Thieves in London target digital investors by taking phones

If one owns items of substantial value, something which is easy for a thief to take&#x2F;hard to trace&#x2F;almost impossible to recover once stolen, why would you <i>carry it around with you</i> unless you absolutely had to?<p>Setting up your phone so it can directly access your crypto wallets appears to be the modern equivalent of carrying physical silver&#x2F;gold&#x2F;bearer bonds around in your backpack every day.

In a recent Darknet Diaries episode, the guest describes how the world&#x27;s most valuable data breach dump (the one from the hardware wallet company Ledger) is used to steal crypto.<p>The perpetrators were cross checking data from the dump with an exposed Coinbase API that would return the user&#x27;s balance without prompting for 2FA and then they targeted the high balance individuals with spearfishing attacks and SIM swaps.

There is upside to being financially &quot;self sovereign,&quot; where you do not rely on a 3rd party to have custody of your money.<p>But there is also a big downside - you bear accountability for your actions with your money. There is no &quot;customer service&quot; or &quot;fraud department&quot; in crypto. Some people only learn the hard way.<p>Lesson here is - use a cold wallet, and maybe a &quot;watch only&quot; wallet[1] on your phone.<p>[1] Watch only wallet is a wallet that is connected to your offline cold wallet, where you can deposit and view your funds on the watch only wallet, but you cannot withdraw.

I live in a pretty safe country, but these days in the smartphone era I feel more vulnerable when alone at night in the city, not because I have crypto or anything but just because I have a smartphone, an expensive device and a PITA to lose in general.<p>In the pre-smartphone era, I&#x27;d have a maximum of 50 euros in cash in my pocket, not worth it for most muggers. I&#x27;d hand that over gladly.

Only in the UK… „A third victim said he had been vomiting under a bridge when a mugger forced him to unlock his phone“ :)

I&#x27;m FAR more concerned about real owners power, witch means Alphabet, Apple etc the real owner of such smartphones &quot;ecosystem&quot;, in terms of thief and effectiveness in changing our society...

Do not have non-custodial, or custodial, wallets on your phone. It is incredibly not wise.

That&#x27;s also a good reminder about the &quot;security&quot; of biometrics.