In this case it also didn't help that the husband had been bragging about his bitcoin trading success, even lying about having 200 bitcoin.

The problem starts when the attackers know roughly how much you have, so they won't leave you alone until they get it all. Travel Rule helps to make this info leakable.

SwapMarket

Threatened with having his genitals cut off, the father gave the men access to his and his wife’s cryptocurrency accounts. Over the course of the evening, they made multiple withdrawals from both accounts totalling US$1.6 million (roughly $2.2 million Canadian), effectively draining the accounts.

Security is all about friction and inconvenience. If you have convenient access to USD 1.6M, there are scenarios like this that you're not secure against.

But if they had been secure against it, wouldn't the attackers have cut his genitals off? Of course there's a chance, but the calculus doesn't really check out. It's a significant and unusual escalation for no realistic gain.

bitcoin

B.C. family tortured for 13hrs by thieves impersonating mailmen in crypto heist

Scoresby

> Threatened with having his genitals cut off, the father gave the men access to his and his wife’s cryptocurrency accounts. Over the course of the evening, they made multiple withdrawals from both accounts totalling US$1.6 million (roughly $2.2 million Canadian), effectively draining the accounts.

Security is all about friction and inconvenience. If you have convenient access to USD 1.6M, there are scenarios like this that you're not secure against.

But if they had been secure against it, wouldn't the attackers have cut his genitals off? Of course there's a chance, but the calculus doesn't really check out. It's a significant and unusual escalation for no realistic gain.