I was informed that my elder brother had been kidnapped. Few minutes later I called his phone number and the kidnappers were requesting for outrageous ransom. After three days of contacting them, we were able to negotiate until it got to the amount we could afford.

Since they requested that his wife bring the money in cash, we had to transfer what we had gathered to her account. After buying all the materials because they also requested such as cartoons of milk, biscuits, and other food items. My sister in-law headed to local money changers to collect fiat since banks are restricted to give such an amount in cash.

As she was transferring the money to the local money changer's bank account, it was later discovered that she could not move all the money since her daily transfer limit was below the amount the kidnappers demanded. When she rushed to the bank to upgrade her transfer limits, they said there was no service in the bank. When she tried to inform them that it was an emergency, they told her that there was nothing they could do about it.

It was a problem because we had already informed the kidnappers that she was bringing the money that day. When we informed them about the latest development, they told us that we were working with the police and were planning to get them arrested. They informed my sister in-law to forget about my brother because he would be killed that night. That period was the most terrifying night of my life.

Long story short, they accepted the change of plans and my brother was released the next day after his wife's account was upgraded and the money delivered in cash the next day. But my brother's leg was broken because of the delay, and he told us that he was beaten through the night.

I know that we shouldn't promote ransom payment using Bitcoin, but I would have done anything for my brother to be released. Each time I was called for ransom negotiations, I would be hearing the beatings and threats on the background and it was terrifying.

I have learned to always have Bitcoin as a backup because centralized platforms cannot be trusted. With Bitcoin:
-No need to upgrade the account.
-No network failure.
-No transaction limit.