Armed robbers steal $450K from Hong Kong crypto dealer

Robbers posing as cryptocurrency consumers have stolen about 3.5 million Hong Kong {dollars} ($450,000) from a lady in Hong Kong.

In line with a report by the South China Morning Put up on Tuesday, the Hong Kong police are at present conducting a manhunt for the gang.

A spokesperson for the police revealed that the group operated by having one member full a number of transactions with the sufferer, presumably to win the goal’s belief.

Certainly, an investigation into the matter confirmed three earlier offers ranging between $77,000 and $90,000.

On the day of the theft, the opposite members of the gang rushed to the scene as quickly as their colleague acquired the Tether tokens in trade for the $450,000 fee.

Armed with knives, they proceeded to lock the lady within the workplace the place the deal happened however not earlier than snatching her iPhone and the $450,000.

In line with the report, the lady was in a position to make use of her second cellphone to tell her husband who subsequently contacted the police. The police mentioned that the lady’s uncle who chaperoned her to the assembly place reportedly noticed 4 males fleeing the scene.

Fortunately, the lady was unharmed within the assault, not like different victims which have suffered bodily accidents and even loss of life on the hand of bandits seeking to steal cryptocurrencies.

In Could 2019, a Norwegian Bitcoin billionaire was compelled to leap from his second-floor balcony to flee armed burglars. Singaporean Mark Cheng was additionally kidnapped and tortured for a $740,000 ransom in BTC again in 2020.

The modus operandi of the robbers mirrors one other incident that occurred earlier in January. The sufferer in that case misplaced about $386,000 to the gang.

Crypto-related theft incidents are reportedly a menace in Hong Kong. In line with SCMP, town’s police recorded 242 theft instances regarding cryptocurrencies in 2020, a 103% improve from the determine recorded in 2019.

Again in August, police arrested three males in reference to stealing about $30,000 from Bitcoin ATMs within the metropolis.