Real Money Heist Stories

Overview

According to sources in the year 1992, there has been a real money heist of 0.8 million dollars in the Bank of Spain. There were two robbers and one of the robbers was wearing a red color jumpsuit similar to what is shown in Netflix's Money Heist.

Today I will be talking about some of the biggest heists that have been done both physically and digitally around the world.

Physical Money Heists

This is a type of heist where robbers physically go to a bank and rob paper money.

1. The Banco Central Burglary (Amount 71.6 million dollars)

According to Gunnies Book of World Records, this heist was the biggest at that time. In the year 2005 in Brazil, a gang of 25 people dug a 256-foot tunnel for 3 months which will take them to the Banco Central Bank's vault floor. After going inside they were able to collect 160 million Brazilian Real. Out of 25 robbers, only 8 were caught by police and were able to recover only 20 million Real.

2. The Securities Depot Robbery (Amount 83 million dollars)

This is the biggest robbery in the history of Britain where paper money was involved. In the year 2006, an insider man of the depot filmed the whole area to know each & every corner of the depot. Then a man wearing a mask kidnapped the branch manager and hostage his family. Later, the robbers take the manager to the depot's vault and pressurized him to give access to the vault. They were able to rob a sum of 83 million dollars.

3. The Knightsbridge Security Deposit Robbery (Amount 97 million dollars)

The mastermind behind this heist was Valerio Viccei. He was already wanted in Italy for 50+ armed robberies. He applied a classic style for this robbery. In 1987, he and his assistant went to the bank and said they want to rent a safe deposit and when the bank employee opened the vault Valerio pointed the gun towards him and robbed the vault. He later fled to South America but the police were able to arrest him.

The next two Heists are from Iraq.

4. The Dar Es Salaam bank Heist (Amount 282 million dollars)

The bank is actually a private bank and it is in Iraq's capital Baghdad. There is no such information about this heist. Police said the thieves were three guards who worked at that bank. Guards showed up in the morning only to realize the front door was open and the money was gone. It is believed to be the largest theft in Iraq since the 2003 battle to topple Saddam Hussein. It's unknown whether the thieves were ever caught.

5. The Central Bank of Iraq Robbery (Amount 920 million dollars)

It is the biggest robbery in history till now. This was done by then-president of Iraq Saddam Hussein himself. One day before the war started in Iraq in 2006 he send three trucks to the central bank. The exact details of the bank robbery of the Central Bank of Iraq are not clear. It is alleged that a group of men, which included Hussein's son, went to the bank with large trucks. Upon arrival, they demanded almost one billion dollars in cash which were loaded into the trucks over a period of hours.

All these heists have been done before 2010. But after humans shifted to digital infrastructure in the same way heists have also become digital.

Digital Money Heists

All these heists have been done using the swift system and behind all these, there were North Korean hackers. The full form of swift is Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication. It is a kind of messaging service where bank to bank information is transferred.

1. Union Bank of India Heist (Amount 170 million dollars)

This was done by North Korean Hackers. They send malware encrypted in an email. After an employee opened an email attachment releasing malware that allowed hackers to steal the state-run bank's data. Hackers used that data to steal Union Bank's access codes for the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication. This robbed money was routed to New York, Australia, and Taiwan's financial institutions. But thankfully Union Bank had traced the money trail and blocked the movement of funds. Most of the money was recovered successfully.

2. Malaysian Central Bank Heist (Amount 390 million dollars)

The same technique was also applied here. In 2018, North Korean hackers used the swift system. But with the help of other financial institutions Bank was able to recover that money.

3. Bangladesh Bank Heist (Amount 1 billion dollars)

Hackers targeted 1 billion dollars but were able to rob only 81 million dollars. In January 2015, many employees of the bank got an email about a resume of a candidate. One of the employees downloaded that resume and malware got activated. Hackers sucked $81 million from accounts at Bangladesh Bank in just hours.

These were all the heists that were done in a bank. Now let's talk about some cryptocurrency-related heists. We think cryptocurrency cannot be hacked. But in today's world, it is really easy.

Cryptocurrency Heists

1. KuCoin Heist (Amount 281 million dollars)

Ku Coin is a cryptocurrency exchange where currencies like bitcoin, ethereum are traded. KuCoin is a victim of one of the largest reported digital currency heists. But thankfully it was later said they were able to recover 84% of the amount.

2. MT.GOX Heist (Amount 530 million dollars)

It is one of the oldest players in the cryptocurrency world. Hackers stole nearly 450 million dollars worth of bitcoins. Due to this company was bankrupted. It is still now known who was involved behind this heist.

3. Coincheck Crypto Heist (Amount 530 million dollars)

It is one of Asia’s biggest digital currency exchanges. Most of the losses pertain to a lesser-known cryptocurrency NEM. Hackers broke in at 2:57 a.m. local time on Friday, 25th January 2018. However, the breach went undetected for nearly another eight and half hours. It is still not known whether the money was recovered or not.

Join Vocal Media Ambassador Program - https://vocal.media/vocal-plus?via=debojeet