A group of eleven Israeli tourists was violently robbed while attending a social event on Santa Teresa de Cóbano beach in Puntarenas, Costa Rica. The robbers, numbering at least eight, were heavily armed and appeared to have police training. They arrived in two high-value vehicles and overpowered the group’s security guard, forcing the tourists to hand over their belongings, including a substantial amount of Bitcoin, worth approximately $700,000.
This incident is reminiscent of a similar crime in Kyiv, Ukraine, where four men were detained for the abduction and murder of a foreigner over nearly 3 Bitcoin. The criminals in that case followed the victim home, forced him to transfer the Bitcoin, and then murdered him, burying the body in a forest.
These incidents highlight the increasing risks faced by crypto holders as criminals become more sophisticated in targeting individuals with large amounts of digital assets.
Please share here the many good tips and ideas we can use to avoid getting another victim of a heist, aside from not owning any coin or token, of course.
Please share here the many good tips and ideas we can use to avoid getting another victim of a heist, aside from not owning any coin or token, of course.
They are Israeli tourists attending a social event on Santa Teresa de Cóbano beach in Puntarenas, Costa Rica. How did the attackers know that the Israeli tourists have bitcoin? This will give answers to your question.
Privacy is very important.
I suppose to add security. I meant that also. Likely the wallet might be on their mobile phones. It is easily for the attackers to place the victims fingers on the phone and also maybe they use fingerprint for the wallet while not also hide the app. So far the attackers well known about cryptocurrencies, there is nothing needed again to steal the coins on the wallet than the victims fingers.They are Israeli tourists attending a social event on Santa Teresa de Cóbano beach in Puntarenas, Costa Rica. How did the attackers know that the Israeli tourists have bitcoin? This will give answers to your question.
Privacy is very important.
It also bring question why the victim "bring" Bitcoin worth $700K with him, regardless how exactly it's stored.
The biggest question is why would someone carry 10+ BTC with them if they are also going to a country known for crime? Maybe this happened because one of them posted something on social networks, and maybe they really paid something with BTC in that country and thus drew attention to themselves.I also believe that the victim unintentionally shared with someone the secret about the huge fortune of nearly $1M that he was storing in BTC, and this led to disaster for him and his family. This should be a lesson for everyone who is storing a lot of assets in any form, whether it's gold, cash, or crypto: we should keep it secret to protect our own lives, just like a treasure is always kept in a secret place, in a locked chest.
However, there is another option that should not be ignored, and that is that one of the "friends" knew about all this money and decided to use this trip to rob a friend - and when it comes to so much money, nothing should be surprising.
The next time you want to tell someone that you own cryptocurrencies, remember what kind of risk you are putting yourself in, such things are not discussed with friends and acquaintances.
A tourist travels with about $60,000 to visit Costa Rica, which is a poor country, and $10,000 is enough to spend a pleasant vacation. This does not make sense, and the best explanation is that they went for a purpose other than tourism, and perhaps some of the deals they made are what made this gang know that they have a lot of bitcoin and then attacked them.
That is why I like wallet like Unstoppable. Also I think I have seen it on Bluewallet before. A way you can use your fingerprint or another password that will take you to a different wallet which you can fund with just little amount of coins. I am certain it is on Unstoppable wallet. But I can not have such huge amount on an online wallet.
The biggest question is why would someone carry 10+ BTC with them if they are also going to a country known for crime?
sharing posts about crypto in social media can be a very telling for those robbers that its a sign this someone has BTC or any other valuable crypto in their portfolio. some tip i found was that do not wear shirt with logo of crypto. a sticker on your car or any of your property might just be a $ for them.I don't think so, cryptocurrencies may have been part of a business deal that was made and something happened that led to this tragic accident. No matter how much I love cryptocurrencies, I would not travel to Costa Rica with a wallet containing 1 Bitcoin.
But sad feeling when bad guys succeed on thier heist. I think the BTC can be tagged right? Lawmakers love these kind of news where they can make regulations.Have you forgotten the last massive hack of Atomic wallet where over $100 million dollars was stolen from people? All that was done was to mix the coin using Sinbad that has now been taken down because of it. The best would have been to avoid such thing not to happen and also to have good privacy and security mindset and working towards it.
A tourist travels with about $60,000 to visit Costa Rica, which is a poor country, and $10,000 is enough to spend a pleasant vacation. This does not make sense, and the best explanation is that they went for a purpose other than tourism, and perhaps some of the deals they made are what made this gang know that they have a lot of bitcoin and then attacked them.
--snip--
That is why I like wallet like Unstoppable. Also I think I have seen it on Bluewallet before. A way you can use your fingerprint or another password that will take you to a different wallet which you can fund with just little amount of coins. I am certain it is on Unstoppable wallet. But I can not have such huge amount on an online wallet.
The biggest question is why would someone carry 10+ BTC with them if they are also going to a country known for crime? Maybe this happened because one of them posted something on social networks, and maybe they really paid something with BTC in that country and thus drew attention to themselves.
Those heists happen because the criminals are also aware of the value and potential of Bitcoin and that's why they want to steal Bitcoin from the holders.
Those criminals who did the heist might have knowledge about the holdings of the Israeli tourists and that's why they came armed to loot the Bitcoin from those tourists.
