Cryptocurrency traders are increasingly becoming targets of kidnapping and extortion, with a recent surge in cases

Odaily Report: Cryptocurrency traders are increasingly becoming targets of kidnapping and extortion, as evidenced by several recent cases reported in the past few weeks. According to local French media France Bleu Normandie, French police rescued a man bound in the trunk of a car in Le Mans, after the kidnappers demanded a ransom from his son, a crypto KOL living in Dubai. The incident occurred on the evening of January 1, when Le Mans police intercepted a stolen vehicle at a gas station. Upon opening the trunk, they found a 56-year-old man soaked in gasoline. The victim said that masked assailants had broken into his home on New Year's Eve, kidnapping him and his wife, and transporting him over 300 miles away. The kidnappers used crypto networks to demand a ransom from his son. In Pakistan, on January 3, seven people, including an anti-terrorism department official, were arrested for kidnapping a local cryptocurrency trader. The victim, Mohammed Arsalan, was abducted in Karachi's Manghopir on December 25. Reports indicate that the kidnappers forced him to transfer $340,000 through a Binance account before abandoning him near the Quaid-i-Azam Mohammed Ali Jinnah mausoleum. The criminals successfully fled the scene, and the investigation is ongoing. Previously, in December, a 24-year-old woman, Catherine Colivas, with the help of three accomplices, kidnapped a member of the Saudi Arabian royal family and threatened to cut off his fingers to force him to pay $40,000 in Bitcoin. Although Colivas pleaded guilty, she was not sent to prison. During a hearing in Victoria, Australia, she faced a maximum sentence of 25 years for charges including kidnapping, extortion, reckless injury, theft, and firearms offenses. However, the judge considered her age, difficult upbringing, mental health, rehabilitation prospects, and the death of her brother during the trial, and deemed her case "exceptional," sentencing her to 30 months of community service. Meanwhile, the Toronto police are still investigating the kidnapping of WonderFi CEO Dean Skurka. According to CBC News, Skurka was abducted in downtown Toronto during rush hour on November 6 and released after a $1 million ransom was paid electronically. Data from blockchain analysis firm Chainalysis shows that ransomware groups extorted over $1.1 billion in crypto from victims in 2023.