Tortured Bitcoin Trader Gives Up 60k Worth of Bitcoins

As per local news reports in Soweto Urban, a Bitcoin trader from the town of Lanseria, South Africa, identified only as “Andrew” was recently kidnapped, tortured and robbeed, because of his known interest in cryptocurrencies. A man he met on Facebook, had expressed an interest in hiring him in order to giving a presentation on digital assets. He then met the same man at Cresta Centre, Johannesburg, and gave his consent to take on the project. Andrew recalls that on November 16 at around 1 p.m., he had arrived at the Meadowlands Zone Five address provided to him, where soon after, he was approached from behind. A cloth was held over his mouth and nose, which might have been drugged, as he passed out quickly.

Andrew on regaining consciousness realized that he was in a different room along with five other people – three men and two women, where he was stripped naked, assaulted, received threats on his life, and tortured with hot irons.

The group subsequently asked him to transfer transfer around R 800,000 worth of BTC (around $58,000) to an address provided to him by his attackers. He eventually had to transfer the Bitcoin. The perpetrators also took R 100,000 from his bank account, another R 3,000 in cash, two laptop computers, and a pair of iPhones. Andrew was then blindfolded and then transferred from the scene of the crime to Kliprivier Road on the R550 where he was left. He is currently undergoing treatment for the injuries that he sustained, at the Alberton Union Hospital Intensive Care Unit. He has extensive burns to his hands, legs, and torso due by the hot iron torture he endured. An investigation has been launched to identify the attackers.

Imcidents of crypto thefrs and robbery along with many such illegal acts are not uncommon, but in most of these cases the attackers were aware of the victims interest in crypto. It encourages speculations that if the attackers hadn’t known about it, these incidents may not have occurred at all. It goes without saying that extreme caution is to be maintained when dealing with crypto.

Rishma Banerjee

Rishma is currently pursuing a bachelor’s degree in International Relations and has a special place in her life for sifting through all sorts of random trivia, thank you very much.