Why are there more and more robbery crimes targeting and exploiting Web3?

Just this week at the Brussels Ethereum meetup @EthCC in Belgium, nearly 10 people were robbed...

We have put together a Crypto guide for safe travel abroad.

A must-see for high net worth crypto bros.

There are only two types of crimes against your money:

(1) Premeditated and carefully planned;

(2) Being tempted by money and randomly targeting people. Focusing on these two points, you should minimize these two risks before and during your trip.

【Be sure to listen to the embassy! 】

Before going abroad, it is recommended to learn about relevant information and travel precautions through the Chinese Consular Service Network, the "Consular Express", and the Chinese embassy in the local area. Be sure to save the emergency contact information, otherwise you will not have time to search in an emergency. The embassy will also tell you the local police phone number and foreigner helpline.

[DYOR Research local security information, don’t give yourself away]

1. Check the latest security situation. Check official websites, news reports and traveler forums to learn about the security situation at your destination. If there are armed protests or conflicts, don't go. It's that simple.

2. Crime rate maps. Kidnapping, theft, violent crime - here are two recommended websites for viewing crime information: Smart Traveler and GeoSure.

3. Plan your trip in advance. Choose a hotel with 24-hour security, take safe routes when going out or attending meetings, and make sure you are safe around you! Passing through unsafe places (especially at night) will greatly increase the probability of encountering random crimes.

P.S. Nowadays, when choosing a location, various crypto conferences have already tried their best to consider security. The robberies in Brussels happened outside the conference area. No project owner would want to hold a meeting in northern Myanmar, right? If you are lured by various reasons, such as going to Southeast Asia to make money in the gray industry, then I suggest you search for relevant cases on Zhihu... It's shocking. Don't be fooled.

[Brother, be a little more low-key]

The itinerary of wealthy people is quite mysterious. Friends who have just become rich like to publicize their success on Twitter, which is not a bad thing. But be careful of being targeted by criminal groups, who do all kinds of things on Twitter. For example, the guy in the link below is an acquaintance.

Ask yourself, how many BTC can you afford to lose at most? 0.1, 1, or 100? Don't show off more than this number - because it can become a target of criminal conspiracy. This can even happen between close people. Unless it is required for work, try to keep a low profile and don't let people be tempted by your password and private key. It's better to be as mysterious as "Satoshi Nakamoto" and return to the anonymous nature of Crypto.

Dress in a low-key and mysterious way, and avoid cryptocurrency logos. Generally, only big KOLs and big investors have exchange peripherals; those who wear project peripherals are usually team members or VCs. Cool, right? I risked my life for it. Going out and showing crypto-related logos everywhere is like writing "Come and grab my coins" on your face.

【Consider purchasing insurance and security services】

Insurance can help you recover some money to a certain extent if you encounter it. The security guards with live ammunition around you will make you feel safer, and it is not so easy to rob. If you have a little money, it is still very cost-effective. Or join a group with friends. Some embassies have relevant information to recommend. Brother Sun even has his own security team. Want to kill alone offline? Not likely.

【Only bring the necessary money】

The purpose here is to reduce "risk exposure" - you don't want to go back to zero, right? If there is a lot of money in the exchange, don't take the relevant equipment abroad. Just leave the cold wallet at home. If you must bring a computer or mobile phone with sensitive information, you must put it in a high-end hotel with a safe and surveillance.

[Make a decoy wallet and cut off your arm to survive! ]

When criminals know you have cryptocurrency, the importance of having three burrows becomes apparent. It is recommended to use a backup exchange and hardware wallet when traveling abroad, and the money in them should be what you can afford to lose - saving your life comes first.

If you have a primary hardware wallet (all major brands have them, take OneKey as an example), then I recommend this treasure function - set up a passphrase and hidden wallet to put your biggest treasure in the deepest place.

This passphrase is equivalent to an "additional password" after a mnemonic, which can open a series of hidden wallets in addition to the series of wallet addresses created by the mnemonic. In this way, you can store your real assets in the hidden wallet and only keep some "bait"-level assets in the directly created wallet. This passphrase can be a lot of content - numbers, words or even sentences.

——Of course, if you publicly show off your wealth and your coin address to the whole network, you will probably have to cough up all your money if someone threatens you. So it’s best not to do this, unless you really need to show off, and don’t care about being targeted, and have a full security team.

Basically, all kinds of prevention, protection and life-saving measures are in place. Basically, petty theft and robbery will not cause you any major losses. But for kidnapping, the most you can do is to avoid and prevent it. As for the extortion kidnappings that are industrialized by groups in Myanmar and the Philippines in Southeast Asia (the one in the first quote), we have read recent reports that Chinese citizens can be said to have a narrow escape from death, and often lose both their lives and their money.

【Final Tips】

If you succeed in this round of A9+, and your friends in northern Myanmar recently asked you if you made money by speculating in cryptocurrencies, please recite the full text with me:

I've made a lot of jokes, but this matter is really serious. I hope everyone will not encounter offline crypto crimes and take the greatest possible precautions.