Man Jailed For Violent Crypto Robberies

[Stompix]

Extending your seed phrase with a passphrase can also help you with plausible deniability in a situation of a $5 wrench attack.

Have you ever been kidnapped and tortured?
Trust me probably 0.01% would not remember what they ate exactly 233 days ago at breakfast after being hit a few times over their fingers with a metal pipe, the moment you stand to be crippled for life you will tell them even the value you bought them for and even what friends of your have crypto too. Easy to say stuff but the moment you can see your broken bones through the skin the thing changes.

Also, a lot ignore how many things can give away you have crypto forget social media, forget hacks or stuff, you just meet with a guy for a p2p deal, somebody can track you, you buy or sell coins from the atm, somebody can tail you home, you order crypto stuff from a website, you buy gear or sell it on ebay, those guys know your address now. You order a pizza with coins, the cashier can see how many coins you have from the address you paid  with and he knows your delivery address! 

[bitmover]

Extending your seed phrase with a passphrase can also help you with plausible deniability in a situation of a $5 wrench attack.

I think this is a good an valid point if you have at least some good funds in your wallet without passphrase.

Also, you need to use separate wallets, which doesnt show both balances simultaneously

[Z-tight]

Have you ever been kidnapped and tortured?
Trust me probably 0.01% would not remember what they ate exactly 233 days ago at breakfast after being hit a few times over their fingers with a metal pipe, the moment you stand to be crippled for life you will tell them even the value you bought them for and even what friends of your have crypto too. Easy to say stuff but the moment you can see your broken bones through the skin the thing changes.

I know, all what you say is right, but that is the only solution i can offer to someone who needs a 0.01% chance of protecting themselves from a $5 wrench attack. It's not like it would save someone from kidnappers, but better to implement it, and see if there is an off chance that it helps.

If the attackers are aware somehow that you own a lot of coins, then there is no chance that it helps, but if you are unlucky to run into assailants, who had no prior knowledge that you own crypto, or who didn't come to rob crypto from you, but fiat, then it can help; as long as the base wallet has a good amount in BTC. 60% of your stash in passphrase protected address, then 40% in base wallet.

[Crwth]

It's good that he was caught and is going to be facing a minimum of seven years to a maximum of life. I hope those planning something like this won't get away with it. The $5 wrench attack is real and we need to be careful of our surroundings.

$150,000 is really a lot and I believe it can be planned or something.

[Vx1]

Really this is a modern robbery, the robbers also understand cryptocurrency. so they kidnap people who have large amounts of cryptocurrency assets. These robbers certainly also understand how to move cryptocurrency assets from one wallet to another.  We have to be aware of this, so that other people don't know that we have crypto assets. So that the robbers don't have any evil intentions towards us.
But thankfully, if the robbers have been caught, I hope they get the punishment they deserve.

[Cryptsafe]

Really this is a modern robbery, the robbers also understand cryptocurrency. so they kidnap people who have large amounts of cryptocurrency assets. These robbers certainly also understand how to move cryptocurrency assets from one wallet to another.  We have to be aware of this, so that other people don't know that we have crypto assets. So that the robbers don't have any evil intentions towards us.
But thankfully, if the robbers have been caught, I hope they get the punishment they deserve.

It is really a modern robbery. I was wondering and also curious at how those rubbers got to know their victims have assets in n Crypto and planned their attacks. How did they get to know his home, who must have told them about their victims assets.  Is it possible that this might have been as a result of information leakage through KYC or what?  I believe he knows saying or talking about his assets would put him in trouble, so.what really happened that those rubbers got wind of his Crypto assets and information to attack him.

If you say that the rubbers have idea and knowledge on how to move Crypto currency then do you not think it might likely be a leak from KYC ? I curious because this act is very dangerous coupled with the fact that many Crypto organisations demand for KYC without properly keeping customers details safe under their custody.

[Z-tight]

Really this is a modern robbery, the robbers also understand cryptocurrency. so they kidnap people who have large amounts of cryptocurrency assets. These robbers certainly also understand how to move cryptocurrency assets from one wallet to another.

It is easy to move crypto between wallets, a criminal who knows they can steal a lot of money from victims would take their time to study the basics of crypto, so it should be an easy thing for them.

If you say that the rubbers have idea and knowledge on how to move Crypto currency then do you not think it might likely be a leak from KYC ? I curious because this act is very dangerous coupled with the fact that many Crypto organisations demand for KYC without properly keeping customers details safe under their custody.

It could be, if you submit kyc that includes your home address and there is a data breach on that service, then surely you are at risk of a $5 wrench attack.

