Criminals in Sweden are particularly focusing on outstanding native Bitcoin figures, which seems to be the results of ease of entry to non-public data and residential addresses within the nation.
Studies from Swedish media retailers LT and Aftonbladet have linked separate robberies in Rönninge and Södertälje that seem to have occurred beneath the identical modus operandi. Victims have been tied up and bodily abused to steal bodily and digital Bitcoin holdings.
Distinguished cryptocurrency proponent Eric Wall, who presently serves as a StarkNet Basis board member, highlighted the incidents in an X put up (previously Twitter). Wall mentioned the 2 assault circumstances point out that Swedish criminals are actively seeking to goal Bitcoin customers.
there’s now formally a scenario in sweden
this monday, a middle-aged swedish couple was tied up of their dwelling and robbed by 4 masked males. they have been bodily abused and threatened with their very own kitchen knives. they have been tied up for hours and one needed to be escorted to the…
— Eric Wall (@ercwl) November 8, 2023
“This Monday, a middle-aged Swedish couple was tied up of their dwelling and robbed by 4 masked males. They have been bodily abused and threatened with their very own kitchen knives. They have been tied up for hours and one needed to be escorted to the hospital by way of helicopter,” Wall mentioned.
He notes that the aim of the assault was to steal the couple’s Bitcoin earlier than highlighting the hyperlink to a separate incident the place “two well-known Bitcoin/crypto profiles have been focused of their properties by masked, armed males.”
In line with Wall, the victims have been subjected to violent bodily abuse for hours in an effort to steal their Bitcoin holdings held in {hardware} wallets. He provides that the primary incident of criminals focusing on Bitcoin customers happened in 2022, when “one in all Sweden’s most well-known Bitcoiners” had their condo damaged into.
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Wall additionally believes criminals scour social media to determine and goal Bitcoin or cryptocurrency customers. He claims {that a} widespread theme of the assaults was that they happened shortly after people had live-streamed podcasts targeted on Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies or talked about the topic in public.
He additionally believes that Sweden’s Offentlighetsprincipen (Precept of Public Entry to Info) legal guidelines, which give the general public the correct to request data, together with residential addresses and tax data from the federal government, have gotten a way for criminals to prey on ecosystem members.
“Whereas the intention behind this laws was to cut back corruption, it isn’t match for contemporary society.”
Wall provides that he left the nation attributable to these legal guidelines and that Sweden “might be one of many least secure international locations to be lively within the cryptocurrency sector.”
The Offentlighetsprincipen regulation additionally reportedly makes it straightforward for residents to seek for Swedish residents’ addresses in addition to scour their tax data. That is being abused, as criminals can confirm how a lot a person has paid in revenue or capital features tax and “dimension them up” in consequence.
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