Good point, to this day I don't believe in the James Howells story - he didn't prove in anyway that he had access to this Bitcoins and later he used his (now famous) twitter account to advertise Bitcoin Cash.

If he was really into tech and believed in Bitcoin, he would buy it again as it was still pretty cheap.

It was all a stunt in my opinion.

Stories like "I lost a password to what was worth nothing now is worth tens of millions of dollars" is meant to activate our imagination and buy too.

I'm not saying it's a fake story, attacks like this happen all the time but there are a lot of stories that have hidden agenda.

OP, look at his last post:



I think you should remove it too.

This is not just a crypto or Bitcoin related incidence but a Pure case of arm rubbery that could happen to anyone regardless of the occupation you're into or wether you're saving your funds in Bitcoin or normal fiat with the banks.

In my region, when you're doing interstate travel between bothers of different states, armed robbers would position themselves in the middle of the road with an ATM machine while waiting for market women that are just returning from the market, they will hunt after them, use the ATM machine to run transfer from those banks and somehow, the security agencies don't end up apprehending them. The solution of these kind of incidence is first of the live a low profile life so you don't attract people to yourself and then ensure that you are following all the safety and security measures that will protect you from most of this arm rubbers.

Before attacking someone that's in this digital space, it's almost certain that those guys knows that he has some holding with him and such information can only get to the. Through an insider you've revealed it to or through yourself if you're not the type that keeps quiet.

Even without being your own bank and using fiat currencies, you could still be physically attacked and robbed, the robbers can also force you to transfer money to them, it happens, just that in such cases it is easier to track the criminal, than when they use BTC.

However, some people who suffer $5 wrench attacks are boastful about the amount they have in BTC, bringing attention to themselves before they get eventually attacked, so you can avoid this kind of attack by simply keeping quiet. Another way is to extend your seed phrase with a passphrase, this gives you the opportunity of plausible deniability, but make sure you load the base wallet with a good amount, but way less that what you actually have, so the thieves can take it and leave.

Prevention is one thing, but we should also be prepared for the attack.

What we really should discuss here is what type of ammunition to use in your daily EDC gun.

Federal HST for the win, comes in all sizes  

I just posted it, It's not me who got robbed.

Very strong passphrase ? it doesn't matter in this case. I don't know what you mean by "plausible deniability" but criminals will torture you (or your love ones) until you break and it can take hours or even days if they kidnap you.

I agree that you may never need any protection from physical attack but you should have at least one just in case.
It's like having a fire extinguisher in your house.

If you have large amounts of money, why not invest ~500-700 bucks (depending where you live) to buy a Glock ?

I see your $5 wrench and raise you my $300 Walther PPQ M2 in 9MM EDC with two 17 round magazines. 😉

They knew you have crypto and also know where you live, you messed up bro, there are many people like him in the world today and this man just happen to be in the mist of bad surroundings, there are people who will spend days talking about crypto in the public and nothing will happen to them but if you copy their moves you could be a victim like this person.

Not all surroundings will be the same, some are safer where no one cares about what you have and how you acquire your wealth but some surroundings are filled up with sharks, waiting for a proof to be assured that you have something they can forcefully take from you.

The best thing to do is avoid the public, do not discuss about crypto and your bags in the public, many people are human beings in the day and Vampires in the night.

First of all the OP just posted the event but this did not happen to them, and second is really anyone surprised this happens? Despite the fact that whatever is posted online is stored in a multitude of servers by many companies, people share everything about their lives on social media and anywhere they can, so it is trivial for criminals to target people that share the great wealth they posses, whether this wealth is on the form of fiat, gold, art or bitcoin is irrelevant, so be prepared for attacks like this to be on the rise for a long time.