Has anyone that stole BTC have been caught, ever?

[CryptoPanda]

Nowadays It's modern to speak about how bitcoin is not really anonymous but after all those bitcoins heists, hacks and what not, has anyone been actually caught, ever?

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[Lethn]

Yes, I've seen stories about people getting their money back after a hacker has taken it back for them and there are people here who specialise in that kind of thing if you give them a share of the loot, the problem is the media either don't know anything about it because they're stupid or the hackers that go after these big heists know how to cover their tracks.

"The art of war teaches us to rely not on the likelihood of the enemy's not coming, but on our own readiness to receive him; not on the chance of his not attacking, but rather on the fact that we have made our position unassailable." - Sun Tzu

[InwardContour]

There are some examples of caught hackers in this forum.
I'm almost sure to have read something about it recently here but at the moment can't find a link to the thread,
btw I'll update if I'll find something.

[ljudotina]

Yes. Sometimes hackers returned BTC under pressure of price that was on "their head" (for catching em, not killing or something like that). But i'm guessing those are very....very....very rare occasions. 99% of thefts go by without of any possibility of catching the thief.

[scryptasicminer]

Big scam which are originated from US can still be prosecuted.

So, if you intend to run a ponzi scheme, do it abroad.

[Beliathon]

Mark Karpeles. sort of...

[DjPxH]

The most amazing thing is that the guy who sent 800 BTC to Mt. Gox after it already went belly-up, got his money back. He wrote to some people at the Bitcoin foundation and also to the lawyers organizing Mt. Gox's insolvency, and he got them back! Fat chance!

[leex1528]

Didn't Klee get like 1100+ BTC stolen from his wallet and has already received over 550 back?  Sounds like the hacker is getting scared because people are finding out about him.

Anyway I can't imagine the authorities would even look kindly on hacking and thieving...since Bitcoin is considered property in the US, perhaps it would be theft still I am not sure how that works exactly.

[DjPxH]

Didn't Klee get like 1100+ BTC stolen from his wallet and has already received over 550 back?  Sounds like the hacker is getting scared because people are finding out about him.

Anyway I can't imagine the authorities would even look kindly on hacking and thieving...since Bitcoin is considered property in the US, perhaps it would be theft still I am not sure how that works exactly.

Um, I guess he just extorted Klee by asking him to promise he wouldn't go the legal route and just forget about the whole thing. In return he'd return some percentage of the BTC stolen. Klee agreed, I really don't know what I'd be doing in such a situation!  Poor guy!

[jonald_fyookball]

Mark Karpeles. sort of...

actually yes

Karpeles is like OJ.  we all know he's guilty...but he's evading justice.

although in the end OJ ended up in prison.  we can only hope justice
finds Karpeles too.

[DjPxH]

Mark Karpeles. sort of...

actually yes

Karpeles is like OJ.  we all know he's guilty...but he's evading justice.

although in the end OJ ended up in prison.  we can only hope justice
finds Karpeles too.

At least Karpeles didn't kill anyone! Oh wait, didn't some CEO kill herself because her BTC were on Mt. Gox? I wonder how many lives have been ruined by the downfall of Karpeles. Do we have any numbers?

[franky1]

apart from blackmailing your money back. karpeles and pirate@40 both got caught. but in both cases the victims WILL NOT get 100% return.,

once people start to realise that the best they can aim for is 50%, they can then realise that they can reclaim their funds legally.

the simplest and cheapest method is to get a debt collection agency in the town of the perpetrator involved, yes they take a fee, but atleast you know you will be getting atleast your 50% back, and doing it legally. even the threat of a debt collection agency annoying their real lives is enough to get some recompense from the scammer.

people will then stop waiting for months whining and moaning that the SEC wont help them or get involved, or that courts take too long or that its not worth the plane ticket to slap the scammer with a wet fish. and also people will start doing their due diligence of asking for ID so that the other party is not a stranger to them.

this is the kind of consumer protection knowledge that needs to be taught to people..

[bryant.coleman]

At least Karpeles didn't kill anyone! Oh wait, didn't some CEO kill herself because her BTC were on Mt. Gox? I wonder how many lives have been ruined by the downfall of Karpeles. Do we have any numbers?

Stealing $500 million is worse than killing someone. Because for $100,000 you can save a child's life in the developing world, by sponsoring their medical expenses. So a robbery of $500 million is equivalent to killing 5,000 people.

[jjc326]

apart from blackmailing your money back. karpeles and pirate@40 both got caught. but in both cases the victims WILL NOT get 100% return.,

once people start to realise that the best they can aim for is 50%, they can then realise that they can reclaim their funds legally.

the simplest and cheapest method is to get a debt collection agency in the town of the perpetrator involved, yes they take a fee, but atleast you know you will be getting atleast your 50% back, and doing it legally. even the threat of a debt collection agency annoying their real lives is enough to get some recompense from the scammer.

people will then stop waiting for months whining and moaning that the SEC wont help them or get involved, or that courts take too long or that its not worth the plane ticket to slap the scammer with a wet fish. and also people will start doing their due diligence of asking for ID so that the other party is not a stranger to them.

this is the kind of consumer protection knowledge that needs to be taught to people..

I think part of the problem is finding out the identity of the person who stole the coins, right?  I mean I know that's the major problem for a lot of thefts, you might be able to see their address but you can't connect someone to the address. And it seems like in some cases you can, but then it seems like often the person is in another country and unless you're going to hire someone in that country, or go yourself, it'd be hard to recover anything. 

[drawingthesun]

At least Karpeles didn't kill anyone! Oh wait, didn't some CEO kill herself because her BTC were on Mt. Gox? I wonder how many lives have been ruined by the downfall of Karpeles. Do we have any numbers?

