind of story never ends and if it's not a hack today, it's a scam tomorrow or an exploited bug the next day, all being geared towards stealing Bitcoin because of its value and because it isn't as heavy as gold, it can easily be hidden away or sent offshore to be swapped to other currency and then spent.

I see sometimes why CEX exist and why AML policies and kYC requirements are important because of such miscreants that just don't know how to be diligent and earn the right way to live the kind of life they want.
Justice will always be served to offenders and criminals but in this case, I fear the sentence isn't long enough even though I know his possessions would be confiscated and now a property of the U.S Treasury or refunded to the victims.

[sokani]

25 months in jail is approximately two years in prison. That's a slap on the wrist, IMO. How would this serve as a deterrent? That's why I like Turkey when it comes to administering punishment to crypto criminals or scammers. For a crime like this, he would get a stiff punishment that's enough to put off others who want to follow the same path.

[Davidvictorson]

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.

The last statement in the title is the most important.
Scammers, fraudsters, hackers, and any other individual or group involved in illegal activities will eventually be caught. They may seem successful in the short terms with the wine, women, and luxury living. It is only a matter of time. They are living on borrowed time.
This young dude who should have channeled his intelligence into something legal, chose to go the wrong direction and now has his name in wrong history books.

[Shinpako09]

He is smart to be able to steal a total of 185 BTC but also stupid for sharing it openly. Sharing it even in a private group or channel is the same as confessing it in public. But just like others, I'm also surprised by the sentence. For such an amount, he is only sentenced to 25 months in prison. With all the fraud he did and the fact that he had enjoyed most of the funds he stole, it only cost him 25 months in prison. I feel like the sentence is too light for such an amount. Shouldn't it have been longer?

[serjent05]

Oh well, that's how stealing money is, you brag about it and so sooner or later you will be in the radar and the long hands of the justice are going to caught up wit you with. Just too bad that youth of today are really very different as compare to our generation.

In any case, good riddance to him. But only 25 months in jail is just like a slap on the wrist for this people. They should have getting harsher punishment.

Yeah, the person should get a harsher punishment. The punishment should be more than that, besides the person commits multiple counts of fraud and accumulated a huge amount of stolen BTC .  The court should have sentenced the person to at least 5 years if there is leniency.  The way it was decided, it felt like the court had been bought.

This is also the reason why scammers are getting bold, the court doesn't give them the right punishment as long as the offenders have money to pay.

He is smart to be able to steal a total of 185 BTC but also stupid for sharing it openly. Sharing it even in a private group or channel is the same as confessing it in public. But just like others, I'm also surprised by the sentence. For such an amount, he is only sentenced to 25 months in prison. With all the fraud he did and the fact that he had enjoyed most of the funds he stole, it only cost him 25 months in prison. I feel like the sentence is too light for such an amount. Shouldn't it have been longer?

I do not think smart is the right term to call the guy i, wicked would be more appropriate.  Cunning is also a good term, but I do not think the guy is cunning because he got himself busted.

[LGD2Business]

If he only got 25 month sentence, that's great. He'll be free in 2 years. If he's managed to stash away some of the BTC he stole, he can keep living the high life. So it seems that if these scammers didn't brag about what they stole, they'd be able to go on with their lives without getting caught.
These are the ones who got caught, but who knows how many other scammers who keeps low profile are out there? You do the math.

[Versatile_choice]

How come the companies that sold him the lambourginis and private jets didn't do anything to verify his source of income? He's too young to afford these without a verifiable source of income. I think the management of those companies should be brought in for some questioning.

It feels like some companies don't care the source in which their customers is getting money from considering their age, the only thing they are more concern about is the fact that their business is moving. But it's very wrong, I know they are looking for buyers but still I feel it's necessary for them to do some background checkup or make some assessment to see if the money is coming from a genuine source or from illegal source.

Somehow you don't have to blame them because with the way youth of this days are behaving it's really So weird they don't longer show regards to elders, they could pick a fight with you if you ask them such question or even bully you that is why some companies don't like asking.

[Aliciaworld]

I can't help but wonder if the anonymity of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency as a whole is more a curse than a blessing.

Had he not been so careless he may have gotten away with it since those transactions can not be traced the same way a wire transfer can

[KingsDen]

He is smart to be able to steal a total of 185 BTC but also stupid for sharing it openly. Sharing it even in a private group or channel is the same as confessing it in public. But just like others, I'm also surprised by the sentence. For such an amount, he is only sentenced to 25 months in prison. With all the fraud he did and the fact that he had enjoyed most of the funds he stole, it only cost him 25 months in prison. I feel like the sentence is too light for such an amount. Shouldn't it have been longer?

There's a difference between being smart and being matured. He is a smart guy but was overwhelmed by the youthful exuberance. I don't know why almost all the youths of nowadays are caught in this web. When I was in my twenties, nothing moves me and no peer pressure pushes me to act the way I don't intend.  Well things are very different in this Gen Z generation.

Talking about the duration of sentence, I thought it was 25 years, not until I read your comment and reconfirm that it's just 2 years sentence. The punishment is just light... He is indeed a lucky dude.

[Renampun]

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.

