Googling 0.00001 BTC to USD can be dangerous. Loose lips sink ships — today, we explore a case of the Indian police abducting a BTC baron for his crypto holdings.
Preface
Many of us hold cryptocurrency as an investment, some of us obtain cryptocurrency to purchase access to ebooks, software, or other appliances. Regardless of what’s the use case of cryptocurrency, one thing is true: what started out as a rather speculative practice has quickly grown into a decentralized currency capable of quite literally taking over the world.
Regardless, many crypto traders/holders (or, as they refer to them in the crypto world, HODLers), say that one should stay silent about their money and some even go so far as to suggest one not to Google basic terms such as 0.00001 BTC to USD because these terms may stay in the search history of a browser. Many wonder why — the same is rarely said about traditional money, right? Why should one stay quiet about their crypto investments instead? Let us uncover a case that will send chills down your spine…
Googling 0.00001 BTC to USD Like…
Now, we’ll be fair — you can Google the term 0.00001 BTC to USD and there’s nothing bad with it — but if you find yourself doing it too often, you’re probably doing it for a reason. You’re probably checking what’s the price of your bitcoin or other cryptocurrency assets, right? And if you have a lot of crypto assets, you may as well become a target for harassment, theft, or even kidnapping, and a case in India, in Pune, only corroborates these findings.
A Plot to Confiscate $40 Million worth of BTC by the Police
In 2022, in India, a Hollywood-worthy scene unfolded: a police constable (officer) had learned that a resident of Pune (town in India) is a rather wealthy Bitcoin kingpin and, along with numerous co-conspirators, came up with a plan to abduct and kidnap him for his cryptocurrency holdings.
The reason for this abduction is very clear: when you hold BTC, you essentially become your own bank. There’s no “central authority” taking care of your money and thus, when bitcoin assets are stolen, you have nowhere to turn. In some cases, such assets are returned — but that often occurs after a lengthy investigation by the FBI or other law enforcement authorities.
India is a place where the average yearly salary is around 5.7 Lakh or around $7,000 USD, so, naturally, when someone becomes aware you have $40 million in your locally-held bank account (BTC), you become a target. A target of extortion, blackmail, and even kidnapping. Who do you turn to when this happens? Right — the police! But not all police officers are there to help — a case in India where a police officer has came up with a plan to abduct a bitcoin millionaire for his crypto holdings corroborates this fact.
When the Police Realizes that $40 Million in BTC is a Lot…
According to Indian news sources, Indian police has somehow became aware of a citizen having huge savings in Bitcoin, then came up with a plan to abduct the citizen with multiple other citizens (so far, it’s not known whether all of the co-conspirators are police officers too), abducted him and demanded he transfer all of his cryptocurrency assets into another account controlled by the criminals.
So far, from what we know, one of the criminals was a cybersecurity professional who was trained in cyber incident investigations and mobile forensic cases, and he was also alleged to have taken a bribe of Rs 10,000 (around $120 USD) in 2019. For a trained cyber security professional who is also a police officer, it wouldn’t be too hard to find out one holds BTC: perhaps the police officer had monitored the phone communications of his target, perhaps he had used some OSINT methods to find out his victim holds Bitcoin. It’s not out of the ordinary for the police to read through browser search history: if the police officer would’ve observed a google query like “0.00001 BTC to USD”, his suspicions of the victim holding a lot of BTC would only deepen.
No matter what’s the case, it may well have been that this police officer could’ve used access to data through a law enforcement body to track the victim: see his registered address, any email addresses he’s using, check out the aforementioned search history to search for queries like 0.00001 BTC to USD or anything similar, and then plot the operation from there.
The victim was allegedly kidnapped from a hotel in January. On the same day, an alleged friend of the victim had reported the incident to the police and told them that his friend was abducted.
It is said that police officers on the case had tracked the location of the phones of the criminals and also used CCTV camera footage to assist them with the investigation and have been trailing the criminals, and once the criminals had realized that they’re going down, they’ve released the victim from their car.
The victim told law enforcement officers that he was threatened to transfer all of the BTC in his wallet that was worth around $40 million along with around $10,500 in cash. It’s not known whether the victim has complied with any of the demands of his kidnappers, but we hope that everything ended well both for him and his friend.
The criminals who have masterminded the abduction have been taken into custody.
Protecting Your Identity Online
Besides being mindful when to Google certain terms and following basic cybersecurity and operational security principles, you can protect yourself online by using data breach search engines. One of those data breach search engines turns out to be BreachDirectory — BreachDirectory will let you conduct a search through hundreds of leaked databases and just with a click of a button, tell you whether any of your accounts are at risk of identity theft.
We hope that you have enjoyed this blog post, don’t forget to follow us on X (Twitter), LinkedIn, and Facebook, and come back to the BreachDirectory blog to read some more of our blogs later. For now, make good use of the BreachDirectory API and the data breach search engine, join our Discord server to chat about cryptocurrency and safety on the web, and until next time.
Summary
The abduction of the Bitcoin millionaire in India has made headlines across the Indian press. That’s not without a reason — holding $40 million USD in BTC in any country is a lot, and since there are no central authorities to protect your money, you’re essentially your own bank.
As you can tell from this story, not all law enforcement officers are there to help you and some may even use their powers against you. Be careful the next time you google 0.00001 BTC to USD… You never know who’s watching and with what intent.
Frequently Asked Questions
How Much is 1 Bitcoin Worth in USD in 2024?
At present, 1 BTC is worth around 63,500 USD. The price of BTC is expected to rise.
Is Googling 0.00001 BTC to USD Dangerous? Why Shouldn’t I Tell People How Much BTC I Have?
Googling terms like 0.00001 BTC to USD isn’t “dangerous” per se, but with that being said, always keep in mind that queries can be observed by nefarious parties. You never know who those nefarious parties may end up being — you can even meet law enforcement officers in between and this story only corroborates that fact.
How to Protect My Identity Online?
A very good way to protect your identity online is by using data breach search engines, such as the one provided by BreachDirectory. Both the data breach search engine and the BreachDirectory API will provide you with the necessary data you can then use to protect yourself, your team, and your customers from identity theft attacks.