German Police Confiscate Bitcoin Scammer’s 1,700 Bitcoin
The cryptocurrency market’s general perception has been threatened of late by the high rate of scams prevalent in the space. The growth of digital assets has been a driving force to the growth of one of the world’s largest investment market, but the vices posed by the scams and hacks continue to be a menace.
A report that surfaced earlier in January suggests that crypto losses due to scams in 2020 were by far less than the amount in 2019. However, the uprising of these scams has started in 2021. The latest of such reports is that of the German Police. They apprehended a Bitcoin scammer a few years ago and seized his stolen assets worth about $60 million, and unable to access them.
No one remembers the password to the wallets
In Germany, the Kempten Police, who arrested the crypto scammer and seized his stolen assets, are currently unable to assess the assets due to a lack of a password. The scammer who was apprehended after he installed several bugs on the computers of miners is also reported as not providing the password.
The whole scenario has become some recent issue, especially as the scammer himself has now declared via his legal representatives that he does not remember the password to this wallet. The Police are still investigating the situation even after about 3years since it happened.
They are trying to crack the wallet and return the assets to the original owners, especially after the scammer has already been served justice. However, the Police have not lost hope in their pursuit, as they are doing all they can to ensure that the miners get back what belongs to them.
Unaccessible Bitcoin on the rise
According to reports, the increasing amounts of Bitcoin that can’t be assessed continues to be on the rise. The situation is becoming somewhat more alarming considering that everyone now realizes they have Bitcoin somewhere they can’t access, majorly due to password issues or some logistics problem. Stefan Thomas’ case is an example that represents a lot of people who have the cryptocurrency locked somewhere.
Stefan, who made a video teaching people about Bitcoin and got rewarded with the digital assets in its early days when it was worth barely $5, is also unable to remember his wallets’ password, which is now worth about $250 million today’s prices.
Ripple’s programmer and former employee have made 8 out of 10 attempts at guessing the password but now has two more failed tries before he forfeits his assets. The situation is a heartbreaking one for Stefan, who is not alone in this situation as reports suggest that about $4 million in Bitcoin is currently not accessible as of today.