There will be a lot of these in the future because Bitcoin will be the easiest asset to steal They don't need a big bag, they can easily transfer the assets from the victim to their wallet, Holders should be aware of this scenario and not boast about their assets in cryptocurrency because we never know who's lurking around to plan to steal those bitcoins.
A tourist travels with about $60,000 to visit Costa Rica, which is a poor country, and $10,000 is enough to spend a pleasant vacation.
~snip~
The biggest question is why would someone carry 10+ BTC with them if they are also going to a country known for crime? Maybe this happened because one of them posted something on social networks, and maybe they really paid something with BTC in that country and thus drew attention to themselves.
Paid something with BTC sounds possible to me, since some people call Costa Rica as Crypto Haven and some places there also accept Bitcoin.
I never understood these crypto crimes, like how the hell do people know how much crypto you have and how are they stealing it?It could be inside jobs, it could be that the person talks too much and has told so many people about how rich they are in crypto, it could also be the person spends crypto in their local store with their address that stores a large amount in BTC, etc, there are so many iterations, it can be any of them and more options too.
and not only that but they would have to crack a hardware wallet which is nearly impossible, so they would have to force you as well. So they need you and your ledge and be at your home all at the same time, which would have prevented this situation.If they do their homework well, they'll get the person and their hardware wallet at home, but they wouldn't have to crack the hardware wallet, they would torture the victim into opening it, which they will.
I never understood these crypto crimes, like how the hell do people know how much crypto you have and how are they stealing it? Like put it on some ledge hardware and then put it at home and just do whatever you want? If anyone wants to steal it, they would have to come into your home, and not only that but they would have to crack a hardware wallet which is nearly impossible, so they would have to force you as well. So they need you and your ledge and be at your home all at the same time, which would have prevented this situation.
Please share here the many good tips and ideas we can use to avoid getting another victim of a heist, aside from not owning any coin or token, of course.
If you're in America? Buy an AR-15 style rifle, and keep a few rounds in your pocket. That won't deter heavily-armed people like that, but you could put up a fight if you had multiple of them.If the criminals are certain that you have a lot of BTC's before attacking you, they would surely prepare for your resistance, even if you are armed, they will surely overpower you. But thinking about it, it could put them off because they would not want to kill you, because killing you in a shootout would mean they never get your coins, so it would make things really difficult for the criminals, except they kidnap you away from home and whisk you back home.
If you're in America? Buy an AR-15 style rifle, and keep a few rounds in your pocket. That won't deter heavily-armed people like that, but you could put up a fight if you had multiple of them.If the criminals are certain that you have a lot of BTC's before attacking you, they would surely prepare for your resistance, even if you are armed, they will surely overpower you. But thinking about it, it could put them off because they would not want to kill you, because killing you in a shootout would mean they never get your coins, so it would make things really difficult for the criminals, except they kidnap you away from home and whisk you back home.
But if they have decent computer or Bitcoin knowledge, they could try finding written mnemonic words or brute-force wallet on your electronic device.That would be an almost impossible task if the victim has a very good crypto opsec, if you break into my home, it would take you forever to find my seed phrase and we are talking about criminals that have to operate very quickly and leave.
I don't think so, cryptocurrencies may have been part of a business deal that was made and something happened that led to this tragic accident. No matter how much I love cryptocurrencies, I would not travel to Costa Rica with a wallet containing 1 Bitcoin.
The biggest question is why would someone carry 10+ BTC with them if they are also going to a country known for crime? Maybe this happened because one of them posted something on social networks, and maybe they really paid something with BTC in that country and thus drew attention to themselves.The main purpose of using Bitcoin is to keep assets safe. It is a decentralized platform where no one knows how many bitcoins they have and it will always remain anonymous. But when a person is informed about bitcoins one has to think that he/she is destroying the security of his/her own bitcoins. Every friend or relative should hide the matter completely to give maximum security to your assets or else there is a possibility of losing them at any time. You need to take responsibility for your own security while using Bitcoin, otherwise there is no point in using Bitcoin.
However, there is another option that should not be ignored, and that is that one of the "friends" knew about all this money and decided to use this trip to rob a friend - and when it comes to so much money, nothing should be surprising.
The next time you want to tell someone that you own cryptocurrencies, remember what kind of risk you are putting yourself in, such things are not discussed with friends and acquaintances.
The biggest question is why would someone carry 10+ BTC with them if they are also going to a country known for crime? Maybe this happened because one of them posted something on social networks, and maybe they really paid something with BTC in that country and thus drew attention to themselves.It is also possible.. where when someone shows off the money they have, they could be targeted by robbers... but there is something else that could happen in such an incident... such as when a robber forces to take the victim's cellphone, then checks what applications are on the victim's cellphone... when they find an application related to cryptocurrency, such as an exchange, telegram bot, crypto wallet or others... then the robber spontaneously realizes that the user must have a cryptocurrency balance... from there the threat will start to be used as the most effective action to seize all the victim's cryptocurrency assets....
Only consolation is that they were not killed by this gangs, unfortunately, they've lost the money already. And I do agree, this is the very example of somewhat setting this tourists to get robbed there.There can be many consolations as things can get worse I know what can be so bad than getting killed but some prefer respect and other stuff over their lives. It's really unfortunate how these tourists get robbed when I read the headline I thought they were robbed outside but the image you have shared shows otherwise they were robbed inside the home I think.