Digital cash, physical threat
Picture this: You’re worth millions in crypto. You think your money’s safe because it’s digital, anonymous and locked up behind a strong password. But there’s one security hole you didn’t count on, your physical body.
That’s exactly what happened in a terrifying case out of New York City.
Two men allegedly kidnapped a crypto investor and held him captive for weeks in a luxury town house. Why? To beat the password out of him. It’s called a “$5 wrench attack” by insiders.
Kidnapped for crypto
According to The Wall Street Journal, Michael Carturan, with $30 million in crypto, walked into a Soho town house expecting a pitch meeting … and left 25 days later barefoot and traumatized.
The goal? Force him to unlock his Bitcoin wallet. Kidnapped. Held hostage. Tortured, yes, even threatened with a chain saw, until he gave up his wallet info.
This isn’t a plot from a Netflix thriller, it’s real life. And it’s a terrifying new way criminals are going after digital riches.
Carturan finally escaped barefoot into the street, flagged down an NYPD officer and lived to tell the tale.
Two suspects were caught, including (because this story wouldn’t be complete otherwise) a former crypto CEO.
This isn’t just one wild story
It’s happening more than you might think.
A Connecticut couple cruising around in their Lamborghini get kidnapped. Six guys grab them not because they’re flashy but because they thought the couple’s son was sitting on a fortune in crypto. Federal prosecutors say the plan was to hold them for ransom.
It’s not just here in the U.S. France has seen a wave of these attacks, with at least five crypto-related kidnappings reported in just the past few months. One involved the cofounder of hardware company Ledger.
Then there’s the case in Houston. A crypto influencer was asleep in her home when armed intruders broke in during the night. They didn’t want jewelry or cash. They wanted her laptop because that’s where the money lives now.
The worst part? Unlike your credit card, there’s no “freeze” button for blockchain. Once gone, your funds are dust in the cryptographic wind.
No undo button. No customer service number. No way to trace it.
So what do you do?
Stay quiet about owning crypto. You don’t brag online. You don’t talk crypto in Ubers. This is your wake-up call. Use offline wallets. Be careful who you trust and where you go. Digital money comes with very real risks.
It reminds me of when I visited the Winston Churchill Museum in London and saw a sign that read, “Loose lips sink ships.” That wartime warning couldn’t be more relevant today. Except now, it’s not enemy submarines we’re worried about, it’s crypto criminals.
Tags: home, money, online, security, warning
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