A Singaporean citizen who orchestrated a robbery during a bitcoin sale is to be jailed, according to reports from local police on April 12, amidst a wave of crypto-related thefts occurring outside of the cybersphere. In recent times cryptocurrency-related crimes have been on a steady increase in tandem with the sudden surge in the value of bitcoin and the wider crypto market. In the early days, virtual currency thefts were only perpetuated by cyberpunks and hackers. However, the menace is spreading like wildfire with each passing day into the real world. Now, two bitcoin merchants have been assaulted and robbed of $365,000 in cash.
Another Assault on Bitcoin Holder
According to reports, two Singapore-based bitcoin brokers have been attacked physically by hoodlums who succeeded in carting away with a substantial amount of their trading money.
The incident occurred when the merchants were trying to carry out a transaction with a client who wanted to sell cryptocurrency to them. The victims promptly reported the case to the Singapore Police Force who now identified and arrested the primary suspect – a 36-year-old man, after ‘extensive ground inquiries.’ The suspect’s accomplice has already been charged with robbery on April 11. According to the officers, upon further investigations, they discovered that the suspect is a serial offender. He’s allegedly been involved in several other cases of burglary and theft.
Perpetrator Caned and Jailed
The authorities in charge of the case have hinted that if the suspect gets convicted, he could be given a hefty jail term of up to 20 years, with no less than 12 strokes of the cane. For the housebreaking crime, he could face anywhere between two and 14 years in prison. Commenting on the matter, Assistant Commissioner of Police (AC) Arthur Law was full of praise for the officers for a job well executed, he also reiterated that the police will always do everything within their powers to ensure bad actors are made to pay dearly for their illicit acts. In his words, “The Police will not condone anyone committing such serious offenses and profiting from the proceeds of the crime. We will spare no efforts in pursuing such criminals and deal with them in accordance with the law.”
Your Life or Your Crypto Wealth
Back in January, BTCManager reported that armed robbers raided the premises of a Canadian bitcoin exchange but were quite unfortunate as the police arrived on-time before they could transfer the bitcoin to their wallets. The officers apprehended one of the hoodlums, while others escaped. Notably, in February, a 24-year old blogger known as Pavel Nyashin was attacked in his residence after announcing to the world via social media that he was on the verge of becoming a bitcoin ‘big whale.’ In 2018 alone there have been several reported and unreported cases of physical crypto thefts and robberies. This ugly occurrence is expected to continue as the markets continue their journey to the moon. Therefore, hodlers are advised to keep their tales of ‘crypto glory’ to themselves to avoid getting attacked. When meeting in person to buy, never start with large amounts, check their reputation and perhaps go and get the cash after you have met the seller. Additionally, some hardware wallets provide a decoy wallet that can thwart attackers from stealing most of your crypto holdings, or you can get creative and store your private keys in artwork making it harder to access.