Is stealing bitcoins illegal?

[elephantas1]

For example, if I mislead someone into sending me a large amount of bitcoins (in the United States) would that be illegal?

If I did not force them to do anything, but they sent them anticipating me to send a product in return, but I never send it.

Would this be considered illegal considering no one would know whether the bitcoin address that received the bitcoins was my address?

Yes it is illegal,

Thinking of Trendon Shavers and Pirateat40 when referencing this case, good old Trendon is now paying for his crimes of running a ponzi scheme for investors and then running with the funds, and making a mess here.

isnt it not real money and everything that is done with it cant be illegal?

[freedomno1]

For example, if I mislead someone into sending me a large amount of bitcoins (in the United States) would that be illegal?

If I did not force them to do anything, but they sent them anticipating me to send a product in return, but I never send it.

Would this be considered illegal considering no one would know whether the bitcoin address that received the bitcoins was my address?

Yes it is illegal,

Thinking of Trendon Shavers and Pirateat40 when referencing this case, good old Trendon is now paying for his crimes of running a ponzi scheme for investors and then running with the funds, and making a mess here.

isnt it not real money and everything that is done with it cant be illegal?

Sure, tell that to the SEC they will have a nice seat waiting for you in the hall ^^
https://www.sec.gov/litigation/complaints/2013/comp-pr2013-132.pdf

This Court has jurisdiction over this action pursuant to Sections 20 and 22 of the
Securities Act of 1933 (“Securities Act”) [15 U.S.C. §§ 77t and 77v] and Sections 21and 27 of
the Exchange Act of 1934 (“Exchange Act”) [15 U.S.C. §§ 78u and 78aa].

7. Venue is proper in this district under Section 22(a) of the Securities Act and
Section 27 of the Exchange Act [15 U.S.C. §§ 77v(a) and 78aa] because Defendants may be
found in and are inhabitants of McKinney, Texas; and because certain of the acts, practices,
transactions and courses of business alleged herein occurred within the Eastern District of Texas

[tzortz]

I could not explain differently about stealing , in general, to be legal.

[Grand_Voyageur]

yes if you can steal them it is illegal, as per the views of US government right now and a lot of other countries Bitcoins are property and whenever you seize property that does not belong to you thru actions of theft it is illegal and punishable by law. if the value of the theft is over 1000 dollars in most cases it is upgraded to a felony charge and can get maximum sentancing. so if you steal as little as 3 BTC you have committed a felony in the eyes of American law

That is interesting.
I didn't know that there was a threshold for the amount stolen to decide the severity of the crime.
In my country, I don't think that the quantity involved has an impact on the punishment for the crime.

In almost all jurisdiction exists some threshold on the amount stolen to calibrate the sentencing terms. Relative big amounts get harsher terms while relative small amounts get lesser terms. You know stealing 100$ to a Bill Gates type is not the same as robbing him of 100$ million.

[sherbyspark]

yes if you can steal them it is illegal, as per the views of US government right now and a lot of other countries Bitcoins are property and whenever you seize property that does not belong to you thru actions of theft it is illegal and punishable by law. if the value of the theft is over 1000 dollars in most cases it is upgraded to a felony charge and can get maximum sentancing. so if you steal as little as 3 BTC you have committed a felony in the eyes of American law

That is interesting.
I didn't know that there was a threshold for the amount stolen to decide the severity of the crime.
In my country, I don't think that the quantity involved has an impact on the punishment for the crime.

In almost all jurisdiction exists some threshold on the amount stolen to calibrate the sentencing terms. Relative big amounts get harsher terms while relative small amounts get lesser terms. You know stealing 100$ to a Bill Gates type is not the same as robbing him of 100$ million.

Most of the bitcoin theft happens electronically by hackers, which makes it almost impossible to trace.
Even if a site like Mtgox, shuts down, then they can just say that the coins were compromised by a hacker, and there is almost no way to prove that they are responsible for it.

[funtotry]

yes if you can steal them it is illegal, as per the views of US government right now and a lot of other countries Bitcoins are property and whenever you seize property that does not belong to you thru actions of theft it is illegal and punishable by law. if the value of the theft is over 1000 dollars in most cases it is upgraded to a felony charge and can get maximum sentancing. so if you steal as little as 3 BTC you have committed a felony in the eyes of American law

That is interesting.
I didn't know that there was a threshold for the amount stolen to decide the severity of the crime.
In my country, I don't think that the quantity involved has an impact on the punishment for the crime.

In almost all jurisdiction exists some threshold on the amount stolen to calibrate the sentencing terms. Relative big amounts get harsher terms while relative small amounts get lesser terms. You know stealing 100$ to a Bill Gates type is not the same as robbing him of 100$ million.

Most of the bitcoin theft happens electronically by hackers, which makes it almost impossible to trace.
Even if a site like Mtgox, shuts down, then they can just say that the coins were compromised by a hacker, and there is almost no way to prove that they are responsible for it.

With got at least there is some level of evidence that attackers were stealing coins from them. With a site like gox it is somewhat possible to trace who got/took what as there are records of who requested what withdrawals so they should be able to determine who was overpaid/was able to over withdraw (I think that many people who receive extra from gox did so unknowingly)

[exoton]

yes if you can steal them it is illegal, as per the views of US government right now and a lot of other countries Bitcoins are property and whenever you seize property that does not belong to you thru actions of theft it is illegal and punishable by law. if the value of the theft is over 1000 dollars in most cases it is upgraded to a felony charge and can get maximum sentancing. so if you steal as little as 3 BTC you have committed a felony in the eyes of American law

That is interesting.
I didn't know that there was a threshold for the amount stolen to decide the severity of the crime.
In my country, I don't think that the quantity involved has an impact on the punishment for the crime.

In almost all jurisdiction exists some threshold on the amount stolen to calibrate the sentencing terms. Relative big amounts get harsher terms while relative small amounts get lesser terms. You know stealing 100$ to a Bill Gates type is not the same as robbing him of 100$ million.

You need to remember that the common denominator is that stealing any amount of anything valuable is going to be a crime. The only difference is in the penalty

[gogxmagog]

There is got to be intent and with btc theft... It's done by hackers with malware and exploits etc it's like walking around with a burglary kit and "testing" windows to see if they're locked.
There is no innocently stumbled across btc being found. Unless OP was merely alluding to the 6.4 btc someone grabbed out of my computer with a total exploit I had to wipe my HD to get rid of, then yeah... Giving it back is the right thing to do.

[Flashman]

isnt it not real money and everything that is done with it cant be illegal?

Thefts of things far less tangible and fungible than bitcoin, such as virtual items from MMPORGs have been prosecuted.