South African Robbed

Notice: This page is a freshly imported case study from the original repository. The original content was in a different format, and may not have relevant information for all sections. Please help restructure the content by moving information from the 'About' and 'General Prevention' sections to other sections, and add any missing information or sources you can find. If you are new here, please read General Tutorial on Wikis or Anatomy of a Case Study for help getting started.

Notice: This page contains sources which are not attributed to any text. The unattributed sources follow the initial description. Please assist by visiting each source, reviewing the content, and placing that reference next to any text it can be used to support. Feel free to add any information that you come across which isn't present already. Sources which don't contain any relevant information can be removed. Broken links can be replaced with versions from the Internet Archive. See General Tutorial on Wikis, Anatomy of a Case Study, and/or Citing Your Sources Guide for additional information. Thanks for your help!

A South African was invited to give a presentation on cryptocurrency. When he arrived, he was stripped, beaten, and burned. The theives demanded all of his money, including bitcoin, cash, and funds in his bank account. It's unclear if any funds were recovered.

This exchange or platform is based in South Africa, or the incident targeted people primarily in South Africa.

About None

"[A] South African Bitcoin trader, only identified as Andrew" "met an African man on Facebook who invited him to do a cryptocurrency presentation which was later to be followed by another one at a different venue in Lanseria. Andrew claims that he arrived at the venue of the presentation at around 1 PM where his audience consisted of two women and four men." "The trader was lured by a man he met on Facebook on the pretext that he would make a presentation about bitcoin and cryptocurrency." "According to the man, known only as Andrew, after meeting a man on Facebook, he was invited to do a presentation on the cryptocurrency in Ntuli Street in Meadowlands Zone Five subsequent to another meeting at Cresta Centre." "He was invited by an African male that he first met on the internet and thereafter at Cresta Centre, during the presentation there were six people present two of which were females and four males." "The complainant Andrew alleges that on November 16 at 01:00 pm he went to Ntuli street Meadowlands Zone 5 to do a presentation on bitcoin."

"Nov. 16, 2018, could potentially turn out to be one of the worst days for [him]." "At about 1 pm, he entered the residence to conduct the presentation to four men and two women. According to the trader, someone approached him from behind and stuck a cloth, presumed to be drug-infused, in his face after which he passed out unconscious." "Little did he know that it was a setup." "The trader says that he was grabbed from behind, his face covered with a cloth presumed to be infused with drugs and eventually passed out. By the time he regained consciousness, he had already been transported to a new place where he was surrounded by two women and three men."

"The victim was stripped of his clothing, beaten, and tortured. The group of robbers demanded to be given his Bitcoin password and FNB (a South African bank) account details."

"The bitcoin trader was stripped of his clothing, beaten, and tortured." "He was burnt with a hot iron and threated with death if he did not give them the information they wanted." "He eventually succumbed to the torture and gave his attackers the information they wanted. He was even forced to transfer R100,000 from his bank to an account they gave him."

"[A]fter he was tortured and subsequently lost R800,000 (~US$59,000) in Bitcoins, R3,000 ($220) in cash, and transferred R100,000 ($7,400) from his bank account to a one designated to him by the robbers, reported the SowetoUrban."

"The man also lost two laptops and two Apple iPhones as a result of the robbery that required a little bit of planning, more of greed, and inflicting the worst possible pain on the victim."

"After the robbery, the victim was blindfolded and dropped off in the middle of a road. He sustained burn wounds on his body organs and is currently recovering in the Alberton Union Hospital Intensive Care Unit." "The thieves robbed him of R 3 000 in cash, two laptops, and two Apple iPhones before blindfolding the victim and dropping him off at Kliprivier Road on the R550."

"The police (SAPS) have opened a case of robbery but no arrests have been made so far."

This exchange or platform is based in South Africa, or the incident targeted people primarily in South Africa.

The background of the exchange platform, service, or individuals involved, as it would have been seen or understood at the time of the events.

Include:

• Known history of when and how the service was started.
• What problems does the company or service claim to solve?
• What marketing materials were used by the firm or business?
• Audits performed, and excerpts that may have been included.
• Business registration documents shown (fake or legitimate).
• How were people recruited to participate?
• Public warnings and announcements prior to the event.

Don't Include:

• Any wording which directly states or implies that the business is/was illegitimate, or that a vulnerability existed.
• Anything that wasn't reasonably knowable at the time of the event.

There could be more than one section here. If the same platform is involved with multiple incidents, then it can be linked to a main article page.

The Reality

This sections is included if a case involved deception or information that was unknown at the time. Examples include:

• When the service was actually started (if different than the "official story").
• Who actually ran a service and their own personal history.
• How the service was structured behind the scenes. (For example, there was no "trading bot".)
• Details of what audits reported and how vulnerabilities were missed during auditing.

What Happened

The specific events of the loss and how it came about. What actually happened to cause the loss and some of the events leading up to it.

Key Event Timeline - South African Robbed

Date	Event	Description
November 16th, 2018	Main Event	Expand this into a brief description of what happened and the impact. If multiple lines are necessary, add them here.

Technical Details

This section includes specific detailed technical analysis of any security breaches which happened. What specific software vulnerabilities contributed to the problem and how were they exploited?

Total Amount Lost

The total amount lost has been estimated at $67,000 USD.

How much was lost and how was it calculated? If there are conflicting reports, which are accurate and where does the discrepancy lie?

Immediate Reactions

How did the various parties involved (firm, platform, management, and/or affected individual(s)) deal with the events? Were services shut down? Were announcements made? Were groups formed?

Ultimate Outcome

What was the end result? Was any investigation done? Were any individuals prosecuted? Was there a lawsuit? Was any tracing done?

Total Amount Recovered

There do not appear to have been any funds recovered in this case.

What funds were recovered? What funds were reimbursed for those affected users?

Ongoing Developments

What parts of this case are still remaining to be concluded?

General Prevention Policies

There was no reason to bring any money to the presentation. The majority of funds should be kept in a secure and unknown location, in cold storage. More advanced users should set up a multi-signature wallet with high security around all signatures. It's a useful idea to keep a wallet with a smaller balance that can be given up in case of an attack, and not to share information about the level of wealth an individual has.

Individual Prevention Policies

No specific policies for individual prevention have yet been identified in this case.

For the full list of how to protect your funds as an individual, check our Prevention Policies for Individuals guide.

Platform Prevention Policies

Policies for platforms to take to prevent this situation have not yet been selected in this case.

For the full list of how to protect your funds as a financial service, check our Prevention Policies for Platforms guide.

Regulatory Prevention Policies

No specific regulatory policies have yet been identified in this case.

For the full list of regulatory policies that can prevent loss, check our Prevention Policies for Regulators guide.