A report published to mark the 50th anniversary of the Amiens section de recherches has detailed a troubling pattern in France's crypto-related crime wave: attackers relying on stolen or outdated personal data are repeatedly breaking into the homes of people who hold little or no cryptocurrency at all.
According to the report, files containing the personal details of crypto holders circulate on clandestine markets and are resold to multiple, unconnected criminal groups. Adjudant David, cited as the regional crypto referent, is among the investigators working through the resulting cases in Picardy.
The scale of the mismatch between the data and reality is stark. In Arvillers, a woman endured four separate intrusion attempts between late December and mid-January. When attackers finally gained access, her wallet held just 300 euros — an amount they did not even bother to take.
Beaten over an old address
In Grivesnes, a couple suffered repeated intrusions simply because they lived in a house that had previously belonged to a cryptocurrency holder. During one attack, the pair were beaten and tied up before their assailants realised they had the wrong target. An alarm installed afterwards later foiled a further attempt on the property.
The most serious case detailed in the report took place in Revelles on 31 October 2025, when three men broke into a family home demanding 200,000 euros in cryptocurrency. A mastermind is said to have overseen the operation remotely via videoconference. Several occupants were struck during the attack before the intruders fled empty-handed. The family has since put the house up for sale.
Recruitment and tracing
The report describes masterminds recruiting executants through Telegram and Snapchat, typically with promises of payment. Investigators, for their part, rely on more conventional tools to trace suspects — phone records, DNA traces, vehicle identification and toll records.
Blockchain analysis offers a parallel but limited avenue: transfers remain visible on public networks, but wallet addresses do not directly reveal the identity of their holder, complicating efforts to link stolen funds back to named suspects.
The report frames France as the most exposed country in the world for this category of attack, a position that has made Picardy's gendarmes an unlikely frontline in a problem rooted less in cryptocurrency itself than in the leaked and resold data that precedes almost every raid described.
