Can I call the police after my virtual currency is stolen?

Source: Lawyer Liu Zhengyao

Today, two clients consulted Liu Lu about the theft of his virtual currency, and both of them went to the local police station to report the crime. There is no doubt that the police The application will be refused on the grounds that virtual currencies are not protected by the state.

“Virtual currency trading is illegal and an activity prohibited by the state. How dare you come to the police?” - This is what one of the parties told me about the original words of the policeman who received her. I have written before An article analyzes that the attitude of some local public security organs towards virtual currencies is inconsistent with the current national policies and regulations on virtual currency supervision. However, the reality is so helpless. It has been more than ten years since the birth of mainstream virtual currencies. There have been a large number of cases filed, prosecuted, and sentenced by judicial authorities because the victims’ virtual currencies were stolen/defrauded. However, there are still some public security agencies. In particular, grassroots public security organs do not protect the property rights of legal virtual currency holders. Therefore, it is still necessary to write a popular French article to carry out legal "preaching" activities.

First let’s talk about the conclusion: after the virtual currency is stolen, the victim can call the police. The public security organs should also accept and file cases that meet the conditions for filing a case. The reasons are as follows:

1. Virtual currency has property attributes

As early as 2013, in the "Notice on Preventing Bitcoin Risks" issued by five ministries and commissions, An evaluation of the nature of virtual currency (represented by Bitcoin): "Bitcoin should be a specific virtual commodity." Since it is a commodity (whether physical or virtual), it must have property attributes or property value. .

For virtual currencies or game currencies (or game equipment) before Bitcoin, such as QQ coins, if they are stolen, cheated, or robbed, the public security organs can file a case; then, for the degree of consensus to be more When the mainstream virtual currency has a high level and the relevant national ministries and commissions have given clear characterization, it should be deemed to have property value.

Citizens should receive judicial relief after their legally held virtual currencies are infringed upon.

2. Our country does not prohibit citizens from investing in virtual currencies

Although this view is controversial at the moment, especially some judicial or administrative agencies believe that our country is It is strictly prohibited for anyone to invest or trade in virtual currency. However, if we carefully study the current regulatory policies on virtual currencies in mainland my country, we cannot find any regulations that prohibit citizens from investing in virtual currencies.

Take the most authoritative "9.24 Notice" at the moment, "Notice on Further Preventing and Dealing with the Risks of Speculation in Virtual Currency Transactions". Paragraph 4 of Article 1 only stipulates "Participation in virtual currency "There are legal risks in investment and trading activities." If a citizen invests in virtual currency and its derivatives, "if it violates public order and good customs, the relevant civil legal actions will be invalid, and the resulting losses shall be borne by the citizen himself."

What is "public order and good customs"? To put it simply, it is public order and good customs. Virtual currency investment will not involve good customs. It mainly depends on whether the investment in virtual currency will violate public order, mainly financial order. In fact, it is difficult for ordinary citizens to invest in virtual currencies to directly affect the country’s financial order. However, in practice, current courts will basically not accept civil disputes arising from investments in virtual currencies, even if they are as small as a U.

To take a step back, even if the civil legal action is invalid, it does not mean that the country has banned the investment in virtual currencies. The "9.24 Notice" is only a reminder that there are legal risks in virtual currency transactions. More importantly, losses caused by investing in virtual currencies are at your own risk.

However, when virtual currency is stolen, the victim does not conduct transactions with the thief. Rather, one's own legal property was simply stolen. When the state does not prohibit citizens from purchasing and holding virtual currencies, the act of stealing other people's virtual currencies is of course an illegal and criminal act.

3. The court has a large number of legal precedents to support it.

In cases of virtual currency theft, there have been many cases where court judgments have been effective as support, proving that Public security organs should accept and file cases of virtual currency theft that meet the conditions for filing.

In practice, when the victim’s virtual currency is stolen, some courts convict and sentence the crime of illegally obtaining computer information system data; some are charged with the crime of theft, and the amount determined is based on the victim’s purchase of the stolen virtual currency. The amount of currency is the basis for calculation (this situation is the situation where the virtual currency appreciates after being stolen. If it depreciates, the amount of the theft is highly controversial).

4. Guidelines for victims to report crimes

For victims, they should at least take the following actions before going to the police to report a crime:

The first is to collect evidence that you legally own the stolen virtual currency. If purchased on an exchange, save screenshots of purchase records (such as chat records with U merchants), RMB transfer records, virtual currency transfer records, exchange records between virtual currencies (if any), etc. , it is best to print it out; if you buy it from friends or even netizens, you should save screenshots of the above materials such as chat records, and it is best to print them;

Second, the stolen virtual currency is transferred out of the chain Path, evidence of which addresses your wallet passed through after it was stolen, and which address it ended up at;

The third is to pay attention to whether your wallet private key, mnemonic phrase, mobile phone, etc. have been leaked or used by others. Possibility of contact;

In addition, qualified friends can also hire a blockchain security team to investigate and track to help identify possible suspects. In this case, the probability of the police filing a case will be greatly increased.