A tragic incident unfolded after a Russian couple involved in a cryptocurrency business was reportedly abducted and later released upon being forced to pay $43,000 in crypto as ransom. On Thursday, May 28, an Argentinian media outlet reported the case, stating that the incident happened in the Palermo district of Buenos Aires, Argentina, after the abductors invited the couple for dinner to their apartment.

The police arrived at the scene when restaurant employees near the kidnappers’ residence heard one of the abductees calling for help. The investigators saw the victims tied up and confirmed that the perpetrators had fled the country by plane. 

This is not the first, and maybe not the last   

Online crypto thefts and scams have become ubiquitous, and so are the offline thefts, but not on a larger scale. Several cases have been reported earlier where kidnappers abducted people with millions of crypto investments. A couple of weeks ago, three teens from Florida abducted a man at gunpoint and stole $4 million in crypto and NFTs after forcefully taking over his account password.

In a similar development, eight robbers, including police officers, in Asia kidnapped a crypto trader and robbed over Rs 12 million.   

To protect from physical attacks in the crypto realm, a crypto platform has recently suggested some key steps: reduce online exposure, strengthen social media privacy, make wallet ownership unclear, practice situational awareness, and create emergency plans.