[Stompix]

~
If the attackers are aware somehow that you own a lot of coins, then there is no chance that it helps, but if you are unlucky to run into assailants, who had no prior knowledge that you own crypto, or who didn't come to rob crypto from you, but fiat, then it can help; as long as the base wallet has a good amount in BTC. 60% of your stash in passphrase protected address, then 40% in base wallet.

But if the attackers don't know you have crypto you could even have a notpassword-protected wallet since they won't be demanding anything from you, right? The moment they know you have it, that's the moment they will do everything to get it out of you and we're back again to the meme I posted on the first page, 10000 passwords won't let you when your bones start getting crushed one by one!

$150,000 is really a lot and I believe it can be planned or something.

Strangely enough, it's not by US standards:

The FBI reported that in 2022, the total average value of items stolen from residences during the daytime was $97,386

[Cryptsafe]

If you say that the rubbers have idea and knowledge on how to move Crypto currency then do you not think it might likely be a leak from KYC ? I curious because this act is very dangerous coupled with the fact that many Crypto organisations demand for KYC without properly keeping customers details safe under their custody.

It could be, if you submit kyc that includes your home address and there is a data breach on that service, then surely you are at risk of a $5 wrench attack.

These days the rate at which crypto organisations get hacked is alarming. It is very annoying when such happens and the organisation just come out to day rubbish without any remorse to their inability to protect the details of their clientele. I would not be surprised this case is likely a result of data leakage from the organisation he might have done KYC with in the past.
Possibly he might have used a local crypto organisation within his jurisdiction which they can easily locate his residence to attack and rub him.

[nakamura12]

This is another proof that privacy should be taken seriously to avoid something like this to happen. For security measures, even if they didn't know you have crypto doesn't mean you don't have to make it secured enough just because they don't know that you have crypto. As Stompix explained, even if you have strong security measures of your wallet but it s never strong enough if your bones are being crushed one by one. Another part comes in handy like not storing your crypto in one basket for them to take all of it once the robber acquired rhe password after broken bones.

[Sim_card]

There is likely a possibility that they must have sent a phishing link to the victim without him knowing it

I don't think that it was a fishing link if not they don't need to attack him physically but they will just drain all his wallet with the information they got from his PC. If you don't tell anyone that you have bitcoin, no one will know because it does not shout in your wallet. This is why we should be careful and keep our crypto investment a secret from everyone apart from trusted family members. We also need not to disclose the amount of assets to the trusted person, because if he has a loud might he might tell his close friend that will tell some other some close friends and your crypto asset will be known to the public without your knowledge.

[Cryptsafe]

This is another proof that privacy should be taken seriously to avoid something like this to happen.

Privacy is something we all need to take seriously. When your privacy is guaranteed, you are safe and have nothing to worry about but when there is a breach, anything can happen. This was the situation of the man attacked by the rubbers. Possibly, his crypto privacy was breached and it resulted to what he went through in the hands of the rubbers. Do you not think there is a possibility of leakage from where the Crypto was stored and looking at the fact that he was attacked at his home if I am not mistaken.

[Freemind]

Years ago I read a news story about a man who was murdered in his own home. That man used to write many posts on X/Twitter, showing off large amounts of cash he had earned from cryptocurrency trading. I don't remember that person's name, but I do remember the raw feeling I felt when reading the news. I understand that when someone makes a lot of money they want to change their life or improve it, but I think it is important to maintain discretion since we never know who is “watching or listening".

I know that the news at hand did not have such a tragic outcome and that the thieves have been imprisoned, but suddenly what happened years ago comes to mind.

I hope the full weight of justice falls on those thieves.

[Kemarit]

And as per article:

He is scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 11 and faces a mandatory minimum of seven years in prison and a maximum penalty of life in prison. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

I doubt though that he will be sentence for life, probably 10+ years in prison. And this crew is genius at best, they were able to get accessed of their victims email and from then on, "case" it and make the move until the right now.

But even that, using Monero and other non-KYC exchanges, they were able to get caught by the authorities, so they could be sloppy as well and their job could have been out in the street and then someone snitches them to the government.

They are already monitoring them until they got arrested by the FBI trying to carry their next home invasion.

[NotATether]

I doubt though that he will be sentence for life, probably 10+ years in prison. And this crew is genius at best, they were able to get accessed of their victims email and from then on, "case" it and make the move until the right now.

But even that, using Monero and other non-KYC exchanges, they were able to get caught by the authorities, so they could be sloppy as well and their job could have been out in the street and then someone snitches them to the government.

They are already monitoring them until they got arrested by the FBI trying to carry their next home invasion.

Increases the case to keep a gun at your home, somewhere. These fellows are very dangerous as you have probably figured out, and there is no reason to think that there aren't more of them lurking around elsewhere. So get a loaded gun, secure it, and keep it in a safe place in case the worst were to happen, then you would at least be able to defend yourself from these people.

Pepper spray also comes in handy.