A French couple was targeted three times by home invaders seeking €1 million in crypto they never owned. The attacks followed a dark web leak of the previous owners' personal data, highlighting a dangerous shift in crypto-related crime.
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A couple in France's Somme department was hit by three separate home invasions in under a month, each group believing the victims held roughly €1 million in cryptocurrency they never owned. The attacks followed a dark web leak of personal data belonging to the property's previous owners.
The victims, an agricultural worker and a banking executive, bought a house that had belonged to wealthy retirees known to hold crypto. The former owners' tax information and home address were exposed in a data breach, then sold online as a lead on a high-value crypto target. That data was never updated after the sale.
The new owners' dogs scared off the first intruders. A second group entered the property days later, restrained and assaulted one resident, and streamed part of the attack on Snapchat before realizing they had the wrong people. An alarm installed after that helped stop a third attempt on July 17.
Two men, aged 20 and 21, were sentenced this week by an Amiens court for their role in the third attempt. One was recruited through Telegram to help enter the property. They received three years and 18 months respectively.
The Somme case is part of a broader shift in crypto-related physical crime. Attackers appear to be working from databases that combine names, addresses, tax records, and perceived crypto wealth. CertiK, a security firm, described this as a move toward "data-driven targeting," where criminals combine leaked databases, exchange information, blockchain activity, and residential data to build victim profiles. Outdated information can leave people exposed long after the intended target has moved on.
France has become the center of that trend. CertiK recorded 52 verified crypto wrench attacks globally during the first half of 2026, including 33 in France. Home invasions surged from one verified case in H1 2025 to 20 this year. Recorded financial exposure across all wrench attacks reached $124.1 million. French authorities, using a broader definition, counted 77 crypto-related physical incidents in the first half of the year, up from 45 a year earlier.
For the Somme couple, the threat has persisted despite having no cryptocurrency to surrender. They are now trying to sell the house.
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