London tourist loses over $120,000 in cryptocurrency after ride with fake taxi
Date: 2025-05-22 Author: Gabriel Deangelo Categories: IN WORLD
American citizen Jacob Irwin-Cline was robbed of over $123,000 in cryptocurrency after getting into a car that he mistook for an Uber taxi. The incident occurred in the Soho area, near The Roxy nightclub, where he went to relax during a short visit to the British capital.
After leaving the club, the man called an Uber, but was approached by an unknown person who called him by name and offered to give him a ride. Irwin-Cline, trusting the seemingly friendly person, agreed to the ride. CCTV footage later confirmed that instead of the registered car from the Uber app, he got into an unnamed dark sedan.
According to the victim, during the trip, the driver offered him a cigarette. Although Irvin-Kline initially refused, the man insisted. The tourist agreed and smoked a cigarette, after which his condition changed dramatically. Presumably, the cigarette contained scopolamine, a substance capable of causing memory loss and depression with partial preservation of consciousness.
Under the influence of the drug, he, without realizing his actions, gave the attacker access to his phone, including the PIN code. This was enough to open the Revolut app and transfer significant amounts of cryptocurrency to other people's accounts.
Later, Irvin-Kline discovered that assets worth about $123,000 had disappeared from his crypto wallets, including:
- $72,000 in XRP,
- $50,000 in Bitcoin,
- and other digital assets for smaller amounts.
According to the victim, he does not think the criminal knew in advance that he had crypto assets - rather, it was a lucky break on the part of the fraudster.
British police have launched an investigation into this incident, but so far no suspects have been arrested. The case is being considered in the context of the increasing number of crimes in Europe related to physical impact on cryptocurrency owners. Such attacks in the crypto community are known as "wrench attacks" - when the victim is forced to hand over control of their digital assets.
Security experts advise crypto owners to be especially careful when traveling and try to minimize access to wallets on mobile devices.
