Security News > 2022 > May > Crypto thief threatened to cut man's fingers 'one by one,' stole £34K
On Wednesday, May 11th, The Crown Court at Southwark in London sentenced 21-year-old Karim Hassan to five years in prison for pulling off multiple crypto robberies and making lethal threats to his victims, a source familiar with the specifics of the case has told BleepingComputer.
Upon refusing to give his phone to Hassan, Hankin was quickly threatened to "Do something before I stick it in your neck," states the victim's statement.
In a similar fashion, another victim, Abbas Mamuod was forced into paying Hassan over £10,000 after being threatened with a pocketknife.
Hassan's barrister, John Oliver acknowledged the seriousness of his client's crimes and mentioned Hassan's "Troubled family background" and having to "Step up to the role of father of the family from an early age."
Crypto robberies, like the kind carried out by Hassan, are convenient as criminals no longer need to lead the victim to an ATM machine-funds can be siphoned off right from the victims' smartphones as soon as the victims are in a relatively isolated place.
One may also wonder, in a world with no shortage of online cryptocurrency exchanges, Bitcoin ATMs, and new crypto ventures springing up every other day, what would tempt someone to avail services of dubious crypto ATMs, like Hassan's? That too, after being led there via an anonymous Snapchat account.