CustodyStress
Archive › Physical coercion
Part of the CustodyStress archive of observed Bitcoin custody incidents
CS-00827

Approximately 400 victims sent 12.86 BTC believing they were responding to a verified

Blocked
Case description
On 15 July 2020 attackers compromised the Twitter accounts of major public figures and corporations including Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Elon Musk, Apple, and Coinbase to post Bitcoin doubling scam messages. The accounts promised to double any BTC sent to a specific address. Approximately 400 victims sent 12.86 BTC ($116,000) believing they were responding to a verified promotion.
Custody context
Stress conditionPhysical coercion
Custody systemExchange custody
OutcomeBlocked
DocumentationUnknown
Year observed2020
CountryUnited States
Structural dependencies observed
Single point of failureThird-party platform dependency
What this illustrates
There was only one way in. When that path was gone, so was access. Access was not recoverable.
Outcome interpretation
Access was not possible under the reported conditions.
Source
Publicly Reported
Evidence type
News article
Related cases involving physical coercion
105 cases involve physical coercion 512 cases involve exchange custody View archive statistics →
This archive documents observed custody survivability failures. It does not attempt to document all Bitcoin losses or security incidents. Submit a case
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Framework references
Terms guide
Survives
Access remained possible under the reported conditions.
Constrained
Access remained possible, but only with delay, dependence, or significant difficulty.
Blocked
Access was not possible under the reported conditions.
Indeterminate
There was not enough information to determine the outcome.
Single-person knowledge
Recovery depended on information or capability held by one individual who was unavailable.
Institutional dependence
Recovery depended on a third-party institution or service that was inaccessible or uncooperative.
Documentation gap
Recovery depended on instructions that were missing, incomplete, or unclear.
Authority mismatch
The person with legal authority to act did not have operational access, or vice versa.
Original text
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