Just like in daily sports news, trends in the cryptocurrency space are changing every day. Recently in London, there has been a wave of "crypto muggings" in which thieves target crypto investors and threaten them with violence unless they transfer their digital assets, accessed by their crypto exchanges or a digital wallet on their smartphone. Numerous reports from police have detailed how victims had thousands of dollars in crypto stolen in person by thugs.

Unlike a regular bank transfer, digital asset transfers are irreversible, making the activity more appealing to criminals. Someone who is forced to make a bank transfer can easily trace where their money has gone, and many methods can be used to reverse the transaction. In addition, with cryptocurrency, it's possible for thieves to transfer funds to another crypto wallet, making it impossible to get them back.

What Are Crypto Muggings?

Incidents are being tracked from around the world of people reporting being assaulted on the street and their phones being stolen. In addition, the reports from police show how thousands of dollars in crypto were stolen from the victims in person.

Some victims were threatened with violence and forced to log in to their crypto wallets, where thieves would transfer the digital funds but not steal the devices. Others had their mobile phones stolen by force and later discovered that the thieves had emptied out their crypto wallets.

Police can sometimes track down crypto hacks but only will do so in cases where large amounts in the millions of dollars have been stolen. Criminals must provide a wallet address to transfer the funds and will probably use the same one in the future.

It creates a digital trail that investigators frequently use to trace multimillion-dollar thefts. The theft of a few thousand dollars may not be worth it for authorities, as they're less likely to have the resources to track down these minor crimes.

Differences Between Virtual and Live Muggings

The only difference between this new trend and a traditional robbery is what the criminals are targeting. Thieves will watch the victim and then attack them on the street. Authorities usually consider this to be an aggravated assault and will prosecute the attack as a felony. These muggers will also take anything else of value the victims may have on them, sometimes resulting in injury.

Most of these recent cases had some connection to the drug trade. For example, in one instance during a drug deal, a mugger offered to type his number into the address book on the victim's phone and instead used it to empty their crypto account. While this type of mugging may be easier to prosecute because the victim may be able to identify the criminal, the chances of getting that money back are close to zero.

How Can Potential Victims Protect Themselves?

There are many ways people can protect themselves from these attacks. Many of these methods are the same as avoiding a conventional mugging, such as only walking in well-lit areas at night and always being aware if someone is following you.

There are also many ways to trick the thieves by using different phone features available to hide your crypto applications. For example, some mobile phones have features that can hide them behind a password or pin number, with the folder itself being hidden from the phone's home screen.

Also, be suspicious of anyone you don't know that well. An acquaintance or someone pretending to be one could easily hack your phone, which is what happened in the case of a victim who was pickpocketed and later returned home to find their crypto wallet emptied.

There are also multi-signature wallets, in which two individuals must sign before any money can be moved from the wallet. This would be in addition to a wallet in a crypto exchange in which people would leave only a small portion of their assets. By doing this, victims will lose a lot less if they get mugged.