It is quite difficult these days to let yourself be robbed of your money. The vast majority of the money you have direct access to is probably in your bank account, and a debit card alone is not much of a benefit. But now you have quick and easy access to your cryptocurrencies. According to The Guardian that makes a world of difference.
tech-savvy crypto criminals
The English newspaper writes that London thieves rob people of their cryptocurrencies by combining their guts with technical knowledge. They force people to login to their cryptocurrency exchange account, such as on Binance, and to then send their tokens to the wallet address of the robber(s). dclean by force shall here In many cases an important means of persuasion in to be†
However, not every thief comes up with ‘flat’ violence. Some take it a bit smarter, for example by taking your phone and transferring the cryptocurrency to the desired account all by yourself. That happened to a Londoner, who afterwards was £5,000 lighter in ether (ETH), which was just in a Coinbase account before the heist.
Another man was approached to buy cocaine, after which he was convinced to walk into an alley. Here he was forced to unlock his phone with Face ID and transfer ripple (XRP) worth £6,000. A third victim was forced under a bridge to change his security settings, after which a staggering £28,700 worth of tokens and cash was stolen.
But pickpocketing in bars also works fine. According to the police investigation, the victim had seen how criminals saw the login code of his phone. He was then stripped of his debit card and telephone. After logging into his Coinbase account, he discovered that the money was gone.
Dangerous New World
This story clearly shows how dangerous the society of the future can be. Telephones and trading platforms make it relatively easy to get a lot of ‘turnover’ very quickly. Moreover, theft of money in bank accounts can still be reversed relatively easily, as long as it is still in the banking sector. With crypto, the money is gone as soon as criminals send it.
Theft is of course not the only point of attention within the wonderful world of crypto. Software attacks are also a problem. Exchanges can be hacked from the outside because criminals have found your passwords online. Decentralized protocols for Decentralized Finance (DeFi) are also not always secure. Even hardware wallets are sometimes not as robust as you might think. Spreading risk is therefore important; not only when it comes to coins, but also when it comes to storage locations and types of storage.