A tourist from the U.S. lost $123,000 worth of cryptocurrency in London after mistakenly getting into a fake Uber cab. The fraudulent driver drugged and kidnapped the victim, stealing Bitcoin and XRP from the victim’s phone.
The tourist is identified as Jacob Irwin-Cline, from Portland, Oregon. He said that he was on a layover in London when the incident occurred. As per the CCTV footage, the incident occurred on 9th May at 1:30 AM when Jacob left the nightclub in Soho. He had booked an Uber but mistakenly entered a dark sedan instead of the Toyota Prius shown on his Uber app.
After Jacob entered the car, the fraudster drugged and kidnapped him. The fraudster used his phone to steal his cryptocurrency. As per the reports, the driver took $72,000 in XRP, $50,000 in Bitcoin, and some other smaller amounts of digital money from the victim’s digital wallet.
This crime highlights a concerning trend in which criminals impersonate ride-share drivers, such as those from Uber, to deceive and rob cryptocurrency owners, exploiting their lack of attention. Last year on 17th December, the police arrested an Uber driver in the United States, in Scottsdale, Arizona, who stole $300,000 in cryptocurrency.
This instance was a similar case to what has happened recently in the UK. In that case, the driver tricked people by saying he needed their phones to look up directions but then used the phones to steal $300k worth of the cryptocurrency. The London incident has made cryptocurrency owners more cautious.Â
This incident reminds everyone to keep their digital money safe, especially when traveling to new places, since crypto crimes are increasing around the world. The police are looking into the case, but they haven’t caught anyone yet.
