Officials say a cryptocurrency investor has been arrested and charged with kidnapping, assaulting and holding a man against his will for several weeks in an upscale Manhattan town house.
Large bank transfers are generally traceable and require identifying documentation for the receiving bank account. Sure, that can be falsified, but it’s often a lot of work; and transfers of this size will often have a hold and/or, fraud prevention intelligence involved to prevent malicious activity.
Sure, it’s not impossible that a bank transfer could have prevented this. But crypto exacerbates human greed by removing the safeguards, restrictions, and identification/legality placed around currency. Once the money is transferred it’s gone to a set of numbers. Yes, humans are at fault. Humans have been greedy since the first human was born. Technology that allows greedy humans to more easily take advantage of others should be looked at with a critical lens.
It’s the reason people don’t hack banks, they hack crypto exchanges, and most of the time scammers get people to send them crypto using the vast networks of ATMs all over the world rather than charging their credit card or using a bank transfer.
Not sure what crypto we’re talking about here, but most crypto coins (e.g. bitcoin) are also easily traceable, as all transactions are public. It’s true that they’re not reversible and that certainly offer less protection than a bank account, but also offer other things e.g. more privacy and decentralized infrastructure, which can be useful even to non criminals.
Also once again, if one needs absolutely no traceablilty (ok fine, almost no traceability) then cash is still king and criminals use that as well, or sometimes gift cards and prepaid cards. Should we ban cash and gift cards? (hmm gift cards maybe…)
What I’m trying to say is, crypto is just a tool and it’s up to us to use it in a good or bad way. Unfortunately, most people seem to have chosen the second option.
Large bank transfers are generally traceable and require identifying documentation for the receiving bank account. Sure, that can be falsified, but it’s often a lot of work; and transfers of this size will often have a hold and/or, fraud prevention intelligence involved to prevent malicious activity.
Sure, it’s not impossible that a bank transfer could have prevented this. But crypto exacerbates human greed by removing the safeguards, restrictions, and identification/legality placed around currency. Once the money is transferred it’s gone to a set of numbers. Yes, humans are at fault. Humans have been greedy since the first human was born. Technology that allows greedy humans to more easily take advantage of others should be looked at with a critical lens.
It’s the reason people don’t hack banks, they hack crypto exchanges, and most of the time scammers get people to send them crypto using the vast networks of ATMs all over the world rather than charging their credit card or using a bank transfer.
IIUC, robbers have forced people to withdraw from cash machines.
Which have daily limits, are in public places, and have cameras. Not many people plan to kidnap and torture people for $500 a day.
I don’t know, I feel like I would be willing to do a lot for 182,500 a year
Not sure what crypto we’re talking about here, but most crypto coins (e.g. bitcoin) are also easily traceable, as all transactions are public. It’s true that they’re not reversible and that certainly offer less protection than a bank account, but also offer other things e.g. more privacy and decentralized infrastructure, which can be useful even to non criminals.
Also once again, if one needs absolutely no traceablilty (ok fine, almost no traceability) then cash is still king and criminals use that as well, or sometimes gift cards and prepaid cards. Should we ban cash and gift cards? (hmm gift cards maybe…)
What I’m trying to say is, crypto is just a tool and it’s up to us to use it in a good or bad way. Unfortunately, most people seem to have chosen the second option.