A couple in France's Somme department was attacked by three separate groups of home invaders seeking roughly €1 million in cryptocurrency that the victims never owned, after criminals relied on outdated dark web data tied to the property's previous owners.
The new owners, an agricultural worker and a banking executive, had purchased the house from wealthy retirees associated with cryptocurrency. The former owners' tax information and home address were reportedly exposed in a data breach and later offered for sale on the dark web as a potential crypto target. Because the records were never updated, the new residents became victims: dogs scared off the first group, a second group restrained and assaulted a resident and streamed part of the attack on Snapchat before realizing the mistake, and an alarm foiled a third break-in on July 17.
This week, an Amiens court sentenced two men aged 20 and 21 to three years and 18 months respectively for their roles in the third attempt; one was recruited via Telegram. The case is part of a wider trend described by CertiK as 'data-driven targeting'. CertiK recorded 52 verified crypto wrench attacks globally in the first half of 2026, including 33 in France, with home invasions rising from one verified case in H1 2025 to 20 this year and financial exposure reaching $124.1 million. French authorities counted 77 crypto-related physical incidents in H1 2026, up from 45 a year earlier.
