A gang of ten people was arrested yesterday by the Dubai Police for committing the crime of armed bitcoin robbery. They robbed more than $1.9 million dollars of bitcoin to two brothers who were called to meet personally to sell these bitcoins to a trade agency.
Supposedly, according to the reports of a local newspaper, the gang had seized the trade office from its owner moments before the robbery occurred there. The victims were two Asian brothers who were subdued and coerced to transfer the bitcoin to the gang’s wallet.
Luckily for the two Asian brothers, the Dubai police department moved its muscle fast and in less than 48 hours, the culprits were identified and arrested. The chief of the police department of Dubai said that artificial intelligence on their security systems was of great importance to identify the culprits. In the raid, they found a lot of electronic equipment supposedly used to track possible victims for this kind of crimes and some cash money.
Cryptocurrency robbery has intensified since last December price hike, and the tendency to commit cryptocurrency related crimes (gunpoint or hacks) has been on the rise. This month also a crime was registered where 10 Indian policemen kidnapped a local entrepreneur to rob him of their bitcoin.
The criminals are attracted to these kinds of assets because their nature makes the ideal to rob. Some wallets are not tied to any identification from the users and it is difficult to prove that the user was indeed the owner of the involved crypto asset.
As always, the best recommendation for making these kinds of businesses is to contract an escrow service and to avoid personal contact with potential buyers. This will minimize the probability of being scammed. Common sense will be always your best ally when trading or selling digital currencies.