Key Takeaways
- Masked intruders reportedly tortured a UK couple, stealing hundreds of thousands in crypto under death threats.
- A remote accomplice guided the raid via FaceTime, highlighting new tactics in physical crypto extortion.
- A recent surge in “wrench attacks,” including a fatal robbery in Mexico, exposes severe risks for holders.
Criminals Threatened to Kill Pregnant Woman
According to the report, criminals targeted an unidentified businessman and his pregnant wife in their own house. Talking to the BBC, the couple, who did not reveal their identity, declared that criminals entered their home and even threatened to kill their unborn baby to force them to transfer the cryptocurrency funds.
The husband, referred to as James in the report, explained that the attackers forced their way into their residence in Solihull, located southeast of Birmingham. “The door gets pushed open, I can see gloves coming in, balaclavas,” he said.
When he tried to defend himself and fend off the attackers, the man said he was hit with hammers. Criminals pinned his pregnant wife to the sofa and started suffocating her with a pillow.
“He’s got a pillow over her face. He’s literally suffocating her on the sofa. I can hear her screaming, ‘I can’t breathe,’” James stated.
Nonetheless, James ignored the attacker’s true objective until they asked for his phone, as a fourth remote attacker directed the criminals on site to go through his apps to detect if he had any wallets installed.
“I can hear the guy on FaceTime saying: ‘Show me everything on his phone. Show me what apps he’s got,’” James remembered.
As criminals found a crypto wallet with a significant but undisclosed amount of funds, the attack escalated. “He was basically saying: Look, if you don’t send us this money now, we’re going to stab your wife in the stomach and kill your baby. We’re going to kill your wife,’” James explained.
James delivered hundreds of thousands of pounds to the attackers, and he heard the criminal on the phone say on-site attackers could take only ten grand, while the remote ringleader would keep the rest for himself.
The attack follows a rise in these “wrench attacks,” where criminals target a known cryptocurrency holder and use physical violence and coercion to steal the funds owned by the victim. Even industry figureheads, like Binance Frace President David Prinçay and Ledger co-founder David Balland have been targeted with this kind of attack.
Last month, Jonathan Meléndez, part of the Mexican rock band Camilo Séptimo, and his pregnant wife were killed in an attack where the victim’s acquaintances were seeking a hardware wallet allegedly containing $1.5 million worth of bitcoin.