Two guys are chasing a Bitcoin thief

[MeandMissNoob]

Hi,

I was reading an interesting article, most of you probably already know the story. But I wanted to share it anyway 


http://bitforum.org/two-guys-on-reddit-are-chasing-a-thief-who-has-220-million-in-bitcoins/

Who's going to win the battle?!

[medUSA]

I haven't heard of the story before, interesting read, thanks!

I think the thief should start sending small amounts to random active addresses, even member addresses found on this forum. That will make the number of address to monitor explode exponentially.

[vnvizow]

I haven't heard of the story before, interesting read, thanks!

I think the thief should start sending small amounts to random active addresses, even member addresses found on this forum. That will make the number of address to monitor explode exponentially.

And why in the world would the thief do that?

[Soros Shorts]

I haven't heard of the story before, interesting read, thanks!

I think the thief should start sending small amounts to random active addresses, even member addresses found on this forum. That will make the number of address to monitor explode exponentially.

And why in the world would the thief do that?

To bankrupt or confuse the pursuers? After all, they can't keep sending and monitoring those 0.00666 BTC tracer transactions to every active wallet.

[BitCoinDream]

A french man cheated all of us in front of our nose, where we could not do anything and you expect to catch some anonymous thief ?

[medUSA]

And why in the world would the thief do that?

So he will have a higher chance of slipping some of the stolen coins through the surveillance into his real pocket. It is obvious that holding onto the bulk of the stolen coins makes it impossible to spend.

To bankrupt or confuse the pursuers

Exactly my point

[MeandMissNoob]

I think the thief should start sending small amounts to random active addresses,

Well it also crossed my mind. If he knows he can not run and he probably can not give it back because they will hunt for him anyway. Maybe give it away in small portions to all of us?!

It would make him the most generous thief ever.

[crazy_rabbit]

I haven't heard of the story before, interesting read, thanks!

I think the thief should start sending small amounts to random active addresses, even member addresses found on this forum. That will make the number of address to monitor explode exponentially.

And why in the world would the thief do that?

It's better for the thief to wake up 20 years from now with 1 billion dollars and their head intact, rather then 10 billion dollars and their head on a pike somewhere.

But then again, some people like to take their chances.

That said- tracking them will be childs play once google gets into the blockchain analysis game.

[gentlemand]

If I remember rightly, this story was a while ago, it turned out that the detectives had used their super sleuthing skills to track down, er, BTC-e's wallet.

[Soros Shorts]

That said- tracking them will be childs play once google gets into the blockchain analysis game.

This Google tracking is annoying. To foil Google, I think I will generate for myself N wallet addresses, where N is greater than the number of atoms in the Milky Way. Or should that be the number of ergs in the Solar System?

[franky1]

i laugh at these "trackers".

spending all their lives looking at blockexplorer.com thinking it will reveal the persons real life home address.

while the thief can make 20 usernames on 10 different exchanges. (200 accounts)

then
1. deposit 100 bitcoins
2. then go into profile settings of account and generate a new address.
3. repeat 1 & 2. four more times to  get 500btc into one account.
4. buy litecoin and withdraw to a litecoin address.

5. go to next account and repeat 1-4

now the "trackers" are seeing bitcoin is being moved, they see 100btc go to an address, and then get split up again. they think its the theif splitting it up, yet the reality if splits below 100btc are other people withdrawing from the exchange mixer.

so the "trackers" are watching all these very small bitcoin transactions, whilst the theif is now playing with litecoins and moving them to an exchange where he can cash out.

there are other coins such as 21coin 42coin 66coin, where their values are of multiple bitcoin. meaning that exchanges wont see as much of a alt coin grab event compared to grabbing thousands of litecoin.

[Fatpony]

From when is this article? 99,000 = $100mill? Even if they find thief what are they going to do to him, call the police on him? You can't do nothing to the person who stole your BTCs

[byt411]

From when is this article? 99,000 = $100mill? Even if they find thief what are they going to do to him, call the police on him? You can't do nothing to the person who stole your BTCs

What the heck OP, this article is from December last year!!!
http://www.businessinsider.com/220-million-sheep-marketplace-bitcoin-theft-chase-2013-12

[franky1]

From when is this article? 99,000 = $100mill? Even if they find thief what are they going to do to him, call the police on him? You can't do nothing to the person who stole your BTCs

imagine it. a person goes to the police and says
person: "i was on a blackmarket and deposited bitcoins to buy drugs. and someone stole my coins"
police: "so you buy drugs from a drug dealer........ interesting, step into my office i have some questions for you"

[Fatpony]

From when is this article? 99,000 = $100mill? Even if they find thief what are they going to do to him, call the police on him? You can't do nothing to the person who stole your BTCs

imagine it. a person goes to the police and says
person: "i was on a blackmarket and deposited bitcoins to buy drugs. and someone stole my coins"
police: "so you buy drugs from a drug dealer........ interesting, step into my office i have some questions for you"

Brilliant Same thought about people that lost money on silkroad
Some SoB that sold drugs on his site stole my BTCs that I gave him for drugs and I never received them, I wanna sue him, or what ever.

And the prize " Idiot of the year " goes to < insert name >

[bryant.coleman]

Check this:



Just one of his wallets. That means that this is not his first robbery. Probably this was the guy behind the SR 1.0 robbery as well. BTW... the chase was abandoned 4 months ago:

http://www.reddit.com/r/SheepMarketplace/comments/1rvlft/i_just_chased_him_through_a_bitcoin_tumbler_and/

[j3steven]

From when is this article? 99,000 = $100mill? Even if they find thief what are they going to do to him, call the police on him? You can't do nothing to the person who stole your BTCs

imagine it. a person goes to the police and says
person: "i was on a blackmarket and deposited bitcoins to buy drugs. and someone stole my coins"
police: "so you buy drugs from a drug dealer........ interesting, step into my office i have some questions for you"

Didn't the US IRS decide that bitcoin was not currency and labeled it as property?  If that's true, in your scenario wouldn't they be able to go to the police and say "i was on an online market and deposited bitcoins, or property per the IRS, to buy whatever i want.  and someone stole my property."

Now, I completely understand that the police will do jack-squat (Chris Farley voice), but doesnt someone have a legitimate claim if BTC is stolen to claim it as stolen property? 

[yayayo]

Didn't know the story. Was surprised about the huge amount that was stolen. I always thought that sheepmarket was a minor operation compared to Silkroad.

Unfortunately I don't think the chase will be successful. There are too many options to hide tracks and the thief is unlikely to be an amateur. Sending BTC 0.00666 to every new address can quickly turn very expensive, too.

ya.ya.yo!

[roslinpl]

Hi,

I was reading an interesting article, most of you probably already know the story. But I wanted to share it anyway 


http://bitforum.org/two-guys-on-reddit-are-chasing-a-thief-who-has-220-million-in-bitcoins/

Who's going to win the battle?!

thanks for sharing. Interesting story

Digital thieves, digital detectives 2014

[5flags]

The thief was not the smartest. He probably knows his script kiddy stuff, but he certainly didn't know his crypto-currencies. There were cast iron ways to pocket those coins without being chased through the block chain.