Stealing $500 million is worse than killing someone. Because for $100,000 you can save a child's life in the developing world, by sponsoring their medical expenses. So a robbery of $500 million is equivalent to killing 5,000 people.

In many places around the world you can live on less than $10,000 a year, so stealing $500,000,000 is like killing 50,000 people!

I know the son of a billionaire, I should tell him that his dad is killing 100,000 people he isn't busy giving all of his money away, afterall, it's like theft from the world isn't it?

Satoshi is letting tens of thousands die whilst leaving their Bitcoin sit around doing nothing, that money can save people right now!

In fact I am responsible for some deaths of my own, not giving it to those who are dying of starvation.

Don't steal from the world, if your money can be used to save a life do it!

Bryant, time to give and stop accumulating Bitcoins!

[ShakyhandsBTCer]

At least Karpeles didn't kill anyone! Oh wait, didn't some CEO kill herself because her BTC were on Mt. Gox? I wonder how many lives have been ruined by the downfall of Karpeles. Do we have any numbers?

Stealing $500 million is worse than killing someone. Because for $100,000 you can save a child's life in the developing world, by sponsoring their medical expenses. So a robbery of $500 million is equivalent to killing 5,000 people.

This is really not accurate as the money that would be stolen would not otherwise be used to save children's lives. There is not enough medical infrastructure in the third world to spend this kind of money performing this kind of expensive procedures in the "third world"

Most children that die in the third world do not die from treatable medical issues, but rather from not being able to eat enough, or from untreatable disease or from a simple medical issue that goes untreated because even simple medical treatment is not available.    

[DjPxH]

At least Karpeles didn't kill anyone! Oh wait, didn't some CEO kill herself because her BTC were on Mt. Gox? I wonder how many lives have been ruined by the downfall of Karpeles. Do we have any numbers?

Stealing $500 million is worse than killing someone. Because for $100,000 you can save a child's life in the developing world, by sponsoring their medical expenses. So a robbery of $500 million is equivalent to killing 5,000 people.

In many places around the world you can live on less than $10,000 a year, so stealing $500,000,000 is like killing 50,000 people!

I know the son of a billionaire, I should tell him that his dad is killing 100,000 people he isn't busy giving all of his money away, afterall, it's like theft from the world isn't it?

Satoshi is letting tens of thousands die whilst leaving their Bitcoin sit around doing nothing, that money can save people right now!

In fact I am responsible for some deaths of my own, not giving it to those who are dying of starvation.

Don't steal from the world, if your money can be used to save a life do it!

Bryant, time to give and stop accumulating Bitcoins!

You can't effectively say that keeping money from the general public is killing people. If that money was in circulation, the whole supply of money itself would be worth less. Rich people keeping a large stash of money so to say keep inflation down.
Is that a crazy idea? I'm no economics expert!

[drawingthesun]

At least Karpeles didn't kill anyone! Oh wait, didn't some CEO kill herself because her BTC were on Mt. Gox? I wonder how many lives have been ruined by the downfall of Karpeles. Do we have any numbers?

Stealing $500 million is worse than killing someone. Because for $100,000 you can save a child's life in the developing world, by sponsoring their medical expenses. So a robbery of $500 million is equivalent to killing 5,000 people.

In many places around the world you can live on less than $10,000 a year, so stealing $500,000,000 is like killing 50,000 people!

I know the son of a billionaire, I should tell him that his dad is killing 100,000 people he isn't busy giving all of his money away, afterall, it's like theft from the world isn't it?

Satoshi is letting tens of thousands die whilst leaving their Bitcoin sit around doing nothing, that money can save people right now!

In fact I am responsible for some deaths of my own, not giving it to those who are dying of starvation.

Don't steal from the world, if your money can be used to save a life do it!

Bryant, time to give and stop accumulating Bitcoins!

You can't effectively say that keeping money from the general public is killing people. If that money was in circulation, the whole supply of money itself would be worth less. Rich people keeping a large stash of money so to say keep inflation down.
Is that a crazy idea? I'm no economics expert!

Once the value of Bitcoin starts to trend towards the trillion dollar range, (as a whole), the acts and whims of rich people will have less effect. At the moment many US dollar billionaires could divest their investments and give tens of billions to starving people and the dollar would not move too much, just because of the sheet magnitude of how many dollars there are.

Eventually Bitcoin will be like this.

Right now, Bryant could divest all his Bitcoin and save lives, and his divestment will not influence the market. I agree that Satoshi's movements may be counter productive, but Satoshi is an outlier.

I am of course being sarcastic, the stolen $500,000,000 is nothing like killing 5,000 people, it's unlikely that money would have ever been used to save 5,000 lives, especially considering Bitcoin is a hoarders currency, I can't imagine the Bitcoin rich saving 5,000 people.

[Lethn]

Yes, I've seen stories about people getting their money back after a hacker has taken it back for them and there are people here who specialise in that kind of thing if you give them a share of the loot, the problem is the media either don't know anything about it because they're stupid or the hackers that go after these big heists know how to cover their tracks.

"The art of war teaches us to rely not on the likelihood of the enemy's not coming, but on our own readiness to receive him; not on the chance of his not attacking, but rather on the fact that we have made our position unassailable." - Sun Tzu

Do you have a source for such story?

Sure, I'll need to dig around though but I remember seeing it on Bitcointalk awhile back I think there's a guy that specialises in that sort of thing here somewhere,

[beetcoin]

btw, there was some guy who used a brain wallet and had his money jacked. he went on reddit, and the guy who took the btc returned it.. this happened about 1-2 weeks ago.