A hacker stole cryptocurrency worth $1.7 million from victims from various European countries, The Next Web reported. At least one website he was running claimed to be running wallet software.
The perp, 31-year old Eliyahu Gigi from Tel Aviv, reportedly stole Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Dash from various foreigners, including Belgians, Dutch, and Germans, Israeli news reports. Gigi is facing charges of theft, fraud, aggravated counterfeiting, use of a forged document, perjury, money laundering, and income tax offenses. According to the report, Gigi had been operating a “criminal enterprise” spanning a number of websites that allowed him to conduct his criminal activity and swindle his victims out of their money. The perp used these websites to distribute software that infected his victim’s computers, and stole cryptocurrencies.
Check It Out: Israeli Hacker Steals $1.7 Million in Cryptocurrency
Charlotte:
This just underscores the importance of tight oversight and consume- protective regulation prior to the launch of FB’s Libra, and for that matter, any other cryptocurrency in the planning stage. There are also needs to be more thought given to its security, as Gigi’s digital wallet scheme illustrates that its theft can be as simple as child’s play. Some form of authentication/verification might be in order.
@geoduck:
To cite the piece:
“Sadly, so long as cryptocurrency has value, people will probably try to steal it.”
The issue or core concept is ‘value’. Virtual or not, anything to which we assign value, even if virtual, can be subject to real theft and/or other criminal activity punishable by law; as theft of currency (promissory notes) so devalued as to be considered ‘worthless’ is still theft punishable by law if someone steals it (eg criminal gangs in Zimbabwe).
At least, as I understand it. We’ll see what these courts decide.
Tough question.
If you steal something that doesn’t really exist from a scammer, is it a crime?