That's really like the behavior of someone in their 20s.. That arrogance and feeling like he's on top of the world.. But there's a limit to that and reality hits him so fast.. I even feel that the punishment was too light.. he should have gotten a harsher punishment so he realizes what he did.

This also serves as a lesson for us that anyone can become a scammer nowadays, so it's important for us to secure our assets properly and not trust just anyone.

[LogitechMouse]

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.

Moral lesson? Don't brag your "success" to different people especially on online where you don't even know the identity of the members out there.

How about the BTC that he stole? Did they manage to retrieve it? I mean 25 months in prison on that age is just a small amount and if they can't retrieve it then he'll be laughing in the jail because 25 months? That's very lenient if you will ask me. He expects to be in jail for years or maybe a decade for stealing that amount of BTC.

He’s still very young, but he’s already bold enough to commit a crime like that, it even seems as though what he did was very well planned.

Age don't matter that much anymore at this moment. If you're capable of doing it, as long as you have the skills to do it, you can do it that's why don't be surprised if at one point, you'll see a teenager who's capable of hacking already.

[Italian Panic]

Same stupidity and youthful exuberance that gets most of them caught. They always have no other plan apart from living lavishly.
How come the companies that sold him the lambourginis and private jets didn't do anything to verify his source of income? He's too young to afford these without a verifiable source of income. I think the management of those companies should be brought in for some questioning.

You use the right words: stupidity and youthful exuberance. Over the last few months, the web has been absolutely swamped with young people who want to pose as hackers but don’t know the basics required to do so because instead of learning gradually they rely solely on systems that do the clean work whilst they do the dirty work, only to end up facing the law. Very often for these attacks or scams they use Windows systems which are therefore heavily monitored and they don’t even know that Linux exists. Examples of this include the arrests of members of Scattered Spider and other youth groups.

[Bitcoin.com97]

Stolen money has a force , imagine the kind of luxurious lifestyle a 20years old is living,since it is not the money he worked hard for ,spending it anyhow is the best he can , this is what land hushpuppy in prison too ,youth exuberance and the funny part is they feel they can't be caught or they can buy the law enforcement.

Scamming people of there hard earn money and throwing it around on social media making genuine hustlers think less of themself ,why bragging when the source is not genuine it will definitely land you in trouble.sometime I wonder the kind of lifestyle the youth enjoy,how and where they got it from .

[Patikno]

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.

There are countless scams using the same method, the Malone Lam case being the most famous. Maybe, this method seems outdated, or has long been known to the public. However, that doesn't mean these cases have stopped. Many scammers still use the same method, and you can see several well-known YouTube channels trying to catch them, such as the channel of Scammer Payback.

Therefore, we should all learn valuable lessons from these cases; to be cautious, and skeptical about any information you find, don't be easily fooled, and always be aware that scammers will try to deceive you in any way.

[Obari]

Life doesn't teach these guys anything.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5593660.msg67127586#msg67127586

Life doesn't teach them at all because they see life from a totally different perspective and for these very scammer, I think he most have stolen so much that he already has so much confidence in himself and 25 months of sentencing is trash for someone who steals from others and openly brags about it.
I'm sure when this very boy is out from the prison, he would also do more am I also remember a case of a popular Nigerian scammer by nickname, Hushpuppy who even after been sentenced, still pulled another heavy scam amount while in prison(all still rumors to me because I never verified the information) but if that was true, it's a show that, these scammers don't have plans of changing.

[coupable]

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.

Let's confess it, he has a talent, but he has abused it in the wrong way. I don't think two years and a month is a fair sentence for a teenager at his age. I might suggest more years in community service would be more appropriate, but never a jail. He looks immature because he went on a spending spree and drew attention to himself. The court should consider his naivety and the punishment can be much reasonnable that destroying his talents in years in prison with criminals.

[BlackBoss_]

Let's confess it, he has a talent, but he has abused it in the wrong way. I don't think two years and a month is a fair sentence for a teenager at his age. I might suggest more years in community service would be more appropriate, but never a jail. He looks immature because he went on a spending spree and drew attention to himself. The court should consider his naivety and the punishment can be much reasonnable that destroying his talents in years in prison with criminals.

People have their ability, even talent to different things but some people chose to go with a wrong and immoral way. They could succeed to exploit something, got some money even a fortune but their life after that won't become easy. Many hackers were identified, even arrested and imprisoned many years after hacks so it's general advice that if people have talent, let's try to use it a right way. It's better for their own life, for society and for their future too.

I don't know how that guy is deserved to be considered as naive, I really don't think so.

[Oasisman]

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.

He must be high or drunk that time, as he got overwhelmed by the amount he stole.
It's always been the young scammers and hackers that they get themselves eventually get caught, because they're too dumb and overjoyed to keep it themselves.

I hope people would learn how to validate the calls and emails they received from the scammers, so people like this won't multiply like a disease in our community. The more people fall for the same old scamming techniques, the more scammers are thrilled to make more attempts.

[Haunebu]

Read about this a little while earlier and it's just your usual story about a dumb person who got lucky and unlucky simultaneously in a certain period of time. Johnston probably researched the victim thoroughly along with his accomplice before screwing him.

He and his accomplice blew through majority of it and handed over less than half of the funds back to the cops. Just a couple of years in prison and deportation to Canada is light punishment for these turds if you ask me.