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American tourist loses $123k in crypto after 'abduction by fake Uber driver'

  • Jacob Irwin-Cline, a 30-year-old crypto investor from Portland, Oregon, was drugged and kidnapped by an impostor posing as an Uber driver in London’s West End on May 9, resulting in the theft of over $120,000 worth of digital currency.
  • The incident occurred after Irwin-Cline spent an evening at a Soho club, where the driver offered him a cigarette suspected to be infused with scopolamine, a drug that caused him to become confused and partially unconscious.
  • While disoriented, Irwin-Cline unknowingly gave the attacker his phone’s unlock code and entry to his crypto wallets, enabling the thief to withdraw about $73,000 in XRP and $50,000 in Bitcoin before leaving him in an unfamiliar location.
  • Irwin-Cline mentioned that the attacker was fortunate to come across his hidden crypto assets, and despite active investigations by the London police and the FBI's Virtual Assets Unit, he believes the odds of retrieving the stolen funds are extremely slim.
  • The incident draws attention to an increasing number of violent crimes aimed at cryptocurrency owners throughout Europe, with Uber condemning the event as unacceptable and initiating a thorough inquiry into the fake driver case.
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My London broke the news in London, United Kingdom on Tuesday, May 20, 2025.
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