Masked Gunmen Tie Up Woman in France, Steal Crypto USB

Three masked men broke into a home in Manosque, France, on Monday evening, tying up a woman at gunpoint and stealing a USB drive containing her partner’s crypto data.

The incident occurred at a residence on Chemin Champs de Pruniers in Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, according to French outlet Le Parisien. 

The assailants threatened the victim with a handgun and slapped her before taking the USB drive and fleeing.

The victim, who was reportedly unharmed, managed to free herself within minutes and contacted police. An investigation has been opened and entrusted to the local criminal investigation department and the regional directorate of the national police.

Last year, Jameson Lopp, CTO of the security firm Casa, documented over 70 crypto-related wrench attacks globally in his publicly available database, with France emerging as a European hotspot for violent crypto-related crime, with more than 14 such incidents reported.

“France’s combination of a relatively high baseline level of criminal activity, visible concentrations of crypto wealth among founders, traders, and public figures, and growing local expertise in digital assets creates fertile conditions for more opportunistic and organized crypto-related crime,” cybercrime consultant David Sehyeon Baek told Decrypt.

Baek said it is reasonable to expect some established criminal networks in France to increasingly fold crypto into crimes when it offers “better margins,” “faster cross-border transfers,” or “lower perceived traceability” than cash or traditional banking channels.

“Global liquidity, markets that never close, and the ability to move large amounts of money across borders almost instantly” make crypto an attractive target for criminals, he added.

The case comes amid revelations that a French tax official was indicted last June for abusing access to state tax databases to identify potential targets, including cryptocurrency investors, and pass their personal information to criminal actors.

According to a separate report by Le Parisien, the official used internal tax software to search for addresses, income details, and family information unrelated to her duties, in at least one instance preceding a violent home invasion.

Judges said the searches could not be justified by her role, which focused on corporate taxation.