12 Defendants Sentenced for Violent Home Invasion Robberies to Steal Crypto

[Z-tight]

Therefore, maintaining privacy is the first factor for security.

Yeah, privacy is very important and i also recommend setting a passphrase as an extra layer of security against a $5 wrench attack, it is not certain to protect one from it, but it is better to have it than don't.

You can claim plausible deniability when you have a passphrase set, but this will probably only work on criminals who were only planning on robbing you of your fiat and valuables, before they found crypto apps in your pc, or before they saw your hardware wallet.

[yhiaali3]

Therefore, maintaining privacy is the first factor for security.

Yeah, privacy is very important and i also recommend setting a passphrase as an extra layer of security against a $5 wrench attack, it is not certain to protect one from it, but it is better to have it than don't.

You can claim plausible deniability when you have a passphrase set, but this will probably only work on criminals who were only planning on robbing you of your fiat and valuables, before they found crypto apps in your pc, or before they saw your hardware wallet.

Yes, that's right, even hard wallets like Trezor, Ledger, etc. won't protect you in such cases when a criminal attacks you and you have to open the wallet at gunpoint.

But at the same time, these hard wallets provide an additional layer of protection by creating a hidden wallet that can be very useful in such cases, as the hidden wallet is not visible to the attacker because it is hidden and protected by an additional password that no one knows except the owner of the wallet.

So it is necessary to create a hidden wallet and deposit the largest part of the assets in it while a small part of the assets remains in the main wallet to mislead the attacker.

[Captain Corporate]

Tgese physical robberies of digital crypto currency is getting quite common and I am hearing about it more and more. One obvious way to prevent this would be just not saying anyone anything about how much you have. If people do not know how much you have then they will not see you as worthy of anything like this to brgin with. If its just because crypto is easy to mpve, anyone can put a ton of money on exhchange and get some bitcoin and move that too, so by that logic every rich person shouks be in danger and nor just ınes with crypto wealth. In any case I think its quite obvious that we should be protecting ourselves more than cops and law can. Most of the time just like this one, cops and law can help you after what is done is done, not beforehand, that part is something you have to do yoursekf and that can be done by not telling anyone you have any kind of wealth.

[Baofeng]

Tgese physical robberies of digital crypto currency is getting quite common and I am hearing about it more and more. One obvious way to prevent this would be just not saying anyone anything about how much you have. If people do not know how much you have then they will not see you as worthy of anything like this to brgin with. If its just because crypto is easy to mpve, anyone can put a ton of money on exhchange and get some bitcoin and move that too, so by that logic every rich person shouks be in danger and nor just ınes with crypto wealth. In any case I think its quite obvious that we should be protecting ourselves more than cops and law can. Most of the time just like this one, cops and law can help you after what is done is done, not beforehand, that part is something you have to do yoursekf and that can be done by not telling anyone you have any kind of wealth.

That's the ironic part, way back we wanted to promote crypto and so some of us here could have been flaunting and wearing T-shirt with a Bitcoin logo (I did that way before the pandemic). Because we wanted to promote it and for people to see and maybe they become curious and then the market.

But now it's totally different, we should be very quiet and not to tell anyone about crypto or preach it in public as there are a lot of criminals that has been plowing in real life already and just waiting for someone to spill the beans and say that they have a lot of crypto in their wallet. And with that, you will be a target.

[Z-tight]

But at the same time, these hard wallets provide an additional layer of protection by creating a hidden wallet that can be very useful in such cases, as the hidden wallet is not visible to the attacker because it is hidden and protected by an additional password that no one knows except the owner of the wallet.

I am not talking about a hardware wallet, but a passphrase, you can set up a passphrase either in a software wallet or in a hardware wallet. A passphrase is very different from a password, once you set up a passphrase, you now have a base wallet and another one that is protected by a passphrase, and to gain access to it, you must enter your passphrase.

[KingsDen]

How will this attack be that successful?

• Are they going to force the victims to login into their wallets? What happens if the victims insist they don't have wallets and probably not into cryptocurrency?
• Maybe they came with information, having known that such persons have been advertising crypto on social media?
• This kind of robbery would only be successful in El Salvador or places where people live together in the name of bitcoin city.

Besides that, how will the robbers know which household is into crypto.

[yhiaali3]

But at the same time, these hard wallets provide an additional layer of protection by creating a hidden wallet that can be very useful in such cases, as the hidden wallet is not visible to the attacker because it is hidden and protected by an additional password that no one knows except the owner of the wallet.

I am not talking about a hardware wallet, but a passphrase, you can set up a passphrase either in a software wallet or in a hardware wallet. A passphrase is very different from a password, once you set up a passphrase, you now have a base wallet and another one that is protected by a passphrase, and to gain access to it, you must enter your passphrase.

Sorry, maybe there is a misunderstanding, but I think we are still talking about the same thing.

The passphrase you are talking about is the same hidden password-protected wallet that I talked about, but maybe I used a method that is not completely understood.

As you mentioned when you create a passphrase whether in a hardware wallet or a software wallet like Electrum, a hidden wallet is created that is protected by an additional password other than the main wallet that can be accessed without the passphrase.

See here:

Hidden Wallet
While setting up your Trezor wallet if you’ve enabled passphrase function then electrum wallet by default will ask you to enter the passphrase. Here is how to access your hidden wallet on electrum.

https://coinguides.org/passphrase-hidden-accounts-trezor-electrum/

[Faisal2202]

Criminals won't stop stealing, neither will they stop finding ways to cover their tracks, irrespective of the tool they use, even when criminals defraud people in fiat currencies, they have their methods of trying to cover their tracks.

The way the government goes after BTC privacy tools, you might mistake it that only criminals use such services, but that is not the truth. They should also use some of that energy to go after the criminals themselves, rather than the tools only.

I don't take mixers as the main tools to fraud people for criminals because if they will use such tools, the respective mixer will at some point come to an end like the previous tools came to an end. That's why I said earlier that this behavior is not good. I sometimes think we will need these tools like we will be yearning for these tools, to get anonymity as the world is adopting crypto and things will get more regulated and centralized.

The government doesn't go after privacy tools quickly only before those privacy tools which are being operated in the US while they are not given permission. There are some tools (mixers) that have stopped their service for US citizens to avoid extra fuss.

Criminals will definitely not stop and they will surely find new ways to scam people.

[Z-tight]

How will this attack be that successful?

• Are they going to force the victims to login into their wallets? What happens if the victims insist they don't have wallets and probably not into cryptocurrency?

This attack can happen anywhere in the world, people talk about their coins a lot, some of them even post about it on their social media pages, so these attackers are usually certain that their victims have BTC. If you insist that you don't have BTC, they will torture you and your family, there is no way you wouldn't give in, so better to prevent the situation by being discreet about our crypto holdings.

[NotATether]

What is the role of SIM swapping in such attacks? I thought that criminals monitor the individual's activity on social media or ask about him and after knowing that he has Bitcoin, his house is broken into.

It lets you get into the victims' exchange accounts without needing to unlock their phones as they may be using fingerprints, face authentication and so on. It is not guaranteed to work all the time but many criminals and robbers try it anyway.

Anyway, if you're going to keep a lot of crypto in your house, get a gun and learn how to use it. You never know if thieves want to target you.