Venezuelan Man Faked His Own Kidnapping To Steal $1M In BTC

A Venezuelan man faked his own kidnapping to steal about $1 million in Bitcoin as the police reports say which we are reading more about in our latest Bitcoin news today.

The 23-year old financial advisor ran away with more than $1 million in BTC after he drained his client’s money by faking his own kidnapping. Venezuela is a global leader in crypto adoption according to the latest data but it could also be a leader in creative criminals that are looking for ways to steal BTC. A few days ago Andres Jesus Don Santos Hernandez, the 23-year old Venezuelan man, faked his own kidnapping to setal more than $1 million in BTC from clients whose funds he controlled, according to the head of Cuerpo de Investigaciones Clienficas, Douglas Rico.

According to Rico’s statement, Hernandez worked as an investment intermediary for a few clients and the head of the CICPC claimed that Hernandez emptied all of the clients’ wallets from the Binance accounts to the tune of $1,150,000 and claimed that he had been kidnapped so the captors forced him to withdraw the money. Hernandez is on the run and this case is not the first, unfortunately. The case is not isolated and his claim of having been kidnapping is not unheard of either. Bitcoin users in Venezuela like BTC miners had long had to contend with the prying eyes of criminals given the crypto’s traceability.

Three weeks ago, the Venezuelan Businessman named Gustavo Torres Gonzales was kidnapped and murdered after failing to pay the 1.5 BTC demanded by his captors.

Speaking of scams, we recently reported that The Italian authorities shut down 32 Telegram groups that offered fake COVID-19 passes to thousands of people as the criminals preferred crypto payments for the illegal services. As per the recent report by Reuters, the Italian police halted the operation of a few groups on the online messaging app Telegram so the Italian scammers offered fake COVID-19 health passes to the people that want to bypass the law and get the certificate in exchange for crypto. The so-called Green Pass will allow Italians that already recieved at least one coronavirus vaccine shot or recovered from the virus or even tested negative.