Hong Kong Police Apprehends BTC ATM Thieves Who Stole $30,000

The Hong Kong police have successfully arrested the thieves that stole $30,000 from bitcoin ATMs as we have reported previously in the Bitcoin news today.

The Hong Kong police arrested three men after their alleged involvement of stealing more than $30,000 from Bitcoin ATMs in the territory. The arrested men ranging from 26 to 55 exploited six different BTC ATM machines and manipulated them into cashing out Hong Kong dollar equivalent of more than $30,000 US dollars according to an article from the South China Morning Post, stating that the robbers took the cash out in 11 transactions.

The authorities believe that the three males in question are a part of a bigger criminal operation as the South China Morning Post article said. The two exchanges tipped the authorities off for their activities before the arrests were made. Wilson Tam, a superintendent from the Hong Kong cyber security and technology crime bureau didn’t comment any further about the methods used but the bureau provides the two affected ATMs with tips on how to boost their security measures as Tam said:

“It is the first time we came across fraud linked to bitcoin ATMs.”

The number of Bitcoin ATM machines in the world hit 8000 in June while Bitcoin itself gained even more publicity as a viable asset in the course of a year making the asset a huge target for attacks. Also as reported in the best cryptocurrency news sites, The German Financial regulator targeted illegal Bitcoin ATMs that were operating in the country.

The German Financial regulator came down on illegal Bitcoin ATMs that were operating in the country without having a license. According to the reports, the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority which targeted operators of BTC ATMs that were working in the country illegally. Only the BTC machines with a BaFin license according to the German Banking Act can operate in Germany. The report revealed that the operator of BTC ATMs under the name Shitcoins Club came under the spotlight as the BaFin ordered Adam Gramowski who is the manager of the ATM to stop all operations in Germany.

So, the total number of Bitcoin ATMs has recently passed 8,000 in a worldwide manner, and it is continuously reported by the monitoring resource CoinATMRadar. Details from their website show that there are around 8,208 ATMs in 73 countries allowing users to buy and sell Bitcoin (BTC) and altcoins in cash.