Yep - and apparently not so much worried about "keeping their families safe"... -- https://www.businessinsider.co.za/b...n-brothers-ameer-cajee-and-raees-cajee-2021-6 Where are Ameer Cajee and Raees Cajee, two brothers barely out of their teens, and what has – unreliably – been reported to be some R50 billion worth of crypto tokens? Somewhere WhatsApp is banned, their family in South Africa believe, based on the very limited clues they've been able to gather. "We really don't know," says Zakira Laher their cousin and former fellow director at Africrypt, the bitcoin-focussed company at the centre of what is now a global enquiry. It is a phrase Laher uses a lot. She, and the rest of the extended family she says, know very little. They are not in direct communication with the brothers, and last heard from them months ago. The family knows the brothers left the country. Via third parties who know them, the family has learnt that the Cajee's lives are thought to be in danger. But is the threat from disgruntled investors, some of whom say they lost millions of rands in what they now believe to be an exit scam – or is the threat from some huge crime syndicate some now believe the Cajee's allegedly helped with money laundering? "We don't know," Laher tells Business Insider South Africa.
"We don't know" ... oh heavens.... of course they don't know If it were my money I know exactly where I'd start looking for it.
The more bearish the media becomes, the more bullish you should be. Always do the opposite of what they say and you'll prosper, or at least have a fighting chance at it. Dont take advice from anyone that is 100 percent wrong every time.
Didn't it say in the article they were using scrambling techniques with btc 'mixers and tumblers'. Basically kind of like the tor/onion router for btc. It creates thousands of false chains, probably between altcoins, exchanges and neutral pathways.
My very limited understanding of mixing is it takes a whole bunch of inputs and spits out a whole bunch of outputs, essentially mixing the UTXO's of the owners with other peoples so it is harder to track
Yeah even I mix my ether sometimes and I'm not doing anything dodgy, just prefer people not being able to link accounts/history.
Presumably the BTC, or at least some of it can be traced if the investigators were motivated, skilled and had the means. In this particular case concerning a dodgy exchange from South Africa, the answers would be no, no and no.
Someone steals your walled.dat file/steals your USB "smart" wallet (provided that they know the key to it) or, they simply gain access to your computer and transfer the coins away. That's how they can steal Bitcoins. Or: "smarter" thieves develop crypto wallets and offer them for free online, people put their coins in there and then the wallet creators run away with the coins. It's easy to invent pockets for people with too much cash and don't know where to put them
I only have my cryptos in Webull. Theres no way anyone could access it without my pin number. I dont know how anyone could really have them stolen unless they are just that irresponsible with their investments haha.
I'm not tech savvy enough to understand what that is haha. Never heard of it happening though. I only have a cell phone andriod.
Basically someone could install software on your device that records and sends everything you type - so at some point you type your pin/password and they have access.
Not that common unless you're stupidly opening attachments from your spam folder, or are really unlucky and one gets through (though if you are a high net worth individual you could be targeted more covertly). Most commonly people lose their coins through hacked exchanges or 3rd party sites/wallets. Or, the owners of said sites and exchanges pull a heist themselves. Webull sounds as safe as robbinhood (i.e. pretty safe).
Yeah I think keyloggers more likely installed in person (like jealous/controlling partner checking what you're doing online) - or carelessness (installing random .exe files)
Yes - slowly but surely. MEXICO CITY, June 28 (Reuters) - Mexican financial authorities on Monday said that crypto assets are not legal tender in Mexico and are not considered currencies under current laws, warning that financial institutions that operate with them are subject to sanctions. -- "The financial authorities reiterate their warnings ... on the risks inherent in the use of so-called 'virtual assets' as a means of exchange, as a store of value or as another form of investment," the statement said. "The country's financial institutions are not authorized to carry out and offer to the public operations with virtual assets, such as Bitcoin, Ether, XRP and others in order to maintain a healthy distance between them and the financial system." Mexican financial institutions must also avoid transmitting to their clients the risks associated with cryptocurrency operations, the statement said, adding that the use of so-called stablecoins - a form of cryptocurrency usually pegged to a traditional currency - was not permitted under current Mexican law. https://www.reuters.com/world/ameri...rencies-are-not-money-warns-risks-2021-06-28/
So the institutions that didnt recognize them as a currency in the past still dont haha. So life as usual for a crypto holder. Nothing has changed. Back to my coffee.