Re: US Recovers And Returns Over $500,000 In Bitcoin Stolen From A Coinbase User

Quote from: Poker Player on Today at 10:24:06 AM

Quote from: BenjaminGlover on Today at 09:20:53 AM

Quote

The United States Attorney's Office has recouped more than $500,000 in Bitcoin stolen from an elderly citizen of North Carolina. The fraudsters purported to be from the Inspector General's Office. The victim invested his retirement assets in Bitcoin through a cryptocurrency exchange. The transaction was flagged as possibly being an elder financial fraud.

How can the government rehabilitate itself? I realize that an address may be tracked and monitored, but how about a return? How is that possible??

Source: https://bobosandwojaks.com/more-than-500000-in-bitcoin-stolen-from-a-coinbase-user-is-recovered-and-returned-by-the-us-government/

I believe that if you had carefully read the brief article you link to, you would have had a clear idea and you would not ask that question.

As I understand it, the money never left Coinbase. Coinbase identified that transaction as suspicious, blocked it, and alerted the FBI, who would then confirm that it was fraud. The article doesn't say it exactly like that, but that's how I understand it.

If the "Bitcoins" that were "recovered" never left a centralized entity's ledger, then technically no one "recovered" any Bitcoins. We should know the difference between Bitcoin, and units in a ledger of a centralized entity called "Bitcoin". It's truly not Bitcoin until it is confirmed in your Bitcoin address.